Distillery tour at Kyrö Distillery Company

This weekend I had the pleasure to go on a tour through the premises of the Kyrö Distillery Company. You can read my first post here about the distillery that is a reasonably new venture in the village where I was born. The company is distilling whisky and gin in the old dairy building of Isokyrö. There also is a bar and restaurant Kyrönmaan Matkailun Edistämiskeskus offering the own products and various fine drinks made with them and named after local places. They are normally open on a first Saturday of each month and sometimes for special occassions.

The annual 18th Century Market was taking place in Isokyrö town centre this weekend, so the distillery and bar were open for three days frequently offering distillery tours. The tour is very much worth taking, as it was very informative and also amusing. On the tour we heard how whisky is made there and what makes it so special in comparison to other whiskies and methods. There was also a brief introduction to the local history and heritage, to which the distillery wants to be closely attached. The font they use on their branding comes from a local war memorial and the font of their new "seal of approval" comes from the wall paintings of the local medieval church. Also the seal with the bottle is a similar image to the coat of arms of Isokyrö, which shows a bear with a fir tree.

After the tour we tasted pretty much all products of the distillery, some of which I wasn't familiar with yet. I haven't been able to obtain the new products yet, so now was the perfect opportunity to taste them. Verso is the more matured version of Juuri. It's a sprout of whisky as the name suggests and has been matured for 4 months. It is already much smoother than Juuri and has strong rye flavour to it.

Then there was a new gin variation, Koskue, which also tastes very pleasant with rye notes and hints of fine botanicals. We also tried Helsingin, which I think had a bit more juniper flavours and less other spices, and the name is very inspired (Helsinki in its possessive form contains the word gin).

The distillery recently won the trophy for the best gin & tonic decided by the IWSC, and luckily for us, the winning drink was served at the bar. Napue Tonic contains Napue gin, Fever Tree Indian tonic, cranberries and rosemary, and it truly is an excellent drink. I will have to try recreating it once I'm back in England.

One of my favourite alcoholic drinks is Lonkero, or the grey gold of the north as I call it, a Finnish mix drink of gin and grapefruit lemonade. Of course the bar served the lonkero of the house containing Napue gin and I obviously had to have some of those, and it was of course better than any odd Lonkero.

Needless to say how great it was to visit the distillery and bar again! I'm hoping it won't be quite another year until I can go there again, but if it is, I will surely try out the quirky Zetor ride then. I can only recommend a visit there, if you'll ever have the chance.

Your VegHog

 

 

In the forest

I guess everyone has a certain landscape or scenery that they associate as a strength giving, safe place. For me that special place is a Finnish forest. Well, a forest in another country will also do, but I prefer a Finnish one, probably because I grew up here and am most familiar with it. It's a place where I can find peace, think undisturbed and just relax. Finnish forests are predominantly tall needle forests (birches are also very common trees) often with large boulders or rocky outcrops. Moss, lichen, mushrooms and berries grow in the Unterholz. Now of course it's way too early for berries or mushrooms, but they can be picked in late summer and autumn - a popular family activity. I was lucky enough to grow up in the quiet countryside and my parents and grandparents always taught me many things about the forest, as we were frequently there.

At the moment there are warnings in this area of bears and elks on the move, so I wasn't too keen on going into a deep remote forest risking bumping into a bear cub with an angry parent. So me and my mum chose a forest walk in a nearby smaller forest, where there is also a wooden observation tower for seeing the surrounding scenery. It's a lovely walk and it was good to be back there, as I hadn't been for a while.

Here are some of the photos I took on our sunny stroll. Maybe you'll get an idea what it looks like around here (there is something else as well apart from the forest, but not depicted here). By the way, there was still little snow in places!

 

Kyrö Distillery Company – Going back to the roots

I was born in the small town of Isokyrö in western Finland in the late 1970s and spent most of my childhood and youth there. The main trade of this quiet place is agriculture, but now unheard things are happening: a whisky distillery, Kyrö Distillery Company, has been founded there! I was very excited when my mum told me these news in June. She had even cut out a local newspaper article for me about the distillery (because that's how they still do it in those parts of the world!).

Even the building where the distillery is located has fond memories for me. That place is none other than the old dairy building of Isokyrö. They used to produce Oltermanni cheese there, which I'm pretty much obsessed with. My grandparents had cows that produced milk for making that cheese. In the early 21^st century Valio moved the Oltermanni production away from Isokyrö and I claim that after that the taste of Oltermanni slightly changed. And it looks like it wasn't just my imagination, as back then Valio even confirmed to me in an email conversation that the taste can be different when the cheese is produced elsewhere – such shocking revelations!

Anyway, there is no longer need for bitterness about Oltermanni's sad departure from Isokyrö as the dairy building has now been put to good use by the Kyrö Distillery Company. They distil rye whisky, which is first of its kind in Finland. A 100% rye whisky, like they make it, is a rare thing even on a global scale. Finns like putting rye pretty much everywhere, but surprisingly a pure rye whisky hasn't been made there before. The five founders of Kyrö Distillery Company say that the idea of making rye whisky struck them in the sauna, and that is the very place where many successful Finnish ventures have started! 

Every time I visit Finland I go to Isokyrö to see family, and when I had my last holiday in August, I got really lucky as the distillery pub was open for the public. I already wrote a post about the 18th century market in Isokyrö, and during that market the distillery had opened the pub and organised tastings and viewings. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go on a tour or to the tastings, but for the next visit that's definitely on my list. These are still early days for the pub, but in the meanwhile it opens once a month, if I'm correctly informed. 

In the pub they served lovely fruity cocktails, long drinks and the real thing. I tasted Juuri (Root), which is the unaged rye whisky and I also had cocktails named after local places, such as “Perttilän Silta” and “Pukkilansaari” and long drink of the house. These were made of Juuri and the other product of the Kyrö Distillery Company, Napue Gin, which gets its name after the very village the distillery is situated in. There is a memorial of the Battle of Napue (1714) very close by and the typeface of that monument has been used to create the clean design of the Kyrö Distillery Company's products. They call it Napue Sans! I find the whole branding of the company to be very modern, but strongly mixed with tradition, and that's what makes it so appealing to me and surely to many others.

*These are old VegHog archive photos from the Battle of Napue memorial site taken 2011 and 2012.

You might know that I'm bit of a lightweight when it comes to hard booze, but of course I had to taste these products straight. On a normal day I might rather opt out for a cocktail. Here are a few tasting notes and other thoughts on these drinks.

Juuri – Like I mentioned above, Juuri is the unaged whisky and the first matured batch will be available in 2017, but it's in itself already a very accomplished drink.

Juuri tastes like eating toasted rye bread with honey. There are also some anise notes and hint of raisins and caramel.

Napue – For me a local gin was always going to be a very welcome drink as it is so versatile to use in cocktails and long drinks. Napue gin is also made of rye along with diverse fine botanicals. I read somewhere that it even contains sea-buckthorn, my favourite berry!

The rye smell hits you first, but the gin also has an initial smell of juniper and fresh botanicals. The foretaste is peppery, then berry and juniper tastes linger on the tongue. I think in the aftertaste I was able to get a hint of the sea-buckthorn, even if I might just have been imagining it. There is a strong rye taste throughout.

Now Master of Malt has both Juuri and Napue in their selection and they ship them almost everywhere in the world (check their page if your country is included). That means happy days for us expat Finns who can now get piece of home in the post. 

Thank you Kyrö Distillery Company for bringing a breath of fresh air to Isokyrö and good luck for the future! I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon.

Your VegHog

Stuffed yellow courgette with chanterelles

I have once again found such beautiful ingredients here in Finland, so I had to start cooking. This dish really contains the taste of the season. I stuffed a yellow courgette with a chanterelle, new onion and pearled spelt mix, and I think that everyone quite liked it. Here are the instructions.

Ingredients for the stuffed courgette:

1 large yellow courgette

100 g chanterelles

1 new onion of the season

1 dl pearled spelt

150 g grated emmental

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Method

Cook the pearled spelt in water with an added vegetable stock cube until tender. This takes about 15 minutes.

Chop the onion finely and cook it in vegetable oil until soft.

Cut the courgette in half lengthwise and carve two hollow boats from it, save the pulp from the inside. Then quickly cook the halves in a pan in little vegetable oil so that they get a bit warmed on each side.

Add the courgette pulp into the onion pan, and then also add the finely chopped chanterelles. Cook the mix for a few minutes and then add the cooked spelt (where any excess water has been removed from) and half of the grated emmental into the pan. Season with ground black pepper. I didn't add any extra salt as the stock cube already made the spelt quite salty and the cheese adds a certain saltiness as well.

Fill the courgette boats with the spelt and chanterelle mix and sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the top.

Bake them in the oven at 200C for about 20 minutes until the crust is crisp and the courgettes have cooked, but still have a certain bite to them.

You can serve some sauteed chanterelles on the side like I did. Just cook them in butter with chopped onion for a few minutes and maybe add some salt and pepper.

I also served pettuleipä with this dish (wartime bread, where part of the flour has been replaced by ground tree bark) that I bought at the 18th century market in Isokyrö. It was plenty chewy, but actually tasted a little of pine.

So, that's the dish, I hope you enjoyed this post! See you soon!

Your VegHog

 

18th century market in Isokyrö - Isonkyrön 1700-luvun markkinat

So I'm in Finland again, and this year I cunningly timed my summer holiday for the annual historical 18th century market in Isokyrö. The market lasts for three days and brings many local and other vendors to Isokyrö transforming the small town into a vibrant market place. The setting for the market couldn't be more suitable as it is held in a museum area that includes many traditional buildings and a spectacular 14th century stone church that has historically significant wall paintings. It's also situated right on the bank of the beautiful Kyrönjoki river.

I like this market very much as the products offered are mainly handcrafted items made from natural materials; plastic has no place here. The atmosphere is great with music and dance performances, local food and some people wearing historical costumes.

The market was well visited this year as always, and there were many other happenings since it also was the 300 year anniversary of the tragic Napue Battle (1714), which was fought in Isokyrö.

Here are some of the photos I took at this market last Sunday. I hope they capture the setting and the market atmosphere.