18 • FEATURE: SWEDEN
Sweden unmasked
PHOTOGRAPHY: URBAN JÖRÉN
Unfiltered travels to Stockholm to take the pulse of a country which has a deep passion for malt whisky – and to meet some of the local devotees
O
n a cobbled plaza in the shadow of Örebro Castle, southern Sweden, is the unprepossessing entrance to the Bishop’s Arms
pub – an establishment as British in appearance as in name. At fi rst, it seems a curious choice for a meeting with self- confessed “whisky geek” Andreas Karlsson, but the cornucopia of single malts behind the bar quickly dispels any doubts. I’m in Sweden to get a better understanding of the country’s ferocious love of single malts, and the trail has taken me on a two-hour train journey from Stockholm to Örebro, an emerging whisky hotspot (the Society’s new branch in Sweden is based in nearby Nora). Early for my meeting, I settle down with a
burger, a Glengoyne and a copy of Full Moon by PG Wodehouse from the pub’s well-stocked library. Just as I’m wondering how “kind hearts are more than coronets” might translate
THE SCOTCH MALT WHISKY SOCIETY
into Swedish, Andreas arrives with his own dram – a cask-strength Lagavulin 12 year old. Andreas is a typically easy-going Swede, and
laughs knowingly at my story of one well-known Scottish distillery whose younger tour guides hide whenever a coach of his countrymen arrive, leaving their torrent of questions in more experienced hands. Possibly by way of explanation, he then shares the story of his own metamorphosis into a whisky devotee. “Back in the early 90s, I had a bottle of Tullamore Dew in the house and that was the kind of whisky I knew. Then a friend bought a bottle of 12-year-old The Macallan, and I realised there was a lot more to this than I’d thought. So I started casually seeking out more whiskies – though they were quite hard to come by in Sweden at the time,” he says. “My fi rst semi-religious experience was
a Springbank 21 year old. From there, I started collecting rare bottlings, going
WORDS: RICHARD CROASDALE
IN 2010 £37M OF SCOTCH WHISKY
SWEDEN IMPORTED
CONTINUED OVERLEAF
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