Top 20 Whiskies of 2021

#6 • High Coast Hav

  • Rank: 6
  • Year: 2021
  • Score: 93
  • Price: $50
  • ABV: 48%
  • Style: Single malt
  • Place of Origin: Sweden

A culture of high-quality craftsmanship, innovation, and environmental consciousness sets Nordic whiskies apart from other world whiskies. Hav, Swedish for the sea, is part of High Coast’s exceptional Origins series, and its flavor shorthand is oak spice. Wood spices, peat smoke, vanilla cream, and orange peel on the nose precede a lush palate of fruit and spice displaying sweet apricot, peach, honey, and dried tropical fruits, with a lengthy, spicy finish. Matured in bourbon casks, it mingles batches of peated and unpeated spirit, with some components receiving an accelerator period in 40-liter casks coopered from Hungarian and Swedish oak. —Jonny McCormick