Old Well, New Tricks: Czech Whisky and a Summer Festival

It's not unheard of for distilleries in Europe to be co-located with other businesses: cafes, hotels, farms. However, Svachovka takes this to a new level. In the past, Svachovka was a farm, with stables around the modern courtyard. The home of Old Well Whiskey is a distillery ( Destilerka Svach ), bar and restaurant, spa, brewery, and chocolatiers! 

What a first impression! This is what the distillery grounds look like at the end of August : a cloudless sky and perfect weather. This was taken on a Friday morning, fresh off a Nightjet and Flixbus combo which got us from the Netherlands to Cesky Krumlov with a single change. After a fantastic lunch and Glokner beer (made on site), we got shown to this fantastic room, including wooden bathtubs with an optional beer tap for personal use!

The Old Well summer festival starts on Friday evening. With everyone assembled at Svachovka, master distiller Lukas introduces the weekend (and, briefly, me) to about 50 or 60 people. The evening's tasting is dedicated to products of the distillery itself, a lineup of new and different Old Well bottlings and samples. Saturday will be for all the other tastings, with time in between for visitors to have lunch, use the spa, or do whatever they like.

The Old Well glasses are quite fun, like an exaggerated, broader copita shape - that said, it does mean nosing isn't quite as precise. Here's a rundown of the samples we tried on that first evening, all tried blind before we found out what they were, among the largest tasting audience I'd ever seen…

1. Mizunara sample - 3 years old, 2nd fill, 47%

• Quite spicy, very young but with a nice finish
• An almost warm European oak taste
• With water, it gets even spicier
• A few nougat tastes at the end 
• Laura says it's bready or yeasty, and I get it
• Overall, a very young spirit but with some nice aromas

2. Pineau de Charentes cask, 51%

• Very young… 
• I didn't make any other notes at the time, but you'll hear more about this one below…

3. Mulberry Wood cask finish ('a few months')

• Smells like bacon crisps!
• A kind of soft herbal smoke that's very unfamiliar… more like an unpeated whiskey with a smoky twist, just an edge of it, versus a proper smoky whiskey
• Musty, a little, with the finish slowly turning into a burn
• Didn't find out exact age, but it's likely pretty young

4. Kagor wine cask finish - 6 months after 9 years in ex-bourbon

• Svachovka started distilling in 2015, so this has to be one of their oldest possible casks
• Really astringent but rich - a lovely base to it
• Lighter, sweet plum note when water is added

5. Peated, bourbon cask, 57%

• This is dictionary definition peat. Not more maritime, woody, herbal, just bang in the middle of all those styles of smoke
• With water added, it gets a darker note of sweetness. Maybe there's some char from the bourbon cask coming out

All these whiskeys have a real peppery edge to them, and none of them really resemble the core expressions of Old Well Whiskey (see more on those below). I also got to see the distillery's cute orange cat, Vaclav (named for the owner).

Distillery Tour

Distilling started here back in 2015 . This is a corner of the world with a long history of distilling plums, but the owners wanted to start a new story here, with whisky. Lukas had actually been the head chef at the restaurant here, and his previous experience also includes working in Scotland, England, and Ireland. 'Single malt whiskey has been my love for 17 years now' , he tells me.

There's certainly a lot of genuine love for whiskey here, more than any dry focus on the business efficiencies of distilling. The owner of Destilerka Svach had a distinct goal. Rather than following the ways of Austrian and German fruit distillers (many of whom have also made whisky), Old Well Whiskey was envisioned as something directly inspired by Scotland and Ireland.

The still is a 300L custom hybrid pot still, made in Moravia. It's not the first Czech still I've seen - check out the blog post about Mwórveld for that. The still only just fits under the roof!

Lukas points out how fruit mash can enter the still through a lower pipe and then move through the attached 5-plate column . The same procedure works for their gins and beer brandy too. When making whisky, Svach does double distillation without using the column. That makes sense for a distillery very conscious of following Scottish practices, with the main difference being their small still size and the distinctive shape of the still's neck. I've only seen a shape like this on a Bulgarian rakia still , never on anything used for whisky..

One important thing to note is that whiskey is made during the quiet season here, which only consists of January and February. Cramming all their whiskey production into eight weeks means that the still runs almost continuously during that time, and Lukas tells me that everyone from different departments comes in to help in this non-stop work.

This translates to an output of between 25 and 30 casks per year, namely 190L bourbon barrels. That's 5700L of spirit, or approximately 3650 liters of pure alcohol . Either way, that firmly puts Old Well Whiskey in the realm of microdistilleries. Most of that is single malt , though they have made a rye in the past (more on that below) and there is a 'single pot still' style whiskey currently aging, which included oats and unmalted barley in its mashbill. 

Lukas shows us around the cellar, which ( with 100 barrels ) is at capacity. A second warehouse up the hill is now being used for further cask storage. Old Well also does an annual 'Drunk Cats' release , a bottling named for the cats hanging around the distillery. The latest one is a marriage of peated and unpeated whiskeys aged in bourbon and cream sherry casks. We got a sample of this, and despite being 61.5% ABV, this six-year old dram had none of the spicy roughness I found on the finish of whiskeys the previous night. Off to a good start!

As part of their Scottish inspiration, Old Well uses peated barley from the UK. While Czechia has perfect barley for making beer, Lukas says that he doesn't think it is ideal for their whisky. Honestly, I expect smaller distillers across Europe to focus on local materials where possible. Czechia also has its own peat and oak , both of which are used by Gold Cock.

However, it isn't unthinking convenience which led Svach to use imported barley and Scottish methods. If anything, it's more expensive! While it might not be the choice I would make, focusing on Scottish styles and materials is a conscious choice from the makers of Old Well. It's also heartening to hear the makers of Old Well and Gold Cock know each other and get on with each other.

Trying the Core Range

After lunch, we get to try the Old Well core range . You might think these would be less appealing than the special, cask strength samples I had tried so far, but not at all - in fact, I distinctly preferred the four core range whiskies.

All of them are four to five years old and aged in bourbon casks before receiving their respective finishes. No caramel colouring, no chill filtration, and all 46.3% (save for the Bohemian Oak).

First, we have the Sherry PX (unpeated). With a sweet burst of flavor at first, it's easy going with a warming finish. A hint of molasses, nutty, not too much spice.

Second, the Kagor (lightly peated). This, Lukas says, is their signature whisky, and I have to agree. This is a fantastic cask , formerly used for Moldovan sweet wine. Combined with the light peat aroma, it has a sweet edge which I absolutely love.

Third, the Porto (peated). Grilled apples are suggested as a tasting note. I can see it, but I also notice a nutty taste again, with a good finish. For once, I think this bottling is better at 'regular' strength than cask strength!

Finally, the Bohemian Virgin Oak (peated), bottled at 50.5%. The same nutty smell is here - this is the point at which I realized this must be a signature part of the Old Well taste. Despite being peated, it's a subtle aroma of smoke matched by beautiful honey and bacon notes .

I also got to try some seven year old rye whiskey - the distillery's first and (Lukas tells me) their last! Aged in bourbon and Spanish red wine casks (for four and three years respectively) before being bottled at 51.9%, this is a pretty special rye . Produced from 55% rye and 45% barley malt, this whiskey has a little spicy nip to it. It then mellows into something like coffee and cocoa, Lukas suggests. 

I'd agree, and add that it almost tastes like Baileys at the end. This was always going to be a limited edition, but it would be great to see more rye whiskey here ! Old Well releases about four or five limited editions per year. Speaking of which…

…these releases come in shorter, black matte finish bottles, like the Mulberry wood I tried last night. We now get to try two more: a Moscatel (53.2%) , and a Sauternes (peated, 51.9%) . The former is smooth, but drying. A pretty nice nose on it, with sherry aromas but not very… specific. The Sauternes is quite fresh and grassy on the nose. Made from a marriage of unpeated and 40ppm barley, this whiskey somehow has a sweet floral note which makes me think of Lambertus. Not the standard, syrupy Sauternes notes I often expect from that cask, but hey - they know how to choose a good cask at Old Well!

The makers of Old Well and Gold Cock not only know each other, but in fact collaborate on a pair of bottlings which combine their respective whiskies. One of these Czech blended malts favors Old Well, the other Gold Cock (in a 60:40 ratio). One is known as Gold Well , the other as Old Cock (and yes, Lukas did deliver this with the comic timing it deserved). We end this round of tasting with a 59% ABV bottling of Gold Well (3rd batch) . It's very strong and heavy in character - too much so, Lukas believes. It's a real smack-in-the-face of sherry.

The great thing about visiting Old Well during this festival was getting to meet many other Czech whiskey fans, distillers, and importers. Courtesy of them, we got to try some other whiskies. A 12 year old Austrian single malt from Seppelbauer (48%, €49) aged in new local oak casks for nine years before a three year finish in PX casks. Laura says it smells like juice; to me, it's juniper. I like the bottle too, so overall, I'd be keen to see more of this!

I also met Peter from Alkohol.cz , and he brought out a sample from the English Whiskey Company . I've never enjoyed their whiskeys, to be frank, but thankfully this changed that run of bad luck. Five years old (with four in bourbon before one in PX), this 62.9% dram had a BEAUTIFUL nose of PX aromas . As I swam through these thick sherry aromas, Peter corroborated what Lukas told me about Gold Cock. They work together well with Old Well, he claims, and both distilleries are good at reaching out to the wider whiskey community.

Jan Kadlec of new Czech distillery Agnes.cz also brings us a 22-month old cask sample of his own spirit to try. Made from lightly peated Belgian malt and aged in second fill oloroso, it's easy to say this was really good ! At a cask strength of around 59%, it wasn't rough. It had a really unique nose - almost like Quavers. It doesn't taste so young, but it's a little musty and astringent. Laura likes it to a funky rum , more specifically a rhum agricole. I can absolutely see it going further in that direction as it ages.

I also got to meet the owner of Palirna Radlík , whose first whiskey was released only a few days ago! I got to meet Jiri Sinogl , who had actually connected me to Lukas through our mutual acquaintance Lenka Whyles. Jiri's lovely, speaks great English, runs the Whiskey Essence Podcast , and does his own bottlings. Mark, an importer for Michel Couvreur and Signatory who came to deliver an Edradour tasting, let us try some Michel Couvreur Candid , which had an incredible rich flavor with all sorts of intangible deep aromas bouncing around the palate.

After all that, I conducted a tasting of European whiskeys with the lineup you see below:

• Armorik Double Maturation

• Bivrost Alfheim

• Lambertus 10 Year Old Single Grain

• Kyro Oloroso

• Kyrö Wood Smoke

• Emill Kraftwerk

It was a great evening! After that, we got to go and explore Cesky Krumlov for a day before heading home. As for Old Well whisky, you won't find much of it outside Czechia right now. They only started exporting (to Switzerland) in 2023, and it's still quite a new distillery. Keep an eye out - we'll be working on our own efforts to get Old Well whiskey to other countries soon!