Iberian Pioneers: Tasting A Spectrum of Spanish Whiskies

Who are Basque Moonshiners?

I had been tempted to incorporate a visit to Basque Moonshiners into my visit to the Basque Country. For context, I had a limited time between when I could travel from the Netherlands, and when I had to go to Barcelona for a long-planned whisky tasting at the Whiskeria. I had already planned to visit Destilerias Acha and Siderit, and I sadly didn’t have time for this distillery in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

However, I was lucky - the Basque Moonshiners came to me! Specifically, José Luis Navarro (one of the founders) and Diego (the distiller) came to my tasting at Edari in Bilbao, and afterwards came with me to Residence around the corner. Not only is this a long-established, legendary whisky bar in Bilbao - it’s one which has long been connected to this Basque distillery. José and Diego make a lot more than whisky, but happily for me, they were keen to tell me all about their drams…

Diego describes their approach as American-inspired fermentation and Scottish-inspired distillation. ‘Our mission is to make something which is already good when you try it neat, before you think about adding water or anything.’ He tries to distill quite a clean style of spirit, preferring Agot’s flavour to come from processes more than the starting materials: he reiterates this point multiple times during our tasting. Inspired by Spanish and Basque cuisine, they wanted clear and identifiable flavours to emerge from their treatment of grain and cask alike. 

They use barley from nearby Navarra, though Diego claims it doesn’t actually give them particularly unique flavours. I appreciate the honesty! It’s still worth using local grain for economic and ecological reasons - who says it has to provide a unique set of extra flavours (whether genuine of hyped-up for marketing)?

When milling their barley, Basque Moonshiners crush the grains and don’t filter anything before distillation. It all goes into the still - an approach I’m only used to seeing in the Netherlands, where this often follows from traditional jenever distilling practices. Especially interesting to hear about this for a spirit aiming to be ‘clear’, as this approach normally gives you a heavier, maltier spirit! 

It might help that they use a seven day fermentation, allowing for plenty of complexity to develop. Diego’s background in craft beer leads him to quite a ‘bold approach’ in whiskymaking. Those aren’t just my words - he says as much himself! While the former distiller, Carlos, taught Diego a lot, his approach was more traditional. Basque Moonshiners has a hybrid Holstein still with five copper plates. Diego and Jose start distilling with three plates open, and close the other two as they approach the tails. 

Agot ages in a warehouse with temperature and humidity controls. Basque Moonshiners have 150 casks of spirit currently aging, but they have room for 350 more. While the angels’ share ends up around 4% here, Jose notes that Basque Moonshiners’ casks actually end up losing more water than alcohol, similar to some bourbon distilleries! While they put spirit into their casks at 60%, it often comes out up to 65% ABV.

In 2020, Basque Moonshiners started supplementing their small supply of single malt with Bikkun: a range of blended malts, vatting their own spirit 50/50 with a selection of other distilleries. A great idea, but not what I was here to try… we want to know what the real taste of Basque whisky is!

Pioneer is the original expression of Agot, launched in 2019 with a Picasso-style label. Subsequent batches have a simpler design - this is batch 7, and batch 8 is coming soon (at time of writing). For reference, each batch is somewhere between 700 and 2000 litres.

This Agot batch 7 is four and a half years old and 46% ABV. Made using unpeated local barley, half of it was aged in ex-bourbon casks, the other in French oak ex-Rioja. It has a light, bready smell alongside herbal aromas. I mention white wine, and Jose refines this tasting note to a dry cava brut. Compared to the Acha I tried the previous day (which I still enjoyed - more about them soon), the Pioneer’s mouthfeel is a little more full and saline. 

There’s a nice amount of grain on the palate. Everything carries through well to the finish, where otherwise promising young whiskies normally betray their immaturity. After sitting a while, I also found notes of lavender and chocolate emerging on the nose. Overall, impressive - and in honesty, much better than the batch 1 Agot I tried a while ago!

Alongside the Pioneer, there’s a 100% Rioja cask edition of Agot. Using the same initial spirit and aged for approximately 5 years in Rioja Alavesa casks, it was only bottled in August 2025 (a month before my visit to Bilbao). At 48%, this dram gives you a tobacco-ey nose full of red wine aromas. It’s less sweet, more like a classic Spanish vermouth. Jose explains that Rioja casks (especially older styles) are normally charred more heavily than other red wines.

I suspect that there is a significant difference between the quality and provenance of ‘rioja’ casks used by some Scottish distilleries, and these genuine articles used by a local distillery (just as I found at Villa de Varda when discussing Amarone cask whiskies). Overall, this 100% Rioja edition is an excellent expression! 

Finally, there’s a special edition bottled for the 20th anniversary of Residence: 51.3% ABV and aged in palo cortado before a six month finish in beer casks. Only 200 bottles of this! It has fudgey notes like a mixture of vermouth and PX. Unsurprisingly after the last bottle, this is a delicious heavy-hitter.

Something I’d never experienced before - instead of adding ice, cold water, or whisky stones, the bartender at Residence chilled the glasses but removed any ice and water before pouring these drams. The effect was very pleasant - a chill edge to lighten the whisky. Despite it being late evening in late September, Bilbao remained warm enough to showcase the effect. 

Keeping a bottle in the fridge (a la Naked Grouse) is always a good way to help whisky work well in the summer, especially with a blend or something else light. I think this is something we should all look into more when tasting (or indeed, producing) whiskies from southern Europe. By default, distilleries there have to plan for a warmer climate - partly for production, but especially for local consumers trying their products!

PART II - LA WHISKERIA, BARCELONA

Following a tasting at the Whiskeria in Barcelona, bartender Fran showed me two bottles from a unique bottler: Catador Itinerante. Bottling a small number of crazy whiskies from across the world, this bottler has two recent releases taken from Austrian distillery Broger. A place that’s high on my list to visit in future! 

First, a 10 year old bottled at 71.6% ABV. Yes, you read that right! This is by far the strongest whisky I’ve ever tried! Smoked over beechwood and aged in sherry casks, it definitely had a slight sourness. In that way, it certainly had a little German-Austrian style to it. Naturally, I only took a very cautious sip. Unsurprisingly, the aromas carried through well to the palate!

Equally unsurprising was the long finish, full of oily walnut notes and dry sherry which balanced the sourness. Oxidised aromas emerged more and more. Upon adding a drop of water, the nose became more heady and sweet. Honestly, this was a much more complex dram with water added. This is another dram which shows that cask strength is not necessarily the best way to drink a whisky!

Water also made this Broger more astringent on the palate. It remained deep and heavy, reminding me of chestnuts. The sherry only emerged slowly on the finish, and the wood smoke seemed to vanish. The nose ended up with light, fuzzy notes of herbal gum sweets (groen erwten snopejes, if Dutch readers want a point of comparison).

Next, a thirteen year old Broger bottled at a comparatively pedestrian but still tongue-searing 62.1%. This one was aged in new Limousin oak before transferring to Madeira. When Fran poured this across the bar, a waft of strawberry jam hit me in the face! Especially compared to the last dram, this one had a nose full of sulphur and buttery notes.

The sweeter Madeira flavours only came through on the finish… it was heavy as hell! After a sip of water to cleanse the palate, those eggy sulphur notes (I presume from an old madeira cask lining) were strong: I was not a fan. While the first Broger dram retained a complex, perfumey aroma, this one spent all the goodwill it had when Fran poured it. A shame - but still a fascinating pair of drams from a unique bottler, and a little window into what Broger can do (though I assume their standard bottlings are quite different).

After the brain-scrambling experience of Catador Itinerante, I came back to Earth and asked Fran what Spanish whiskies he had. Excluding others I had already tried, we found three. 

First, the Drago five year old blend, produced by Ron Aldea in the Canaries (Las Palmas, to be precise). Only 40% ABV, it's an in-house blend, called that mainly to impress upon Scotch whisky lovers the fact it's not a single malt. Also produced thanks to Acha’s Sebastian (again, more on him soon), this dram is also spelled ‘whiskey’. 

It has a light sweetness on the nose characteristic of any blend, though there is a little touch of something more deep and spicy on the palate. If you needed another reminder that it’s a blend produced in Spain, the Drago has a plastic pourer built into the bottle’s neck. 

For all the generic blend-ness of this whisky, it’s easily the same quality (if not better) than a similar age DYC blend, and it holds onto a little spice. There’s a little more icing sugar sweetness than you might expect, and a slight creaminess. Bear in mind, I’m trying this after the incredibly strong Catador Itinerante drams!

If this was a little less smoothed-out and bottled at a higher ABV, I believe it could showcase a much more unique character. Overall, I can now see this as something which holds back Spanish whiskies in general. All the business leaders want something light, cheap, and mixable; a second DYC, a mimic of imported blends rather than something distinctively local. Nothing wrong with drinking that type of whisky, but why make it on a small scale when the Scots have been doing it for centuries and will always out-produce you?

A little more information online about the Drago shows what potential the product could have. Aldea used native varieties of unmalted wheat from La Palma to make this whiskey (50%), alongside un/malted barley (25%/5%) and toasted wheat (gofio - 10%), all smoked over wood. Where else have you heard of a whiskey like that? This is a fantastic dedication to local ingredients, which truly reflect local culture (look up the history of gofio if you need any convincing on that score). 

Saboga Hiberum is the product of Lehman Distillers, a large general spirits producer in Tortosa. In theory, that makes this a Catalan whisky. However, unlike the Quevall I tried last year, this should maybe be kept away from any associations with Catalonia. This is a basic 40% ABV whisky, with no information at all on the bottle to tell you about age, casks, or whether it is single malt/blended, etc… What does the name even mean?

The Lehman website at least tells us a little. Apparently nine 300 liter casks from brandy soleras (a mix of French and American oak) were used to age this whisky for five years.

I’ll give it this - the bottle feels nice and weighty in the hand. Apparently, this one came from a batch of 3,500 bottles. On the nose, it smells like Party Rings; a much less subtle sweetness than the Drago. We’re not talking about sugared almond sweetness that you might find in a light Scotch whisky. This is more like fondant icing, raw sucrose with no flavour. It’s almost so raw as to be interesting… 

Funny enough, the palate is very simple. Not much to say about mouthfeel, a light hint of grain, instantly vanishing on the finish with no change. At first, I think this is basic but inoffensive, but when I go back to nose the Drago again? That whiskey now smells far more complex by comparison!

At first, I think there might still be some saving grace - maybe the Saboga could be used as a kind of uber-sweet palate cleanser, like a sorbet between courses (of whisky). However, trying the Drago again just shows that not all light whiskies are made equal. The Drago has a proper whisky mouthfeel, while the Saboga is purely insipid. Don’t drink it…

Finally, the Siderit Rye (Sherry Cask). This 2024 bottling was aged 75 months, so six years and change. Only 141 bottles in the batch, apparently, bottled at 46.7% after aging in 100L casks of new Spanish white oak. I’ve been excited to try this for a long time, given the unique origins of this dram. The barley and oak is supposedly local, and Siderit uses glass stills that look like a giant chemistry set!