Whisky is coming: Kyrö launches Games of Thrones Blood and Fire
Epic drams: the new Game of Thrones bottlings from Kyrö
Award-winning Finnish maker teams up with Warner Bros to launch a limited-edition Game of Thrones whisky pairing inspired by the world of Westeros. Gordon Thomson is one of the first to get a taste
In Westeros, the mythical continent in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, the North is ruled by the House of Stark from Winterfell.
It’s a vast, desolate region, bordered by “the Wall”, a towering, ancient fortification protecting the realm from the wild lands and the undead.
There are no terrifying walls nor marauding zombies to welcome us to the small Finnish town of Isokyrö, though it is to be found far up north alright, around 250 miles south of the Arctic Circle to be precise.
Winter, thankfully, was not coming either when I visited in early May. Instead, in this tranquil region where darkness, ice and snow reigns for eight or nine months of the year, the eternal summer was starting to gently unfurl, like bright daylight after the longest of nights.
Barley is here, in the sleek and modern dining hall and bar of Kyrö distillery, producers of Finland’s finest rye whisky, to be one of the first drinkers to get a sneak sip of a magical pairing: Kyrö’s limited-edition Game of Thrones whiskies.
There are two different expressions: Fire and Blood. Or, to give them their full, suitably dramatic titles, Whisky of Fire and Whisky of Blood. Somewhere, one imagines, a Targaryen is raising a goblet.
Kyrö Distillery is sequestered in a tranquil corner of north-west Finland
With a wit that’s sharper than a February wind in Helsinki harbour, the bulk of a boulder and a stupendous beard that makes Viking comparisons impossible to resist, Kyrö’s Icelandic head of R&D, Ásgeir Bergmann Pétursson, is here to unveil his latest creations.
It is not often that a Finnish rye whisky distillery finds itself in official partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Global Consumer Products, but then Kyrö has never been especially interested in doing things the obvious way.
“From the beginning, we wanted to create something that felt authentic to HBO’s Game of Thrones,” says Kalle Valkonen, co-founder and master distiller at Kyrö Distillery Company. “Inspired by House Targaryen and its defining association with dragons, fire, bloodline and power, we created two distinct whisky expressions that interpret different facets of the same iconic world.”
The timing is neat. The release marks 15 years since Game of Thrones first thundered onto television screens and arrives as House of the Dragon continues to feed the world’s appetite for dragons, dynastic lunacy and complicated family dinners. Yet what could easily have been a gimmick feels, in Kyrö’s hands, pleasingly grounded. This is not whisky in fancy dress. It is rye wearing a spectacular crimson cloak.
Pétursson pours us a slug of Blood first. It is the darker, moodier of the pair, matured in red wine casks, and it arrives in the glass with a deep amber glow and a suggestion of something brooding at the edges. On the nose there is dark fruit, spice, a little berry sweetness and the warm, grainy snap of Kyrö’s rye spirit underneath. It has the sort of colour that makes you think of candlelit halls, heavy wooden tables and people saying unwise things about succession.
“Blood is, I think, the most accessible whisky that we make,” says Pétursson. “It’s light and approachable, but you can sit with it for a very long time and keep finding layers.”
Kyrö Whisky of Fire is crafted from 100% smoked malted rye, matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in rum casks. It’s bottled at 46.6% ABV
On the palate, it is richer and rounder than I expected: dried cherries, redcurrant, a lick of chocolate, some oak and that unmistakable rye prickle that keeps everything lively. There is a pleasing savoury note too, a little herbal and foresty, which stops it from becoming too sweet.
Pétursson believes the whisky changes character every time you return to it. “You can sip the same whisky seven times,” he says with a grin, “and basically find seven different whiskies depending on how you focus on it.”
Fire, meanwhile, is the brighter, wilder sibling. Built primarily around Kyrö’s distinctive wood-smoked rye spirit, with a small but crucial peated element folded in, it feels more elemental and experimental in character – very much in keeping with the distillery’s gloriously eccentric approach.
“This was the first time that we planned to gather our peat smoke and wood smoke together into a bottle,” explains Pétursson. “The whole liquid then had a short dip into Colombian rum casks, which gave it even more complexity.”
There is sweetness on the nose – caramel, toasted grain, orange peel – but also smoke curling through it, not in a great Islay thundercloud, more like embers at the edge of a Finnish campfire.
Made from 100% malted rye and matured in ex-bourbon and French oak casks, Whisky of Blood is bottled at 46.0% ABV
It is lively, peppery and warming, with rye spice surging through the middle. There is vanilla, charred wood, baking spice and a flash of something almost chilli-like on the finish. It does not breathe flame, exactly, but after a second dram you may begin to understand why dragons have such self-confidence.
What makes both whiskies work is that they are unmistakably Kyrö. The distillery makes everything from 100 per cent Finnish wholegrain rye, and that decision gives its spirits a distinctive personality: spicy, earthy, dryly aromatic, sometimes a little unruly, but always full of life. This is not whisky trying to be Scotch, Irish, American or Japanese. It is very much its own northern beast.
Founded in 2012 by five friends who famously dreamed up the idea in a sauna after wondering why nobody in Finland was making world-class rye whisky, Kyrö has built a cult following through its experimental streak, unapologetically Nordic identity and occasional bouts of glorious madness – including its sauna-inspired whisky experiments.
At Kyrö, the line between brand storytelling and collective dare appears to be pleasingly thin.
And so, in a way, Game of Thrones makes more sense here than it first appears. Kyrö understands myth. It understands darkness, endurance, fire, ice, stubbornness and the strange power of a good story told in a remote northern place. It also understands that whisky should be fun, not merely reverent.
Only around 7,000 bottles of each expression are being released globally in the first batch, giving the whole project the pleasing air of a rare collector’s item rather than a cynical TV tie-in.
By the time the late evening light is pouring through the windows of the distillery bar, the room has loosened nicely. Glasses are being raised. Comparisons are being made. Someone is inevitably trying to decide whether they are more Fire or Blood. I am not sure I have the temperament for a dragon, but I am very happy to borrow one for the evening.
There are no White Walkers in Isokyrö, no Iron Throne, no ravens beating across a frozen sky. Just rye fields, big skies, warm hospitality and two bottles of whisky with a pleasingly theatrical glint in their eye.
Winter may not have been coming. But the drams certainly were.
The Whisky of Fire and Whisky of Blood releases will be available globally in limited quantities across selected markets, with a recommended retail price of €70–85, 700 ml. See kyrodistillery.com
