Portugal is known for its hospitable people, amazing seafood and gorgeous tiled buildings – not known for whisky, though Jay at Venakki is trying to change that. We visited the country in 2023 when our son was about 8 months old and as expected, absolutely fell in love with the culture and food. When I messaged Jay beforehand to see if we could visit the only whisky distillery in the country, loving their whisky wasn’t something I expected, but here we are. The post is delayed by a couple years which I’ll blame on fatherhood, but now on parental leave I have no excuses anymore.

Alpiarça is between Lisbon and Porto, and a bit of a detour to get to if driving between the cities as we were. It’s also in a desert, and part of the hottest region in the country, averaging 35 degrees all summer. Aside from the blazing heat, one of the things that struck us most were the storks! these massive birds had nests on top of every tall building or hydro pole in the region and were the only living things we saw when entering town in the heat of the day.

We soon came across the building that houses the tasting room, a market square Jay Venakki and his wife Lisa set up in for their various ventures. Lisa is the Distillery Manager and both an entrepreneur and expert mixologist and spirits aficionado.

Jay grew up in the area and was always a connoisseur of great alcohol and food with a particular love of olive oil. He was also a fashion designer by trade, but due to prejudice in the country at the time he left and moved to China for 20 years. It’s there that he met Lisa over a decade ago and they began making genuine moonshine in the country which proved very popular. It was difficult to get a distilling permit and they had to move as they feared imprisonment or worse. It was also too humid where they were to age whisky properly, so eventually they moved back to Portugal.

Back in Alpiarca, they started in 2012 in an old winery before moving to the industrial building which houses their distillery and warehouse. Unfortunately we couldn’t visit that as it was under renovations, but this market square where they house their tasting room, a brewery and cocktail bar is their way of bringing life to the downtown area. They’re making all of their own spirits and wines too – beer, vermouth, wine (that they can’t call portuguese wine because they don’t follow the rules), which they use to season casks for finishing the whisky.

Now on the whisky itself, there are some interesting and unique nuances:

• wort brewed by the father of craft beer in Portugal
• 5 day fermentation achieving 10-12% ABV
• Currently using a traditional Portuguese 350L still with an elongated head, though they were in the process of installing a 1000L pot still
• as consummate rebels, they’re aging it for 3 years less a day instead of the 3+1 that’s pretty standard worldwide.
• first distillation gets the spirit to 25%, second distillation hits 70-74%
• They naturally air-season their wood for 3 years before making a cask
• their climate is up to 45-50 degrees in the warehouse during the day and down to 15 at night, leading to high wood interaction
• First fill casks only, using a lot of Port and the STR process
• finishes in port, naturally, along with other Portuguese wines and fortifieds.
• Currently selling 85% moonshine, 15% malt whisky
• lower entry ABV into the casks – the dry climate means water evaporates faster than alcohol in the cask so their ABV goes up over time.
• very high angels share (up to 7% some years), hence the lower aging time to avoid too much loss.
• no fine filtration, so sediment/cask pieces are possible to find in the spirit

Jay poured me a number of samples from their woodwork cask strength single malt line:

• Woodwork cask 1: ex bourbon, finished in tawny port 20yr, 500L butt. about 6 years old. nose was fruity with tobacco, leather and citrus, plus some floral notes. the palate was a ton of wood spice, leather and red fruit and the finish was long and spicy.
• Cask 8: STR douro wine finish, 225L cask. tons of berries, bright fruit, caramel and sugar. candy like finish
• Cask 10: madeira wine cask finish 225L. stronger ex-bourbon notes from the initial aging. citrus, spice, caramel, vanilla, wood spice, rich fruit.
• Cask 3: brandy finish, 300L. hotter on the nose, palate was apples, rich caramel apples. sweet and spicy. hotter than the others, but delicious.
• Malt & Grain 50/50 malted and unmalted barley – blend of virgin oak, ex-douro and ex-madeira, cask strength. super complex – tons of wood spice and fruit.

All of them were remarkably complex for the young age, and we were incredibly impressed and surprised we hadn’t heard more about them before researching and reaching out. Jay is very proud of Jim Murray’s high praise of the whisky, and while we aren’t fans of Murray, he clearly loves their bottlings.

Jay and Lisa have also founded the Portuguese Whisky Association, with the goals of supporting the blossoming whisky and spirits industry in the country, advocating and promoting it, while providing support for distillers.

Jay sent us home with a bottle of the brandy finished Woodwork bottling, and a sample kit which has long ago been enjoyed!

If you’re in Portugal, visiting, or simply in Europe with easier access to the region, this is highly worth the trek and a conversation with Jay about their operations. They don’t just make fantastic whisky, they also produce grape-based vodka and gin, and they make a gorgeous Manhattan with their house made vermouth Batista!