Iain Croucher’s Danish Tasting Tour | 7th–11th October 2026
There are glamorous ways to begin an international whisky tour. Sweating profusely on your kitchen floor at three in the morning is not one of them.
But that’s where we started on Wednesday 7th October. Denmark was waiting, the whisky was ready, and I was beginning to suspect I should have sent someone healthier. A Victorian chimney sweep, perhaps.
Somehow, I made it onto the plane. The cabin crew took one look at me and gathered round to ask whether I was okay. Always reassuring. You’d generally prefer their opening question to be whether you’d like a tea or coffee.
By the time I reached Schiphol, I was clearly still not firing on all cylinders. I know this because I found myself in Hermès shop looking for a sandwich.
Lovely handbags. Absolutely hopeless meal-deal selection.
Thank the wee man for daytime cold-and-flu tablets. This was not the polished, international-businessman entrance I’d had in mind, but there was a North Star tour to get on with.
Wednesday: Esbjerg Whisky Lounge
First stop was Esbjerg Whisky Lounge, with around thirty people and nine drams to talk through.
Nine. On a Wednesday. We weren’t easing ourselves into this.
What a crowd, though. A proper warm welcome and exactly the sort of company you hope to find at the other end of a journey like that. There’s something very reassuring about arriving somewhere feeling decidedly second-hand and finding a room full of people genuinely pleased to see you and the whisky you’ve brought.
Whether they remained quite so pleased after listening to me for the evening is another matter.
Thank you to everyone who came along. You got the tour off to a belter of a start.
Thursday: Bergs Vinimport, Aarhus
Thursday took us to Bergs Vinimport in Aarhus, where another magnificent bunch joined us for another colossal nine-dram tasting.
We’d clearly established a format and were sticking to it.
One of the pleasures of these trips is getting out from behind the day-to-day running of North Star and spending time with the people opening the bottles. We spend so much time dealing with casks, labels, orders and all the other things that need done yesterday. Sitting down with a crowd and talking about the whisky itself is a welcome reminder of why we started.
And, as anyone who’s been to one of my tastings knows, getting me to start talking about whisky is considerably easier than getting me to stop.
A huge thank-you to everyone at Bergs. Lovely people, a lovely evening, and nobody suggesting that nine drams might be an ambitious amount of homework.
Friday: Stenløse Vinhandel
Friday meant more than two hours on the road, heading towards Copenhagen and Stenløse Vinhandel.
What a super shop. A cracking whisky selection and the sort of place where “I’ll just have a quick look” is a statement nobody should take seriously.
More than sixty people joined us for the tasting, which was a tremendous turnout.
The line-up? Nine drams, naturally. At this point, putting eight on the table would have looked like an administrative error.
It’s a privilege to have that many people choose to spend their Friday evening with North Star. There are plenty of other things you could be doing, and I genuinely appreciate everyone who came along, tasted the whiskies and gave us such a warm welcome.
Over sixty people in a room listening to me, and not one of them there because I’d called a staff meeting. Marvellous.
Saturday: Independent Bottlers Day, Vejle
Saturday brought us to Independent Bottlers Day in Vejle, where we hosted two tastings with four drams in each.
A shorter line-up this time. This should not be confused with a guarantee of shorter stories.
An entire day dedicated to independent bottlers was a fitting way to round off the tastings. It’s what North Star is all about: finding interesting whisky, bottling it and getting it into the hands of people who’ll enjoy it.
Getting to do that in Denmark, with such enthusiastic support throughout the trip, was a real pleasure.
Jens and Niels: Thank You
A particularly big thank-you to Jens and Niels, who looked after me so well throughout the tour.
Thank you for the hospitality, the company and for being such brilliant hosts for North Star Spirits and our bottlings in Denmark. Having good people looking after you makes all the difference—especially when your arrival suggests you might need a responsible adult.
You made me feel incredibly welcome, and I’m very grateful.
To every venue and everyone who came along: thank you for giving us your time and making this such an enjoyable trip.
I love Denmark. We’ll be back in the spring.
I’ll bring more whisky.
And a packed lunch.
Iain
