Location is important – especially when the setting is a historic town located in the South Funen archipelago. But the story starts with passion, interest and an education in quality assurance.

The founder of Ærø Whisky, Michael Nielsen, had nothing but the above when he started Ærø Whisky at home in his garage in 2013.
Precisely the passion and interest were strong. Combined with a practical training in quality assurance, as well as an ambition to make some of the world's best Whisky, Ærø Whisky was born.

As with all new ideas, in Ærø Whisky there were basically no means to do well, but the passion and ambitions wanted it differently.

The interest in the taste and how it can be developed from a few ingredients drives him to build and develop what is today a well-established whisky distillery. All the products to create whisky were present locally on the island, he only lacked the equipment. It also spurred his interest in sustainability and caring for the local community he lived in. Michael is originally a ship captain and at the time worked at Søby shipyard as a dock master. In his spare time, he gradually began to develop whiskey and over the next few years he refined it with local products so that it became a pure Ærø product.

Michael bought barley from the local farmers on Ærø, and there was also interest in the traceability from the individual bottle of whiskey to the individual field. In 2016, the distillery will be built in the washhouse in the backyard of Købmandsgården in Ærøskøbing. It received the 'Renovate special award' as a recognition-worthy renovation of a 1800th-century building. In 2019, the brewery will be established opposite the distillery and it now stands together as a unit and forms the framework for Ærø whisky.

In the summer of 2019, Ærø Whisky a limited company and today consists of approx. 420 owners. Today, the company has a professional board, and day-to-day management is handled by a director