First of all it was a much larger than usual box and as well as a lovely glass contained eight 50ml bottles - 400ml of Swedish Spirit!
@Mackmyra has been distilling since 1999, using self-produced copper pot-stills, they've taken part in a previous TweetTastings showcasing their core range and some special bottlings.
This @TweetTastings was aimed at promoting Mackmyra's Cask ownership programme, starting at just under £2,000 you could own a 30 litre cask of Swedish spirit which when matured will be bottled (c 48 x 50cl bottles) and delivered to you UK Duty & VAT paid.
There is a choice of 3 different spirit types, 4 different casks and two warehouse locations, the price varies depending on which choices you make. More info here but in summary:
| Spirit | Elegant | Pre-Stored Elegant | Smoky | |||||||||
| Mackmyra’s elegant recipe is characterised by the following groups of flavours: fruity, with notes of citrus and pear. Spiciness with notes of aniseed, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom. Herbs, with notes of tobacco leaves, grass and pepper, as well as nutty, with notes of almond. The elegant recipe is the perfect choice for those looking to fully release the oakiness of the cask. | The Elegant recipe is also available as Pre-matured Elegant, which means the distillate has been aged in a 200-litre ex-Bourbon cask for four years. Casks with this recipe have an extra 4 years of maturation and produce and even more smoother and fruity character from the two different casks. | Mackmyra is one of the few distilleries in the world which self-produces its smoky distillate. Both malting and smoking take place in a facility situated close to the distillery using Swedish-grown barley and peat drawn from the nearby Karinmossen (Karin bog). And to add a further Swedish dimension to the smoky flavour, the glowing peat is seasoned with brittle juniper twigs.Examples of this spirit are found in our Svensk Rök and Svensk Rök Amerikansk Ek expressions. | ||||||||||
| Cask type | Ex-Bourbon | American Oak | Oloroso | Gravity | ||||||||
| Bourbon is the traditional type of cask to mature single malt whisky. The casks are brought in from the USA where they were earlier used to mature Bourbon. They are then coopered to 30-litre casks and filled with our malt spirit to become Single Malt Whisky. The cask give the whisky a round, soft character with sweet notes of vanilla, pear, apple and citrus. | American Oak makes the whisky develop to a powerful round taste where the balance between sweetness and spiciness create a fantastic interaction. The whisky turns dark amber. | The Oloroso cask is made out of american oak and then saturated with Oloroso wine to give notes of raisin, dried fruit, wine, dark chocolate and grapes. The characteristics of the cask makes for a sweet, round and mellow flavour and a beautiful dark red colour to the liquid. | The whisky is matured in casks with a body of newly emptied bourbon casks and 'top and tailed' with fresh Swedish oak from the island Visingsö. The result is a beautiful blend of the vanilla notes from the bourbon casks and herbal spice from the Swedish oak. | |||||||||
| Warehouse | Bodås Mine | Mackmyra Whisky Village | ||||||||||
| In the south of Gästrikland is our largest and oldest whisky warehouse located, surrounded by a mighty forest. In here, the whisky is securely matured, 50 meters below ground in the mountain. Originally built to extract ore, the space is now given to a more precious product | Together with the first cask owners we started building the Forest warehouse in the summer of 2009, which opened the year after when the first casks from the Ambassador campaign moved in. The Forest warehouse lies in the woods next to our Gravity distillery. | |||||||||||
The parcel contained two beautifully presented boxes each with four bottles: a bottle of the Elegant (non-peated) New Make Spirit (63% ABV), three bottles from their core range: Brukswhisky (41.4%), Svensk Rök (Smoke) (46.1%) & Svensk Ek (Oak) (46.1%)
and four bottles from their Reserve scheme: Pre-stored (re-casked) Ex-bourbon / Elegant (54.2%), Gravity / Elegant (55.2%), American Oak / Smoky (56.9%) & Oloroso / Smoky (40.4%)
Lets see what everyone thought of them:
Nose: A whopping 63%, loads of grassy notes - some bbq meat, some bubblegum. Nice!
Palate: surprisingly smooth and flavoursome - not getting the fiery notes of others - orchard fruit, berries and bubblegum (thanks Paul)
Other tweeter's thoughts:
Appearance: a lovely pale gold in the glass, swirls fall as fast thin legs.
Nose: loads of apple here - maybe stewed with a little honey and custard? Maybe a hint of foam banana and fresh grass.
Palate: slightly oily, very fresh and grassy. Some orchard fruit, a little mint.
After trying the new make you can see the family resemblance. This is obviously quite young and it maybe shows a little?
Finish: fresh mint, a little pear and a small bite of spice.
Other tweeter's thoughts:
Appearance: pale gold in the glass, swirls cling to the glass before falling as slow thick legs.
Nose: loads of earth charred oak notes, fresh peanuts and a little citrus. Not peat - but charred oak?
Getting some weird Campbeltown-esc maritime notes too - interesting!
Palate: thick and syrupy - lots of orchard fruit initially then a big bite of spice. A little time on the palate opens a complex dram with nuts, vanilla, dark chocolate and berry fruits. The charred / smoke and maritime notes have gone.
Finish: long and spicy with orchard fruit and oaky notes
Other tweeter's thoughts:
Appearance: slightly darker this one, swirls fall as slow thick legs.
Palate: thick arrival, lots of ginger spice, a little fruit and nut chocolate and some more citrus peel. Hints of strawberry toffos and rich vanilla ice cream- yummy! I don't think this needs water -it's YUMMY as is!
Finish: long and warming - yummy winter dram. It's spice led from the Swedish Oak end panels but there's plenty of vanilla, nut and chocolate notes too - YUMMY!
Other tweeter's thoughts:
My thoughts:
Appearance: back to another pale dram - swirls cling before falling as slow thin legs.
Nose: peat smoke jumps out of the glass, it's almost medicinal..... Again there's some maritime influence (how close to the sea are you @MackmyraUK) - again very like a Campbeltown malt - nice!
Palate: a little thinner compared to the single casks and surprisingly sweet. There's some milk chocolate and vanilla notes. The smoke note is there covering everything like a blanket. Nice but a little more ABV maybe?
Finish: medium length led by the smoke and milk chocolate - nice.
Other tweeter's thoughts:
Appearance: slightly darker again - mid gold in the glass. Swirls cling to the glass, turn into an inverted crown and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose: interesting smokey floral notes - heathery peat? Frazzles Bacon crisps and Ready Salted mixed in a bag? A sweet drying note like icing sugar?
Palate: sweet peanuty smoke - very Islay-esk and not to my liking.
Small hints of minty milk chocolate.There is some orchard fruit in there too and a little vanilla custard.
Finish: long dry and smokey - a little dried pineapple note?
Other tweeter's thoughts:
My thoughts:Appearance: again a dark dram from the Oloroso cask, swirls cling and fall as slow thick legs.
Nose: strawberry Jam, tropical fruit and that blanket of smoke. Musty bookshop and nutty chocolate notes. Nice!
Palate: more strawberry jam, dried fruit, nutty milk chocolate and icing sugar covered dried pineapple. Nice!
Finish: long sweet and smoky finish with a little more of the nutty chocolate.
Other tweeter's thoughts:
After the TweetTasting the Mackmyra guys gave a little presentation on Youtube
Many thanks to @TheWhiskyWire for organising, @MackmyraUK for the drams and my fellow tweeters for a great night!
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