Mackmyra First Edition

I was invited recently to a World Whiskies evening at a friends' house so among a Japanese, South African, Canadian and Indian sat this Swedish young 'un.

Mackmyra is Swedens' first foray into whisky making and was founded in 1999. In December 2002, after 170 recipes, the finalized on two and named them Mackmyra Elegant and Mackmyra Smoke.

That was also the year they moved from being a pilot distillery to a small-scale producer.

The 'First Edition' was bottled in 2008 and was the first large-scale production whisky to come out of this distillery.

First let's talk about the presentation. Nice box complete with slide-out and velvet lining. Lovely colors. The bottle is funky and dumpy with an attractive label.

Unfortunately those are the only positives I'm going to be talking about regarding this expression.

The 'First Edition' has been built on the Elegant recipe and uses first-fill bourbon casks combined with virgin Swedish oak. Stored 50m underground in the Bodas mines it is bottled at 46.1%

Nose: Iodine. Lavender. Quite floral. Spicy. Melon. Banana. Jackfruit. Fennel. Aniseed. Hard boiled sweets. The nose is quite fresh with grassy overtones. It has a mild mustiness to it which some may find nice but I don't.

Palate: Very sweet. White sugar. White melon. Fennel. Aniseed. Jack fruit. Cereals. Grain. Weetabix. Grass. Bran flakes. I don't like the palate at all. Very watery. Flavors are not solid.

Finish: Medium. Spearmint.

This is a below average whisky which I think needs to be served at a higher strength with an aggressive maturation technique. Oloroso sherry anyone?

The first Mackmyra expression I sampled was the BruksWhisky. This expression uses the Elegant recipe as a base and is stored 50m down it the Bodas mine in first fill bourbon casks. The first edition is slightly darker in colour than the BruksWhisky

The nose has a dusty quality not unlike the Dalmore 12. There is vanilla and fruit from the time spent in bourbon casks. Honey, citrus and oak. This both appears and smells “darker” than the BruksWhisky.

On the palate there is a light dusty spice, honey and summer fruits. The nose seems to suggest the darker fruits associated with sherry finish but the palate gives light summer fruits. Apple and green grape.

The finish is mouth watering and of medium length.

Its another nice and easy drinking dram from Mackmyra perfect for a summers evening.

Sweden has over the past few years gone from being a stereotypical northern-european drinkers with a drinkers complex of quantity over quality. Well the past decade, in terms of whisky at least, it has been more and more about the quality. The whisky-club paraphernalia in Sweden nowadays is something of expertise and impressive competence.

This seems to have translated well into my home-country's entry into whisky production with this Mackmyra First edition. It's non-chill filtered, no caramel in sight and is made netirely by swedish goods (including swedish oak! 5,4% of it!)

Without further ado let's review this!

Nose: The nose is light but rich, very rich! It is very complex as well as abit spirity (which is no-surprise considering the age) but the spirity-ness has a eau-de-cologne/ perfume quality to it (no kidding really), even a tad of a sour aspect (apple cider vinegar?). The flavor providing the base for the nose (and the taste later on) is a citrus and barley note. Both are complex but the barley note on the nose takes on a pine/pine resin quality, very swedish indeed.

Taste: Wow! This is the second lemon-citrus-bomb these past 2 years for me! After the Auchentoshan Valinch (1st edition). It opens with a wonderfully complex citrussy note with lemon, lemon rind, linseed oil, limoncello and citronella.

The second phase is a rich barley that goes to a pine-ish nature then transforming into a definite corn.

The limoncello note is somewhat coupled with an icing sugar note i picked up earlier being slightly undecided i chose limoncello, atlhough it might as well be an icing-sugar lemon combo. A pine/conifer and white rose floral accompany the lemon-barley/corn-sugar tandem.

A very powerful but discreet violet backs the
rosy floral note. It's very rich on the verge on being dominant but the strength of the other components makes the violet an asset in the sum of all parts.

Finish: The whisky holds on with a finishing encore of the lemon, barley with a big fresh minty quality holding up the whole experience.

Magnificent young whisky, i am a swede but, before calling me patriotic, many swedes have a distinction of being very critical of their own products, although some patriotc sense always lies near to many, i've tried to put those as much to the side as possible for this review. Fact is.. this is great! For a very young spirit it is Phenomenal!

A relieved and proud swedish whisky-lover signing out

The first release of Swedish single malt from Mackmyra. I had heard lots of good things about it and I was keen on taking my first taste of a Swede in the whisk(e)y business. For my disappointment Mackmyra's first edition was another light dried fruits with too much heaviness that doesn't intrigue me.

I felt like the knight playing chess with death in Ingmar Bergman's Det Sjunde Inseglet (The Seventh Seal). I didn't know what to do. I'm trying but I just can't cope with this kind of whiskies. And I'm sure that this one is one of the best in its "category". But for my taste buds it doesn't offer anything worth cheering for. Just like Bergman's movies.

Nose: Fruity and oaky with light spices. Smell reminds me of bourbon.

Taste: Gently light with a small kick in there. I think this is the main reason I don't like it. Haven't learned to appreciate fruit and light whiskies which can kick you. This literally gave me lemons but I couldn't make any "lemonade" out of it.

Finish: Very good in length but the taste I don't like. Dried green fruits like apples and pears.

Balance: To be fair, the balance is good if you like this kind of whiskey. These fruity-spicy mixes just ain't my cup of tea.

Bedlington Malt Whisky Society sampled this particualr bottle on the 17th of October 2012.

We were very pleasantly surprised at the amount of complex flavours were hidden in this bottle of very young whisky. At only 3-4 years old we were not expecting a lot from it. However with having no previous knowledge that there was such a thing as Swedish whisky, we were curious.

Mackmyra First Edition is very pale, it tricks you into thinking that there won't be much to it.

Nose: Very sweet and fruity. Apples and pears, with hints of citrus. Marzipan, spice and honey.

Body: Light, but with a slight kick.

Palate: More fruit and more spice. Very sweet toffee hints. Dried fruits, very Christmassy.

Finish: Caramel, toffee and autumn fruits. Nice warm glow, leaving you with a kiss of honey.

All in all a damn good malt. But, if this young whisky is that good, imagine what will be coming out of Seden in 6 or 7 years time! We can't wait to find out

Mackmyra Whisky is a Swedish whisky distillery founded in 1999. It is located in the vicinity of Gävle in Southern Sweden and went on stream as a commercial distillery in October 2002. The “First Edition” is a marriage of first-fill ex-Bourbon casks, small 100-litre casks and Swedish oak casks matured 50 metres underground in Mackmyra's unique Bodås mine.

The nose is light, floral and slightly malty. There are lemons and some vanilla alongside sweet dried fruits like apricots, peaches and pineapples. I also got some marzipan at the end. All in all this is a rather sweet and fruity nose. Well done!

The palate is light-bodied, tongue-tickling and peppery. There are the same dried fruits that I had already detected with the nose: apricots, peaches and pineapples. With water there is marzipan and a whiff of smoke right at the end.

The finish is medium long, peppery and dry. Altogether a very light and not too distinctive ending to this whisky.

This obviously is a young whisky, clean and crisp. While I very much enjoyed the nose with its sweet fruitiness and the marzipan punch at the end, both palate and finish could use some more refinement. I wonder how this whisky will develop with some more years in the cask. Nevertheless, as the first product from a new distillery I consider this to be well done.

First of all the title is a joke. It's just coming in my mind because I liked Mark's "Sweet Swede" a lot. But these days it's really hot in my setting. Around 36°C (for my US friends: nearly 100°F) which means it was the hottest day of the year. It had to be something light therefore. A summer dram. I picked the Mackmyra First Edition which is waiting in the tube for several months now. I bought this dram because of the nice story of the distillery and because I am always interested in World Whisky. Thx to Dominic Roskrows WWR.

So I open the bottle and the first thing getting in my nose is spicy oak. The nose is quite floral with hints of vanilla. There is citrus, hay and some fruits (kiwi?). I get nice malt and conifer wood, maybe because of the association that comes in mind when thinking about Sweden. This fresh nose is wonderful, although it has some alcoholic bite.

The palate is soft with fresh wood and vanilla. This dram is really light and easy drinkable. I get a nice warm feeling swallowing, but maybe only due to the weather :)

The finish is relatively long and fruity.

I don't know if I am buying this one again, with something around 60€ this dram is pretty expensive too. It has something special though. Maybe it is the aura of Mackmyra. I am planning to backpack in Sweden soon, so this will be a trusty companion. I can imagine this one will taste really great relaxing in the wonderful landscape Sweden has to offer.

Wow, this is it. My first sip of the long awaited Mackmyra. Yes, I have been waiting for a long time to taste this whisky. The color is light yellow like straw. This is a very soft whisky, seems very young but good. Very interesting product from Scandinavia.

Mackmyra was founded in 1999 and hence a young whisky. This first edition (‘den forsta utgavan’) was bottled in June 2008. It’s light golden with an orange sheen and pretty oily. I get beautiful long legs in the glass.

On the nose, there is first and foremost vanilla, marzipan and white fruit (apples and pears), encapsulated in light smoke and malt. There are some hints of citrus, but they are very subtle.

The lightly smoked malt returns in the mouth and the fruit is even more pronounced. The emphasis is now on pears and dried apricots. The vanilla and marzipan return and something honey-like emerges also. Mildly spicy with a salty touch at the end. Quite a nice balance, in my opinion. And it can do with a drop of water.

The finish, which I found rather short, offers hints of dark chocolate and some oak at the death.

De afdronk is eerder kort, met hints van bittere chocolade en wat eik op het einde.

Due to the history and the fact that this is their first whisky for a bigger audience (mass production has such a nasty ring to it), I’d say ‘applause’! It has already garnered international acclaim and awards. On the downside, it’s rather expensive (about 50 EUR in Belgium), but don’t let that spoil the fun. This is a sweet Swede!