World Whisky Review #15: Mackmyra 10 Year

Distillery: Mackmyra

Region: Sweden

ABV: 46.1%

Age: 10

Price: $5.75 for a 30 mL sample

Color: 0.5, Yellow Gold. NCF and Natural Color

Nose (according to the wife): Golden raisins dominate the nose; it’s probably a sweet whisky. There’s a tinge of raspberry right at the end along with a bit of acetone.

Palate: Very light. It’s sweet, but not overloaded-on-sugar sweet. You get a lot of the golden raisins with a bit of sherry and fresh oak. Toward the back end, there’s a bit of some very bright fruit I can’t quite place, perhaps it is juniper berries. With a bit of water, some medicinal spices come out (not medicinal peat) in the form of anise and pine. Very refreshing and interesting.

Finish: Medium-short in length. There’s a bit of caramel accompanied by golden raisins. It’s dry with the very end displaying a fresh-cut grass note.

Conclusion: Mackmyra caught my attention during my whisky network review analysis earlier this year as Swedish whisky on average rated higher than the ever popular Japanese whisky. This did not disappoint. In the palate, the golden raisins work well with the sherry and fresh oak while the medicinal notes near the end of juniper, anise, and pine are very refreshing. The finish, while short, leaves you satisfied overall. It’s different enough from regular malt whisky to be very interesting but not so out in left field that you don’t know what to do with it. I think this would probably do well sitting in a barrel for a few more years to take the edge off of the fresh oak a bit and the nose could use a bit of work, but on the whole, I am impressed. Would I buy a bottle? If I could find it in the US for ~$60, I probably would.

Final Score: 81

World whisky review #15, Swedish whisky review #1, Whisky Network Review #56