Distillery/Brand: Mackmyra | Region: Sweden | ABV: 46.1% | Color: Sunlight
Nose: 21 | Taste: 20 | Finish: 20 | Balance: 20 | Rating: 81

Review
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, they finalized on two expressions 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.

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. Cask strength Oloroso sherry anyone?

Rating: 81