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"If it's not good enough to drink slowly, then it's not worth drinking"

Mackmyra - Swedish whisky!

 5 May 2007  

The Swedish whisky dis­til­lery Mackmyra started distilling in 1999. At first they used a small experimental still and in 2002 it was replaced by larger stills for volume production. Last spring they released the first public product, the "Preludium:01" (which doesn't mean vintage 2001, by the way).

Six Pre­lud­ium releases are planned and as the name suggests, these bottlings are intended to give a preview of things to come. The Pre­lud­ium whiskies are quite young and they feature various combinations of wood types and peat levels.

Preludium:04 was released this week and it's the best one yet. It's the lightest in character, but it's also the cleanest and most coherent. It's fresh and fruity and it actually reminds me of a young Rosebank! I'm already looking forward to number five...

Tasting notes:

Preludium:01:
Young yet complex nose with nice fruity notes (orange marmalade) but also a musty cereal note; nice fruitiness at first but it fades and leaves a slightly peaty yet dis­ap­point­ing finish (80 p)

Preludium:02:
Fresh, fruity, oaky nose, young yet nice; sur­pris­ingly mild and light palate with nice spicy notes but a slightly dis­ap­point­ing aftertaste (aged in new Swedish oak) (79 p)

Preludium:03:
Very nice nose with notes of smoke and barbecue sauce; dry, smoky and peppery palate; de­velops sweetness and flowery rather than fruity notes from the sherry; also a cereal note that betrays its young age (malted using peat and juniper smoke, aged in sherry wood) (82 p)

Preludium:04:
Youngish nose with very nice fruity notes (apples and pears), also in­ter­est­ing spicy notes; light, fresh palate with a nice fruitiness but it's slightly immature; fairly nice, spicy finish (aged in first-fill bourbon casks and some of it in champagne casks) (85 p)

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