Mackmyra Distillery

[dstirk]

Just thought I'd share a recent trip with you to Sweden's only whisky distilery. Mackmyra distillery is situated 2 hours north of Stockholm and I believe is only reachable by car. It is situated on a large estate, housed in an old mill which, it has to be said, appears a perfect fit for the distillery. Unlike Penderyn, which I also visited recently, you do not get the feeling that the owners have concentrated solely on visitors and have skimped on every corner of the distilling process. The barley is from Sweden, malted in Sweden and matured in Sweden using Swedish water and at times Swedish oak.

I was lucky to be piggy-backing a tour with some old friends so I can't guarantee everyone will get the same experience I did, but it started with a traditional Swedish lunch which was like a sandwich-cake (rather nice and very filling) followed by three of some of the first releases. My favourite was the Special which is lucky as it is on general release.

The tour itself was quite short, mainly because the excellent host realised that if you've seen one distillery you've seen most... we didn't complain. I have no photos of the distillery interior as Swedish regulations, ridiculously extreme, meant it was not allowed, but I have a photo of the get-up that everyone has to wear before entering the distillery (yet more ridiculous regulations). Suffice to say that the distillery was spotlessly clean!

We were invited to try 6 further whiskies which were taken from private casks (more below). The first three were from a distillation called Elegant which is realtively unpeated and called Elegant, and the last three were peated with juniper leaves and twigs added to the peating process to give the final product a unique flavour. All 6 were matured in 30 litre casks; ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and Swedish oak.

I won't bore you with all of the details but the Swedish oak whiskies (all of them were between 3 & 6 years old - 6yo whisky being the oldest stock Mackmyra has) were quite unique, the oak giving an oily, diesel-note (sounds bad but is actually really engaging) whilst the ex-sherry elegant whisky was by the far the best - downside was that due to the monopoly on alcohol that the government owned Systembolaget has, you cannot buy even a miniature of whisky from the distillery. You have to drive into the town and visit the shopping mall next to the IKEA to get your Mackmyra where the prices will leave your jaw on the floor and your wallet in your pocket. Mackmyra are hoping to get a special license to sell direct from their distillery in the future which would be great.

Mackmyra currently makes most of its money from private casks which are pretty much exclusive to Scandinavia and are a real investment of cash (several £000's for a 30 litre cask) - too rich for my bood but they have sold warehouses full of the stuff so who am I to criticise? You do get to choose between ex-bourbon (Jack Daniels casks - and yes they are classified as ex-Bourbon), ex-sherry and Swedish Oak, although you will pay a hefty premium for the ex-sherry and a king's ransom for the Swedish Oak

Definitely worth a visit as the whisky is unique and unlike anything I have ever tasted and of course Swedish Hospitality, friendliness and openness can sometimes show up the Scots (I said 'sometimes'). I greatly admire Mackmyra for striving to produce a whisky that was unique -this means that unlike with Penderyn where it tastes considerably Irish, if people ask you to liken Mackmyra to anything you are stumped - it is unique in a category of its own.

[Peat Sampras]

Interesting report, David.

if you've seen one distillery you've seen most...

It's funny that you as a whisky professional feel like that, too. When I was in Scotland this year, I had the luck to be shown around Glen Scotia distillery. I then went to Islay and the landlady at our B & B asked us whether we were going to do tours on the Islay distilleries. I told her we probably wouldn't, because we'd already done a tour and if you'd seen one distillery from the inside, there wasn't all too big a difference. She then got all excited and told me I couldn't say that. This made me feel like I had done a big newbie mistake and felt quite stupid.

I guess, the truth is, all malt distilleries are different, but the process of making it is quite the same. What's different is the size and style of the mash tuns, wash backs, the stills, warehouses and so on. Then there are some distilleries with proper maltings and (most) others without. We found out that at most distilleries, it is possible to get a good look at those features without taking an official tour. Even at Ben Riach where they've not even got a visitor centre, we were allowed to sneak around, take pictures and look into the still room and so on.

Sorry for the off topic

[dstirk]

Hi Peat,

yeah a good tour guide will know if she/he has a group of folks that have seen a number of distilleries they will only really be interested in the differences/uniqueness of his/her distillery. Sometimes (a la Springbank, Bowmore, Balvenie, Highland Park) the whole tour is always worth it, even if you've been before, because of their supreme uniqueness and the elements which can be hands on. Sometimes, certain distilleries will throw up unexpected supreme tours (Glenfiddich, yes, Glenfiddich, was one of the most memorable I have ever had). I have to say that the guide is often the key to a good tour and thus the tour at Mackmyra was excellent because of our guide. Worst distillery tour?... well, perhaps on another thread or something

[Aidan]

Sounds great. I'd love to visit.

I agree about the tours. Actually, on most of the distillery tours I've been on there has been a Swede or two asking very technical questions about the pot stills etc. I think they're planning something. Maybe the focus should shift off Iran for a while to find out what they're up to. They are mostly, in my experience, deadly serious about whisky. Where did the Swedes get their taste for whisky?

I'd like to try some more Mackmyra. Who stocks it? Does the SWA mind that they have "Mac" in their name?

[les taylor]

I'd like to try some more Mackmyra. Who stocks it? Does the SWA mind that they have "Mac" in their name?

Aidan you can get it here.

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/Search ... s=mackmyra

Or here.

http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/catego ... _id=D_MACK