Of malt whisky, cider and other drinkables. Carpe aqua vitae.
Nose: Fresh and tart, pear drops and “Pigalle”. More spicy with water, and some orange/orange peel.
Palate: Obvious oak. Less fruity than on the nose. Water brings out more fruity notes and a little honey.
Comments: Nice, but much less interesting than the newmake (Vit hund).
Finished in ex-raspberry wine casks (“Vilkdhallon” means “wild raspberries”).
Nose: Alcohol. After a while peach and lemon, and quite a bit of vanilla.
Palate: The cask is present, even if I doubt “raspberry” would have been my first thought had I had this blind. I get more of a rhubarb, actually. And citrus. A lot of vannilin, so one suspects relatively new oak. In the background I find raspberry jam.
Comments: This stretches the concept of whisky, really, something it shares with a few other “finishes”. This does not make it a bad product, in fact it is rather nice, but it raises issues with branding.
Arve says it was much more raspberry-like from a newly opened bottle, my sample has had some air.
This is a note for a Mackmyra private cask. Friends of ours had a share in a cask, and had just received some bottles when we visited them.
Mackmyra has offered private casks since day one. Several Scottish distilleries have been doing the same thing for years, but as far as I know Mackmyra were the first to offer small casks, of around 30 litres. This means the maturation period is much shorter. A private cask, at Mackmyra anyway, does not come cheap, but then part of the point is to help fund the running of the distillery in the period where they are spending rather than earning money. You are also buying not just the spirit, but a whole package: You can be present when your cask is filled, you get yearly samples – and you can visit the cask to receive them if you like – and when the spirit is ready to be bottled you can pay for a package of hotel, whisky dinner and tasting. All in all it is possible to spend quite a lot of money this way, but you’re bound to have fun doing it.
The whisky our frinds had was of the smoky variety, and had been matured in a 30 litre ex-sherry cask for five years.
Nose: Clear smoke, some sherry notes, spices – coriander seeds and cardamum – dark chocolate and a sweet tarry note.
Palate: Nice smokiness, some driend fruits. A rather sharp side-note.
Comments: A lovely nose, and a nice enough palate. No reason to be disappointed in this. Worth the money? Well, perhaps not. But subtrackt the expenses for the experience in itself and you’re left with a decent whisky and a good story to serve alongside.
If you’re tempted to spend some of your hard-earned cash in this way, visit mackmyrareserv.de and play around with spirit and cask types