Nordic Explorer #5 – Sweden’s Mackmyra Preludium 01 – The First Drops 3 year 55.6%

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Our Nordic exploration continued with whiskies from Mackmyra distillery.

This was not our first encounter with this Swedish distillery. Years ago I sampled Svensk Ek in Singapore and then our whisky ladies enjoyed the peatier Svensk Rök.

1st up? The first drop (De Första Dropparna) brings together the first drops from their pilot distillery (1999-2002) and the first casks from their first real distillery – Mackmyra Bruk. It was released in March 2006 and the sample comes from our Nordic explorers collection, courtesy of Thomas at Whisky Saga.

Macmyra website

Macmyra website

Mackmyra Preludium:01 – De Första Dropparna, 3 year 55.6%

  • Nose – First whisky harshness, the vanilla, berries, perfume, apples, cinnamon, soft fruits, caramel, apricot, a bit of wood
  • Palate – A bit raw, alcohol. However the ‘hooch boom’ dashed off. While clearly young, it was sweet, raw wood, itchy nose
  • Finish – Limited

While clearly young and on the brash side, it takes a certain panache to stand up and say “Here is where we started!” Given that we have enjoyed where they have gone since, it was indeed interesting to see where the journey began.

World best whisky? Nope.

Fantastic to see the early stages? Absolutely!

*** Whiskies courtesy of  from Whisky Saga ***

For more information on Mackmyra whiskies, do read Thomas’ posts on Whisky Saga. Specifically:

More Nordic whisky experiences coming soon!

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Balmenach 26 year (1988/2015) 51.1%

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The last in our quest for great cask strength whiskies for around 100 pounds was from a distillery one rarely sees sitting on shelves.

We closed with Balmenach from the InverHouse stable… A distillery I now know better for their Caorunn gin than whisky!

Long have rumours run that there are plans to start producing official distillery bottles. I considered this session’s offering a sneak peak into what may come to more of us… in due course… hopefully…

balmenach-26

Balmenach 26 year (09.11.1988/07.09.2015) 51.1%

Hogshead Cask No 3242, 192 bottles, from Signatory

Here is what we found:

  • Nose – Smoky bacon, wet dish rag, high phenols, lots of pine tree, sweet leather, subtle, sun dried, sweet dry spices, more the hint of potential peat not smoke like vanilla scented candles
  • Palate – Lots of body, hazelwood, sweet, dusty, dry yet entirely pleasant, more of the cinnamon, nutmeg sweet spices, fruits and cream
  • Finish – Relatively short finish yet zero burn, a delicious spice
  • Water – Not required but also accommodated

This whisky was easy to enjoy, moved in one-way yet without a doubt the most interesting of the evening. In many ways, it was quite classic in character.

Like the other cask strength whiskies sampled, we set it aside for some time. In our revisit found oily bacon, less spice but overall quite nice and worked well with the cigars.

Overall, for most the Balmenach was the ‘winner’ of the quest and we would certainly want to explore more…

Billy Abbott’s tasting notes on TWE rang true:

  • Nose: Fruit salad to start – orange segments, apples, pears and tinned peaches. Sharper and weightier notes build, with oily touches joined by cut grass, vanilla toffee and raisin-studded shortbread biscuits. Softly floral waxiness sits underneath, combining singed candle wicks with heather and honeysuckle.
  • Palate: The buttery biscuits of the nose leap to the fore, with whipped cream and warming woody spice – cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. Stewed apple peeks out from behind the spice, and charred staves and earthy dunnage notes sit beneath. Water unlocks fresh fruit and sweet cream.
  • Finish: Spicy to start, softening through apple pies and poached pears before liquorice and anise revive the heat.
  • Comment: Layers of fruit and spice with even more fruit revealed if you add a drop of water. Old-fashioned fruity whisky at its best.

What else did we sample in our trio?

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Longmorn 24 year (1990/2015) 53.7%

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Next up in our quest for a fabulous cask strength whisky around 100 pounds was Longmorn…

Now once upon a time the Longmorn 15 then 16 year was easily found on duty-free shelves, however it has become increasingly scarce… For quite some time now, a fellow Mumbai whisky lady has a standing request for any traveling folks to pick her up a bottle… in vain.

Needless to say, I was looking forward to a fine specimen. To graduate to 24 years and cask strength? This was anticipated with bated breath…

longmorn-24-year

Longmorn 24 year (24.09.1990/04.08.2015) 53.8%, Hogshead 216 bottles  (TWE The Single Malts of Scotland)

Here is what we found:

  • Nose – Sugar, spice and all things nice! Caramel, cardamon, toffee, yet also had fresh citrus zest, a sense of being oily, woodsy, sweet yet complex
  • Palate – Tasted like it smells… that oily quality was quite welcome, rose and orange peel
  • Finish – Dry wood, burn
  • Water – Kills the nose, to the extent it took on a wet bread quality, and the palate became curiously flat

Here we found a cask strength whisky that was optimal at cask strength. Water simply didn’t do it any favours – quite the opposite for us.

If the Linkwood was summer, the Longmorn was autumn… the discord between aroma and palate found in the Linkwood was in complete accord here, singing the same note in harmony.

Again we set it aside to see if it further evolved. The glasses with water were disappointing. The pure cask strength retained the earlier elements adding a sweet drizzle of dark honey.

What else did we sample in our trio?

PS – My friend and I eventually tracked down the “elusive” Longmorn 16 year – persistence pays off!

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Linkwood 24 year (1991/2015) 53.8%

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Our quest for great cask strength whiskies around 100 pounds began with a Linkwood…

Interestingly, our last session also featured a Linkwood – a rather delightful 25 year old from Gordon & Macphail. So hopes were high!

linkwood-24

Linkwood 24 year (16.061991/04.08.2015) 53.8%

Cask No 586497, 268 Bottles, Hogshead  (TWE The Single Malts of Scotland)

Here is what we found:

  • Nose – Quite summery, grass, vanilla, flowers, sweet, light, hay, light toast. As it opened further a little spice, honey, sweet tree sap. Post our initial sips, took on more wormwood, resin and the sweetness subsided
  • Palate – Great kick, a blaze of unexpected spice, big mouthful
  • Finish – An elongated burn
  • Water – With a few drops, spice and more burn… added more and started to open up

In short, this one needed water. A very generous dollop not a mere drop or two… bringing closer to 46% seemed a more balanced level.

I couldn’t help but wish we had the the Gordon & Macphail 25 year bottling to compare. At 43%, that Linkwood was truly superb. Fabulous value for a quite lovely whisky.

Whereas this one, at cask strength, had terrific promise on the nose but no follow through on the palate. It wasn’t that the whisky was ‘wrong’ it simply wasn’t really ‘right’ either.

We gave it even more time and returned after sampling the other whiskies… once again a lovely aroma yet just didn’t deliver on the taste. One even remarked this was a ‘heartburn’ whisky?!

Our quest was clearly off to a shaky start…

What else did we sample in our trio?

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Cask strength quality? Linkwood 24, Longmorn 24 and Balmenach 26

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Thanks to mad travel schedules, the Bombay Malt & Cigar club held our session early November… this time on a quest for cask strength quality below 100 pounds. All were from the prodigious Speyside region yet none were distillery bottles – two were from The Whisky Exchange with their Single Malts of Scotland series and the last from Signatory.

linkwood-balmenach-longmorn

Here are the bottles sampled in our quest:

As for whether we were successful in our quest? Jut click the links above to read about our experience…

For more related updates and activities, check out:

American Adventures – Woodford Reserve 43.2%

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The Whisky Ladies American adventures last whisky of the night represents a proper Kentucky bourbon – Woodford Reserve.

It seemed a fitting close to our American whisky evening…

woodford-reserve

Woodford Reserve (2015) 43.2%

Batch 133, Bottle 1814, bottling date 05/2015, Lot Code 2020964

  • Nose – Honeycomb, cinnamon, toffee,
  • Palate – Bannana cream pie, sweet spices, mellow
  • Finish – A slight burn then mellows into sweetness

We found the nose far richer than the palate, with it being a bit average. A few comments included “Mild and cuddly” and “Very inoffensive” with a sigh of “No spark”  and gasp – “Watery.”

Clearly our ladies prefer their drams with a bit more oomph!

When sampled solo later, I realized this was in large part as it was overshadowed by all the whiskies that proceeded our tasting. On its own, it is a classic bourbon – which isn’t for everyone’s taste but is a good representation of what Kentucky has to offer without the harshness found in some.

Here is what the folks over at Woodford Reserve have to say:

  • Appearance: Clean, brilliant honey amber.
  • Nose: Heavy with rich dried fruit, hints of mint and oranges covered with a dusting of cocoa. Faint vanilla and tobacco spice.
  • Taste: Rich, chewy, rounded and smooth, with complex citrus, cinnamon and cocoa. Toffee, caramel, chocolate and spice notes abound.
  • Finish: Silky smooth, almost creamy at first with a long, warm satisfying tail.

There is also some debate out there to what extent there is batch variation. Some have found earlier  batches much more robust, well-rounded than current batches.

Having only tried Woodford once before… and that to long before recording any tasting notes… can only say this isn’t bad but isn’t something to make me run out and buy.

I do wonder if it would make a brilliant base for some experimental American style cocktails. Perhaps for another evening!

Other whiskies sampled in our American evening included:

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American Adventures – AD Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon 47.5%

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The Whisky Ladies American evening began its next set shifting from single malts, cut with a moonshine, to break to enter into bourbon territory.

ad-laws

AD Laws Four Grain Straight Bourbon 47.5% (Batch No 8)

  • Nose – Honey! Butter, covered salty honey sweet nuts, a bit herbal, becoming almost floral, a little curd or even mild horseradish, then cinnamon sweet
  • Palate – Curiously floral, particularly lavender, so smooth with no rough edges yet was no mild creature either with toasted slightly bitter nuts and a dash of chilli, there is an earthy substance here too
  • Finish – Buttery yumminess

After the disappointing Colorado single malt (Stranahan’s Original) we had pretty low expectations… What a treat to be more than just pleasantly surprised.

We found the nose quite remarkable and unique. Which followed through on the palate and even finish. This is no shy retiring miss, nor is it a brash young swashbuckler. While young, it has character.

One comment that captured this sentiment perfectly was “A potpourri on the palate! Flowery without being too sweet!” 

It may not sound like it would work, but it does. It also falls into the category of being dangerously drinkable.

Must say, we also rather like the bold clean lines of the square bottle.

Here is what the folks over at AD Laws have to say:

Our flagship whiskey is crafted from all four of the “American mother grains”: corn, wheat, barley and rye. There aren’t many four grain bourbons on the market as they are very difficult to make.

We utilize a stepped cooking process — each grain variety requires a different cooking temperature to maximize its flavor and character. The grain requiring the most heat is milled in and cooked first; the temperature is then lowered gradually as we add the smaller flavor grains, and then complete the cooking process with the malts.

This painstaking, 6.5 hour, labor-intensive process is critical to capturing the character and quality of each grain.

During aging, we strive to create harmony between this complex whiskey and the vanilla and caramel notes from the newly charred, American white oak barrels to create a classic bourbon with Colorado character.

They further share that it is a blend of 60% corn, 20% wheat, 10% of barley and 10% rye, aged for at least three years in new American white oak barrels.

However we would not consider it a ‘classic bourbon’ in line with what we’ve come to expect. And in our books, that is actually a good thing!

Other whiskies sampled in our American evening included:

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Moonshine in Mumbai? Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine 50%

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According to our Swedish whisky lady, moonshine is all the rage back in Sweden. So naturally she decided a bit of moonshine needed to make its way to Mumbai for the Whisky Ladies to try!

It was our ‘palate cleanser’ between the trio of single malts sampled before we cracked open the bourbons.

ole-smoky-moonshine

Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine Original 50% (circa 2016)

  • Nose – Big ass open bottle of pure alcohol, curds and whey, candy corn
  • Palate – Cucumber, coconut, butter, weirdly smooth for something so flatly in your face
  • Finish – Huh? Nah…

There was zero doubt we were drinking hooch! The odd thing is it didn’t seem to be 50% and the danger was that it became more sipable… however equally wasn’t to most Whisky Ladies palates.

For some, it reminded of teenage years and our Swedish lady shared how she thinks the reason it appeals so much to a Nordic palate is it harkens back to home-made spirits.

We couldn’t help but compare it with the remarkably tasty Sheringham William’s White Double Distilled Grain (2015) 45%… and admitted our preferences were clearly steered towards the Sheringham. This sparked a discussion about local spirits and plotting began for a country liquor evening as a possible future session.

And the food accompaniment of choice? S’mors around a campfire… that crumbly graham cracker, hot slightly crisped toasted marshmallow and melted chocolate chunk… a great big gooey sinful mess.

Here is what the folks over at Ol Smoky have to say:

Legal. Just barely. Harkening back to its homegrown roots, Ole Smoky® Original Moonshine is made with the same renegade attitude of its forefathers.

Our hundred-year-old recipe produces a white whisky as smooth and bright as the promise of a Saturday night when anything can happen and likely will.

Every shot, swig or slug of Ole Smoky Original Moonshine is highly drinkable and hardly pretentious. Don’t just start your night, fire it up.

Here’s what others have to say:

Other whiskies sampled in our American evening included:

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American Adventures – Stranahan’s Original 47%

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Sometimes an opportunity comes along to try something we would not ordinarily find in Asia courtesy of one of the Whisky Ladies many malt mules! This bottle came from Colorado, completely at the recommendation of our mule from Denver.

Stranahan’s make small batch American single malt. We sampled the ‘Original’ and had no idea what to expect though quite liked the long bottle with its own measure / shot glass. Made us suspect it may best go in cocktails and knocked back… game to try, we opened our bottle.

stranahans

Stranahan’s (circa 2016) Batch No 182, Bottle No 0796, 47%

  • Nose – Harsh, sharp, raw, a sickly sweet, cinnamon
  • Palate – Tastes better than it smelled, quite vegetal with a bit of compost, oddly flat
  • Finish – Bitter

A few comments included “Well that’s sinus clearing!” and so flat that one said “I’m gonna get my tires changed!”

Jokes aside, it wasn’t that bad but it definitely isn’t in our ‘single malt’ category. It either needed stupendously more time or a better barrel or… ah heck. It simply is what it is.

And that is half the fun of whisk(e)y explorations… you find some that may not quite make the mark on a personal palate level… and then you find a few you would never have expected that make you go wow! You simply do not know til you try…

And sometimes try again in a different setting – which is exactly what I did!

Except this time, a purely social setting, with a cube of ice and generous splash of water. Not my normal way to have a whisky but it is hot in Mumbai these days and seemed appropriate.

And guess what? I was a great choice for the evening! Not harsh, just enough ‘oomph’ and character to be interesting without being distracting. In short, quite enjoyable… go figure!

Here is what the folks over at Stranahan’s have to say:

Hints of caramel, vanilla, dark chocolate and fresh-sawn oak are just a few of the notes that resonate in each batch. These steadfast characteristics embody the unique character, flavor and style of the original Stranahan’s whiskey.

Here’s what others have to say:

Other whiskies sampled in our American evening included:

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American Adventures – Pine Barrens Single Malt 47.5%

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The Whisky Ladies came up with whisky tasting order for our American adventures, kicking off with single malts and more specifically Pine Barrens.

Originally known for their vodka, the folks over at  Long Island Spirits  decided to experiment with whiskies. A few years ago, our original tasting group were introduced to Rough Rider with their ‘Bull Moose’ 3 Barrel Rye – it was a brash young and exceedingly sweet.

Since then, Long Island Spirits have rebranded their Rough Rider series and introduced a new Single Malt line under the Pine Barrens label – named after their water source from the Pine Barrens forest preserve.

Here is what more we know –  Pine Barrens is catering to enticing shifting beer drinkers to whiskey rather than specifically targeting whisky aficionados. The beer used is from Old Howling Bastard barleywine ale and it is aged typically for ‘about a year’, meaning it is quite young indeed!

Yet it seemed the right place to start our American whisky evening…

pine-barrens

Pine Barrens Single Malt (Batch 13) 47.5%

  • Nose – Quite hoppy on the nose, a bit sharp initially, very bright with a dash of cinnamon, honey, caramel, then citrus spice and nutmeg, a bit of woodsy pine cones, as it aired became even more fruity, wait longer and tulsi (sacred basil) joins the mix
  • Palate – Whisky beer, surprisingly good, very easy to drink, more of that little woodsy feel, very palatable
  • Finish – Don’t laugh, but best described as a burp!

We really didn’t know what to expect.

And while this is not a whisky for a whisky snob, it is quite enjoyable as a beverage. Sure there are only 1 1/2 dimensions, but that’s ok. Particularly for a warm Mumbai evening where a heavy whisky just isn’t your mood, this is a refreshing change.

Oddly when we tried to think of what to eat with it? Pumpkin pie was mentioned. Clearly we were in a North American mode to think of a quintessential fall treat… particularly with Hallowe’en around the corner.

We certainly enjoyed an opportunity to try something a bit different… pushing the boundaries of what whisk(e)y can be!

Here is what the folks over at Pine Barrens have to say:

Pine Barrens is the first American Single Malt Whisky to be distilled on Long Island. Instead of creating whisky from a regular mash, Pine Barrens uses an actual finished 10%ABV barley wine English styled Ale Beer that has a high hop count of 70 IBU’s.

The Ale beer is traditionally brewed to its perfect drinkability, double pot distilled, and finally aged in petite new American Oak casks to achieve an incredibly high quality whisky.

The result is spicy, rich velvet smooth maltiness, sweet hints of nutmeg, cinnamon, and caramel qualities on the finish. The hoppy flavor also shines through, which beer geeks will love, providing that same sweet on the tongue and smoothness throughout.

Here is what others have to say:

Other whiskies sampled in our American evening included:

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