Mackmyra Moment 'Jakt' Review

Hi everyone,

Mackmyra isn’t a distillery I know a huge amount about, other than its in Sweden. I did know, somewhere in the back of my mind, that they started in the early 2000’s and then built a brand new distillery that uses gravity in some strange way but that was about it.

Then a friend and colleague at the Groningen whisky festival announced confidently that Mackmyra’s gravity distillery was the most advanced in the world! That caught my attention. As well as the fact that I hadn’t tried most of their whiskies yet and that they had some of the higher end stuff like this. Oh and that they have some ridiculously long fermentation, like 5 days…

This one, ‘Jakt,’ in finished in Swedish lingonberry and blueberry hunting wine casks.

 

Mackmyra Moment Jakt 48.1%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Rubbery tropical chewy fruit sweets, orange and pineapple, mango, juicy, powdered juice drink?, perfumed, sugared almonds.

Taste: Intense and interesting tropical and powdery somehow, powdered mango instant tea (yes it’s a thing), a little weird but cool!

Finish: Medium/Long length. The powdered mango tea continues.

From Swedish hunting wine casks. I have no idea how they got that powdery texture to the whisky (maybe the really long fermentation) as I’ve never had that before, but somehow it works. Very interesting stuff.

75/100

Distillery: Mackmyra

Average: 70

Distillery Ranking: 52nd/64 places

Up/Down: N/a

Thanks for reading!

Swedish Review #2

Whisky Network Review #707

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Clynelish 1997 Carn Mor (Sherry Cask) Review

Hi everyone,

This was a bottling I’ve wanted to try for a while. Big strength, Sherry cask, 1997 Clynelish. What’s not to like?

Luckily for me I’ve been at the whisky festival Noord Nederland in Groningen, which felt more like a crazy party weekend than work. Great, great festival though with a great bunch of awesome people. Not often I give an 89, 92 and 94 within 2 days either!

 

Clynelish 1997 Carn Mor 57%

Colour: Amber

Body: Light/Medium

Nose: Not what I expected at all! Meaty yet light and floral, pomegranate, sour green apple, freshly washed linen, raspberry and black pepper. Fragrant.

Water: Much better, classy oak, some wax now, lovely red apple.

Taste: Soft, sweet and building meaty Sherry, fruit and spice. Floral but quite light. Lots of oak into the finish.

Water: Better integrated.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Lovely, by far the best part of this dram, classy oily oak, dunnage.

Thought this would be a big sweet Sherry cask, waxy Clynelish. Nope. None of that here. Instead its light and floral, almost Lowland like in its style.

81/100

Distillery: Clynelish

Average Score: 79.7

Distillery Ranking: 10th/64 places

Up/Down: Up 1

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #596

Whisky Network Review #706

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Imperial 1989 Carn Mor Review

Hi everyone,

I did hear from an industry insider, that the source of the casks for Carn Mor is different to most independent bottlers. The quality is meant to be higher and that tends to be why they are slightly more expensive than other indies. I haven’t really seen any evidence from that in terms of taste, although I’ve only had a few, but it has made me curious to try more from their celebration of the cask range.

Imperial is a closed distillery that we are seeing less and less from. There were a lot of casks from 1995 that have made it out into the world, but not much from before that, making this one quite intriguing. Especially as I’ve always found Imperial to taste older than its years anyway.

 

Imperial 1989 Carn Mor 43%

Colour: Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Classically Imperial, dunnage, dusty fruit, lovely tropical Old Laphroaig-like pineapple and cinnamon, candied lemon peel, more herbal as it develops.

Taste: Dry, lots of oak, classy leather and tobacco, then the tropical pineapple and mango, wool, woody, slightly musty orange (in a good way).

Finish: Long length. Dry, wool, apple and orange, a little elastic rubber (which is a shame!) holding it back.

12/1989-07/2017, so 27yo from a Bourbon barrel. A lovely Imperial but the finish is just a bit out. The strength works though, despite looking quite low.

83/100

Distillery: Imperial

Average Score: 79.7

Distillery Ranking: 10th/64 places

Up/Down: 17>10- Up 7

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #595

Whisky Network Review #705

Network Average: 74.6

Best Score: 94

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Compass Box The Muse Review

Hi everyone,

With the release of Jane Walker and BrewDog’s Pink IPA causing a bit of stir in the drinks world recently, initiating many a debate, now comes Compass Box’s attempt at jumping on the bandwagon celebrating Women in the industry without accidently insulting them and looking plain ridiculous.

To be fair, they seem to have done a slightly better job and are just generally more likable than the fat cats over at Diageo. Not to mention there’s some genuinely different and great whisky in the bottle.

So this a special edition of Hedonism blended grain, based off an old butt they found that contained some cool but unkownish grain whiskies, nicknamed the ‘Muse’ cask. They blended it with some other grains to make up this special edition, celebrating International Women’s Day and that there are more women working at Compass Box than men.

The price? Eh, maybe don’t worry about it…

 

Compass Box Hedonism ‘The Muse’ 53.3%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Beautifully tropical, the old Invergordon really shines, integrated is the name of the game here, complex, dried coconut and vanilla, worn leather. Patches of clean ethanol over time.

Taste: Perfect arrival, beautiful fruit, oak then comes in with some ginger snap spice, drier, still fresh though with orange and leather, so soft and delicate.

Finish: Medium/Long length. Dried coconut and vanilla, spice box, a bit less complex here with the ginger taking over.

Very old grain whisky (around 39 years I heard) based on the 'muse' cask. Initially I gave this 88 and was hugely impressed by what the grain whisky has gained but after a bit of time the ethanol on the nose starts poking out. Steep price of course (tentacle crowns are expensive after all!), but the best grain I’ve tried by a long, long way.

86/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #594

Whisky Network Review #704

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Haig Club & Clubman Reviews

Hi everyone,

David Beckham and Diageo teamed up a while back to bring into life, perhaps the most marketing driven whisky ever released. Haig Club. A fashionable, mixable single grain that so smooth it barely tastes of whisky at all! Completely disregarding the rich history of the Haig’s and any of the other Haig brands made over the years.

When I explain grain whisky at masterclasses, I often use Haig Club as the example because many people have heard of it but haven’t heard of grain whisky. Grain whisky is often made with wheat (because its cheap and it makes lots of whisky) and small amounts of malted barley (for enzyme content), run through huge industrial, continuous stills and pumped into re-re-re-re-re-refill Hogsheads for the minimum amount of time (3 years). They do all this to maximise yields. Quantity, not quality is the name of the game. 99% of grain whisky will end up in cheap blends, making up around 70-80% of a blended whisky.

These particular ones are probably from Diageo’s huge Cameronbridge distillery.

 

"The greatest trick the whisky industry ever pulled was convincing the world that ‘grain whisky’ is actually whisky." - Johannes van den Heuvel

Haig Club 40%

Colour: Light Gold

Body: Light

Nose: Very light and sweet, a bit of vanilla, bit of a grainy cereal note.

Taste: Smooth but lacking in defined character, vanilla and cream, maybe a tiny bit of fruit and nut.

Finish: Short length. Smooth!

Expensive for what it is. Much more marketing than substance. Its actually amazing how little flavour they’ve managed to pack into this!

49/100

 

Haig Clubman 40%

Colour: E150a

Body: Light

Nose: Modern vanilla and modern oak very pronounced. Column still alcohol is very faint. Nothing more.

Taste: Very easy going and actually pleasant in places. Soft vanilla, some very easy oak, soft, soft, soft.

Finish: Short/Medium length. Column still alcohol reveals itself with a bit of harshness.

Actually very drinkable and extremely mixable, which of course is what is was designed for. No off notes, a little boring but not bad stuff. A nice surprise, as this is the much cheaper version.

61/100

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #592-#593

Single Grain Review #12-#13

Whisky Network Reviews #702-#703

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Millstone 6 TBWC Review

Hi everyone,

Since I’m heading back to The Netherlands on Friday for my first event of the year, I think its high time I reviewed something Dutch. So this is the first one I’ve had a chance to try, although it happens to be an indie bottling.

The first time I think I heard of this distillery was when the Whisky Exchange did a bottling of rye whisky from them. The distillation seems to take place in what looks like a Holstein still, and the style seems to more that of American whiskey.

Very recently, Adelphi have done a bottling of ‘Fusion’ whisky with Millstone and Scotch whiskies to make up The Winter Queen. It looks awesome and I will definitely be on the lookout for that while I’m away.

 

Millstone 6 TBWC 48.9%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium/Full

Nose: Heavy and heady. Dark fruitiness and dark toasted oak, plum, nougat, and a virgin oak note, caramel, toffee popcorn, very heavily toasted marshmallow.

Taste: A little sharp on the arrival then the dark fruit with plum again, deep oak, more oak and spices building with ginger, pepper and paprika. Some chocolate too.

Finish: Medium length. More oak and spices but it’s the plum that lasts in the end.

My first Dutch whisky! Single Malt independently bottled by That Boutique-y. I would guess this is from a virgin oak barrel or perhaps a finishing. It really works here too. Blind I might have guessed a Bourbon finished in a Port cask?

76/100

Thanks for reading!

Dutch Review #1

Whisky Network Review #701

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Deanston Decennary (Network Review #700)

Hi everyone,

700 reviews in the bag! Never really thought I’d ever taste this much whisky, or start my own blog, or anyone would actually take my opinions seriously. And some of those things have happened, which is pretty cool.

More whisky to be tasted shortly, but I did realise recently that I had a few samples lying about and not many interesting reviews in the pipeline. So this one is courtesy of a trip to Scotland and a very quick tour of Deanston. A pretty traditional distillery that always seems to taste quite woody to me. I was quite happy to not buy anything from the shop, but did spot an interesting looking bottle that turned out to be this. I love multi-vintage stuff and this is a great example. Technically, by the laws of Scotch whisky it shouldn’t be allowed but seems to be tolerated and the mix of young and old can be done very well. They had samples too, so I didn’t have to fork out for the full thing. Although if you’re a Deanston fan, you need the full thing.

So, this is a Multi-vintage, four cask vatting. 1977 refill, 1982 American oak, 1996 port pipe & 2006 PX, released late 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the distillery.

 

Definitely wrong and very approximate maths: 1400 bottles total

1977 (40yo Hogshead)- 150 bottles-ish (10.5%)

1982 (35yo Barrel)- 150 bottles-ish (10.5%)

1996 (21yo Pipe)- 600 bottles-ish (43%)

2006 (11yo Puncheon)- 500 bottles-ish (36%)

Deanston Decennary 46.3%

Colour: Dark Gold

Body: Medium

Nose: Soft, complex and woody. Restrained Sherried sweetness, raisin and sweet cherry, some cinnamon pastry, thick creamy vanilla really stands out, double cream, old worn leather, soft chocolate, coffee shop (Costa in particular). Quite a delicious nose. Strawberries and cream after a bit.

Taste: Gentle arrival, builds spice and oak, then the creamy vanilla with some strawberry and blackcurrant from the port pipe, leather, chocolate and classy Balvenie-like oak and orange oil develop, the chocolate and cocoa notes build very nicely indeed.

Finish: Medium length. Fruit from the Port, blackberry and a little floral note with some average oak but it is a little shorter and vaguer than I had hoped. Reminds me of the Balvenie 21 Portwood here.

Ah, I see why they vatted these casks together now. Great marriage of flavours here. The port influence isn't too much, the older casks are bringing complexity but it isn’t over-oaked. Every cask has a say. Which is great to see. A great Deanston and if you're a fan, you need one. buuuuuuut it does come undone a bit in the finish unfortunately, which loses it some brownie points.

84/100

Distillery: Deanston

Average Score: 71.3

Distillery Ranking: 47th/64 places

Up/Down: 60>47- Up 13

Thanks for reading!

Scotch Review #591

Whisky Network Review #700

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?

Method & Madness Single Pot Irish (Chestnut Finish)

Hi everyone,

I know I’m a little late for St. Paddies day, but I should have put this up ages ago when I tried it and I’d totally forgotten.

So this is part of a series of Irish whiskies, each wackier and more ‘out there’ than the last. This one in particular caught my eye because it was a single pot (which is of course the King of Irish whiskey) and it had been finished in Chestnut. Not Oak, Chestnut wood.

Oak replacements are something that is being looked at by a few people, including Springbank and Hunter Laing filling Chestnut barrels recently, despite being against the Scotch whisky laws. Irish whiskey hasn’t got anything against Chestnut though, the laws only stipulate that it should be matured in a wooden barrel.

What flavours will Chestnut bring over Oak? No idea. This is the first I’ve tried!

 

Method & Madness Chestnut Finish 46%

Colour: Bronze

Body: Medium

Nose: Aromatic and lovely. Fresh tropical fruit is immediate, gummy bear, chewing gum, candy floss, Turkish delight, which means rose but it's also chocolately like Turkish delight chocolate. Underneath it's woody in a great way, spicy with curry paste and very subtly earthy. Like Willy Wonker snorted something and came up with the nose for a whiskey! Edges closer towards the taste as it goes on...

Taste: Spices start, black pepper, then virgin oak comes through, well not oak actually, I'm guessing the Chestnut has really taken this over because it's a strange and rubbery to taste. Little of the complexity of the nose. Any of the normal green or tropical fruit are hidden far away. A shame but I had a feeling this would happen.

Finish: Medium length. Like a Bourbon, caramel but some of that rubbery flavour is still there.

Single Pot still Irish whiskey matured in Bourbon and Sherry then finish in French Chestnut. A great nose, but the taste lets it down. Really interesting to try though!! My first non-oak whiskey.

70/100

Thanks for reading!

Irish Review #22

Whisky Network Review #699

Network Average: 74.7

Best Score: 93

Worst Score: 12

0-49 Terrible

50-59 Bad

60-64 Just About OK

65-69 Ok to Good

70-74 Good

75-79 Very Good

80-84 Excellent

85-89 Superb

90+ Magnificent

Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.

Why is this here?