Mackmyra Ledin Sauternes Cask

The story of Mackmyra, Sweden's first whisky distillery, famously began with a ski trip in 1998, when eight friends from Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology went on holiday together and all brought bottles of whisky to share.

In conversation during the evening, the friends' national pride was somewhat piqued by the fact that all of them had brought Scotch and discussion turned to how a Swedish distillery could be set up.

One year after the idea was born, in 1999, Mackmyra Svensk Whisky was founded. On 18 December 1999 all the permits were in place and the first drops could be distilled. By 2001 they were producing two recipes, an elegant, fruity one and one with characteristic Swedish smokiness. These are the two flavours that will be associated with the words Swedish malt whisky.

What had started as a mental exercise developed into a dream, which in time became a reality. Now the very first, totally Swedish malt whisky is here. When the first bottles went on sale in the stores of Systembolaget [the State-owned alcohol monopoly] in March 2006, people were standing in line and the bottles were sold out all over Sweden in one hour.

The distillery is at the beautiful Mackmyra Bruk mill in Gästrikland. When they opened for business in 1999 they were the only whisky distillery in Sweden, and also the most northerly one in the world. At that time it was a very small-scale business, using a copper boiler with a capacity of only 100 litres. It was in this pilot distillery that they developed their recipes. At the same time, they proved to the outside world that it is possible to create an excellent malt whisky using the ingredients and under the conditions that they have in Sweden.

In spring 2002 new equipment was installed so that bigger volumes could be produced. Now the distillery operates almost every day, sometimes in two shifts. But the distillery remains pleasantly small-scale compared to foreign distilleries, with an emphasis on craftsmanship. Just the way they like it.

In 2011, their brand-new Gravity Distillery was completed. Standing 35 metres tall, as the name suggests this building makes use of gravity throughout the whisky-making process. It was designed by the architects TEA whose mission it was to imbue  the building with a character that captures the essence of Mackmyra: playfulness, sensuality and qualitative production.

Mackmyra Moment is a series of whiskies from Mackmyra's most exclusive casks, handpicked by Master Blender Angela D'Orazio. Each edition comes in a distinguished black carton with a specific colour scheme and a modern bottle design with an engraved metal plaque.

Since the number of casks per bottling are so few, the editions in the Moment series are very limited. The first editions to be released were Moment Medvind and Moment Urberg who where launched on 15 December 2010 in the exclusive range at the Swedish monopoly store Systembolaget.

For this edition of Moment, Master Blender got company from the Swedish singer and songwriter Tomas Ledin. During a stroll down in the BodaÌŠs mine, they found a couple of casks that previously stored sauternes wine. Both Angela and Tomas found them fantastic and knew instantly that these casks was going to be the Moment Ledin.

Tasting Notes
Fruity aromas with notes of vanilla, soft pear, fudge and toasted oak. The palate is slightly oily followed by toasted oak, vanilla, smooth herbs and berries towards the end. The aftertaste is long with notes of spicy herbs, toasted oak, vanilla and berries.