Mackmyra Stjärnrök

Variety is the spice of life, as the old saying goes, and it certainly seems to be the case that Swedish Distillery Mackmyra enjoy the freedom to do things differently. 

This tends to be most noticeable in their seasonal offerings, released twice a year and always seeming to bring something new to the table. Stjärnrök, which translates as Star Smoke, certainly carries on that trend.

As always, the marketing team at Mackmyra have excelled in creating a narrative and imagery which really captures the essence of both the whisky and the ethos of the company.

“Inspired by enchanting nordic skies, magic and unknown senses, the Stjärnrök Saga takes you on its captivating journey from Terra Firma to Vintergatan and back to Earth; from familiar flavours to contemporary combinations, through tradition respected.

From deep beneath a Swedish mountain our latest expression, Stjärnrök, arises into the heavens. Stjärnrök is nurtured from our handcrafted smoky recipes, and matured into its true form in a shelter of oloroso, ex-bourbon and American oak casks, building its body, complexity and gentle sweetness. Subterranean, it developed its deep, dark red ripe notes through Spanish Oloroso and combined these with the native cloudberry of the surrounding ancient woodlands”.

During the recent launch tasting*, we were given a real insight into the casks that went into making Stjärnrök. The range and complexity of casks used is quite remarkable and gives a real indication of the thought processes that go into these seasonal releases.

The casks involved are as follows:

• 2013 Smoky First-fill ex-Bourbon (200 litres)
• Smoky Oloroso Quarter Cask (30 litres)
• Smoke & extra smoke, American oak & ex-bourbon (30 litres)
• Smoke tail, ex-bourbon (100 litres)
• Oloroso new and first fill (128 litres)
• American Oak pre-stored Elegant recipe (128 litres)
• Swedish oak cask soaked with Cloudberry wine (100 litres)
• 2008 Ex-Bourbon Elegant recipe (200 litres)

Tasting notes are always very personal, and as such I always try to avoid reading the tasting notes from others beforehand to avoid any inadvertent bias. Here’s my own notes from both the initial tasting session, and going back to the sample a little later.

Appearance: Golden, beading up slowly before falling as slow, thin legs.

Nose: Complex and intriguing, there is plenty going on as would be expected from the cask list. Sweet, non-medicinal smokiness, forest fruits, buttery vanilla and a slightly herbal note.

Palate: The first image in my head was old-school puddings, particularly apple and raisin bread & butter pudding with custard. The creamy, stewed fruit and vanilla introduction was followed by those forest fruits promised in the nose, together with a little peppery spiciness with a hint of ginger. Finally the smoke arrives, but it’s a different kind of smoke, sweet and almost herbal.

Finish: The lingering smokiness lingers, the herbal note from earlier slowly revealing itself as echoes of a conifer woodland, the juniper element staying on the palate before slowly subsiding into a mild menthol note.

Summary: Complex and intriguing, this is one of those whiskies you can nose and taste for hours and still pull out different notes. It’s also one of those whiskies that can genuinely take you on a journey. For me, it brought back happy memories of homemade puddings from my childhood, followed by holidays in Finnish Lapland sitting by an open fire drinking hot berry juice. It’s pretty impressive and well worth seeking out.

If you would like to know more about Mackmyra, their whiskies and their ethos, follow the link to their website

*The author has no affiliation with Mackmyra, both the sample and tasting session were purchased independently