It’s been a while since I last said it so it’s time for a repeat: Gosh I love the whisky community on the internet!

I was gifted a few Irish whiskey samples from a mate as I have to expand my Irish whisky knowledge. When I opened the package, to my delight I found another sample tucked in and on the label there was only one character: ?

Ah..a blind dram! Obviously I didn’t have enough of blind drams lately 😛 so I set out to try it. My first thoughts were it’s a young whisky yet it felt quite complex. So it has to be either a Scotch vatted malt or non-scotch whisky. I guessed it to be a 5-6yo bottled at 55%.

Then the truth was revealed and I was happy to see I did managed quite well and to see I finally made my first venture into Swedish whisky as the dram was Mackmyra Svensk Rök.

Svensk Rök, which means Swedish Smoke, is a NAS whisky although I was told the casks used here are 4-9yo. The official tasting notes says there’s strong influence of Juniper here but that’s one aspect I failed to detect. Well, I’m not perfect 😉

Mackmyra Svensk Rök (46.1%, €33.95)

Nose: Youngish, malt, cereal, mellow peat smoke, some citrus whiffs (orange peels and lemon). There are sweet honey and fruits notes, dough and creamy. With more time it becomes brighter, fruitier & sweeter without much peat yet still keeping a smokey flavor. Fizzy sweet candies. Quite a transformation!

Palate: Starts with sweetness and then there’s big peat, chimney smoke, ashes, bitter soot yet cleaner profile, stones, mild sweet honey, weak spice at the back of the throat.

Finish: Medium length, sweet honeyed fruits, deep spice, long lingering peat and chimney smoke.

Thoughts: A very nice offering from Mackmyra. As I tasted it blindly, I can say it’s a rock solid dram and a good alternative peated whisky (if you want to go beyond Islay). I truly need to explore more Mackmyra wares!