The Summerton Whisky Club’s October 2019 Bottle of the Month
Mackmyra Moment Skogshallon Swedish Single Malt Whisky
Our club bottles are usually a surprise – but we just can’t keep this one to ourselves any longer as we have something really special coming next month! If you join the club by October 4th 2019, you’ll be receiving a very special single malt whisky that no one else in the UK will be able to hold of. Mackmyra Moment Skogshallon Swedish Single Malt Whisky will be available exclusively via the Summerton Whisky Club in the UK. With an RRP of £115 members are getting a fantastic deal, as you will pay your standard membership fee of £50 for this delivery.
As well as the great value, members will each get one of the only 1,511 bottles that will ever be produced of this limited run masterpiece.
This elegant single malt whisky has been finished in Swedish Wild Raspberry Wine casks, that previously held Bourbon. Skogshallon also draws its flavour new American oak barrels, resulting in natural berry tones and a fruity whisky with notes of red berries, vanilla, sour candies, tobacco leaves and toasted oak barrels.
The ‘Moment’ series from Mackmyra are a range of limited edition whiskies from their 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.
Join by October 4th 2019 to receive our next delivery, shipping on October 20th.
The Summerton Club and Mackmyra
Mackmyra have been on the radar of our team since the club was first established… we’d enjoyed a number of their bottlings and were impressed with the range and variety on offer – so much so we wanted to share our discovery with our members.
We delivered a bottle of Mackmyra Gruvguld to our members in October 2018 in celebration of our Mackmyra month, which went down a storm – read more about the delivery here. We then had the opportunity to share our first ‘Moment’ with members in February 2019 – it was the beautiful Karibien – a rum cask finish – more here.
We then had Mackmyra attend our first Summerton Whisky Festival in June 2019, and they brought with them a number of delicious expressions. After our Festival we discussed what’s next and are really happy to be able to share Mackmyra’s latest limited edition Moment exclusively with our members, meaning you can receive your very own bottle, with an RRP of £115, for just £50 if you join the club before the cut off of October 4th
About the Distillery
The story of Mackmyra starts in Sälen, a ski resort in the west of Sweden, in March 1998. Eight friends met in a snow-covered cabin, each bringing a bottle of whisky with them to share on their holiday. There conversations one evening turned to whisky and the fact that whilst there was a lot of interest and love for single malt whisky in Sweden, there were no Swedish distilleries to make the golden nectar. That night, the eight decided to create a Swedish whisky.
Whilst they all loved drinking whisky, none of the eight had any experience in producing whisky, so they started touring Scotch whisky distilleries to study their work and gain an understanding of what they would need to do themselves.
Soon they were ready to approach the Swedish government, who were so keen on the idea that they shared the story with the press, meaning the musings of the eight were public knowledge the next day. There was no turning back now and they soon found the perfect location for their new distillery, a sturdy old electrical power station was rented. It had its own water source and had a rich history, having been used previously as a blacksmith, a mill and barn.
Whilst keeping their “day jobs” for another two years, the eight set about converting the building and setting up their small-scale pilot distillery, without outside expertise or finance. This included welding together a pot still themselves, scaling up from an old still they found in a museum. This first 30 litre pot still filled a 30 litre cask, a size that has come to represent Mackmyra’s production ever since.
Not being master distillers themselves they decided to open up their work to the public to get their input. Regular tastings were held and the results of these tastings shaped production going forward, allowing them to create a truly Swedish whisky. Public tastings are still important to Mackmyra today.
All the ingredients for this Swedish distillery are sourced locally, from local barley and bread yeast, to the Swedish peat and juniper branches used for smoking. They even use local Swedish oak for a number of their barrels, trees planted in the King’s Forest of Visingsö, originally destined for future Swedish warships (although now they use a number of different barrels to produce their fantastic expressions).
With their skills honed and their whisky perfected by local input the eight were ready to expand their potential and start producing whisky to sell. A much larger still was installed and on 18th December 1999 the first drops were distilled. From there Mackmyra has never looked back, a second large pot still arrived in 2002 and by 2010 they started construction of their new Gravity Distillery, which increased production five-fold by 2013, allowing many more people to try their fantastic creations.
Master Blender, Angela D’Orazio
After starting with Mackmyra as Master Blender in the spring of 2004, Angela was quickly elevated to the position of Chief Nose Officer (CNO). She is responsible for the blends and recipes produced within the company, the quality of whisky, sensory analysis and courses and maintaining an overview of the maturing stock of whisky.
Perhaps best known in Sweden within whisky circles, Angela has also enjoyed a high profile internationally for a number of years serving as a judge and head judge, among other positions, at highly renowned contents such as the Spirits Challenge, the Superior Taste Award and the International Wine And Spirits Competition, etc. She was also responsible for whisky contests held at the Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival from 1996 to 2011.
WHISKY LEGEND, HALL OF FAME 2019
On 28 March 2019, Angela was inducted into the Whisky Magazine Hall of Fame. This is one of the most prestigious distinctions the whisky industry can bestow, and recognises those who have had a significant and lasting impact on the whisky industry.