Svensk Ek & Wild Water – Whisky & Wild Review 2
The Larkfire team have always admired the continuous innovation at Mackmyra. However, when we discuss the whiskies, the word balance always comes to mind. They have managed balance in their whiskies, their practices and even their customer base.
Their production methods could be seen as ‘traditional’. Sourcing all of their ingredients (except yeast) from within the local area and never adding colour or chill filtering their whisky. This outwardly traditional approach is balanced with an experimental, often challenging biannual special release. The recent ‘spring’ Björksav is certainly not traditional but it is balanced and really very special (but that’s another review).
The innovation does not stop at their special releases. Their second site has a 35-metre-tall gravity fed distillery completed in 2011. This process substantially reduces the carbon footprint but then, as if to complete the story, they age the barrels 50 metres further down in the nearby Bodås Mine. A balance in altitude as well as attitude it seems...
Malt goes up, whisky comes down
This balance also extends to their customers. Their whisky is enjoyed by whisky buffs but just as likely to be found on supermarket shelves. Pleasing both these markets is a rare trick and is testament to their quality but also their dedication to spreading the word.
But let’s get to Svensk Ek.
Our bottle didn’t come with a gyroscope, shame…
We chose Svensk Ek from the range mainly due to the presence of sweet spice. Larkfire can either promote or soften spice and we can never be sure which it will do. The spice in young whisky can often be softened, older whisky heightened but this is not a fast rule, which we are about to discover.
Matured in Swedish Oak Casks
46.1 % ABV, Non chill filtered and natural colouring
Nose: Spiced Muffin, Apples in oak, opening in time to darker spices such as cloves
Palate: There are dried herbs present which balances (that word again) with softening caramel. The apple and green fruit that started in the nose has been baked into a pie for the palate. Peppery, ginger muffins and some sandalwood spice (Here I agree with the distillery notes)
Larkfire opens up the nose and the darker spices become traditional baking spices such as cloves and a soft cinnamon. The spice softens on the nose but our water allows the oak & pepper to live longer on the palate. A space is created and the maturation or oak spice is balanced (sorry) against the baked fruit and it’s a very enjoyable experience…
Finish: Medium, with a drying soft wood spice and sweet black pepper.
You can invest in one of these ‘teeny tiny’ casks. That’s an official size BTW.
They age their new make in smaller casks than standard and this clearly shows. It also starts to give us a clue (theory?) why the spice is lengthened by Larkfire. The maturation is clearly accelerated by the size of cask and this means it is beginning to behave like an older whisky. The old / new water and whisky maturation spice rule we had started to fashion is now thrown in the bin. That’s the joy of whisky though, isn’t it? It has no space for your silly little rules.
Svensk Ek pulls off a neat balancing trick really rather well. This amount of oak in a young whisky is a risky roll of the pepper dice, but in fact we have a sophisticated helping of sugar and Swedish spice. A very good drinker hovering around the £50 mark.