Cask & Maturation

Where a whisky matures often shapes it more strongly in Sweden than elsewhere. That's because the four warehouses are situated so differently. Mackmyra stores part of its casks not above ground but fifty meters underground. This happens in the disused Bodåsgruvan mine, not far from the distillery. There, the temperature stays almost constant year-round, without the wide swings that make casks breathe elsewhere. As a result, the whisky matures more calmly, and its angel's share, the portion that evaporates through the wood, is noticeably smaller. Other casks, stored above ground in the warehouse, experience every summer and winter directly.

For the Svensk Ek series, Mackmyra also uses small casks made from Swedish oak. They hold thirty liters and come from wood grown on the island of Visingsö in Lake Vättern. There, the Swedish navy planted over three hundred thousand oaks in the nineteenth century, originally intended for warships. Today the island is one of the few sources of native cask wood. These small casks make up only a fraction of the total volume, with the bulk maturing in used bourbon barrels.

High Coast stands above ground right on the Ångermanälven, the river that flows through the Ådalen. This exposes the distillery to the full range of seasonal swings: winters well below freezing, summers that can get quite warm. Each shift pushes the whisky deeper into the wood and back out again. This speeds up maturation, but also costs more cask contents to the air.

Smögen, meanwhile, stores its casks near the coast of Bohuslän. There, salty sea air moves through the warehouses, working its way into the wood and into the whisky itself over the years.