Swedish whisky from Hven Distillery – Mizar 6:1 45% ABV!

Dear friends, supporters and followers alike! On the 28th of February, the swedish distillery Hven held a press-tasting for their latest release. It was great to once again receive an invitation to attend, but very, very sadly I was not able to attend... To my great joy a generous sample of 10cl arrived not that long ago and so today I present to you my notes and thought on this whisky! 

This latest release is the continuation of the series drawing its inspiration from the constellation called "The Big Dipper". 

This time around our eyes are fixed on the star called Mizar. The name of the whisky hence is Mizar, with the addition of 6:1 (the sentences in italics in the quote below explains why :) ). The press-release contains very detailed info on the recipe, as follows: 

"The recipe is 58,8% Lager malt, 35,3% peated malt (38ppm), 5,9% Chocolate malt. The distillate have matured between seven and ten years on; 64,7% Muehlenbergii oak from Missouri, 23,6% Petraea oak from Allier and 11,7% Robur from Bourgogne. The whisky was married on seven Quercus Petraea barriques that previously held Chateau Margaux Premier Grand Cru. An additional seven casks with the same recipe have been kept for further finishing. This whisky will be released in September 2018. The traditional whisky phenols measures to 20ppm, however the contributing phenols from the chateau Margaux casks elevates the total phenols to 32ppm" (source).

Mixar 6:1 is still available at a number of swedish monopoly stores and you can view and order it by clicking here. Ok friends, let's see what we have this time around!

Nose:

Sugar-y sweetness, zyrup, partly resembling the sweetness of some kind of swedish red jelly candy (zoo, boats, or ferrari bilar). Immediately below this sweetness is a grain type of spicyness that is intermingling with what seems to be the spicyness of new swedish oak accompanied by christmas tree, resin on an old spruce, and spicy but sweet vanilla. I detect no peat, no smoke, but there is plenty of candied/burnt sugar. In the very bottom layer (the base) I find roasted sunflower seeds, slightly burnt. All in all, a quite forest-y dram.

Taste:

Starts off on a very, very delicate and well-balanced, oh so soft, peat with very discrete notes of medium-dry oloroso sherry. Also quite spicy and tannin-y in style, with an almost medium body. When swallowing the tannins and the medium dryness increases quite alot and burnt milk chocolate, bicycle inner-tube, and vanilla appears. After that, sadly, the dram turns almost water-y in style (there is so to speak not much body for the taste to rest on) and the tastes that remain is vanilla sweetness and syrup made of raw-sugar cubes. A slightly bitter dryness also remains in the very end of the surpisingly short taste

To sum up:

The start of the nose is very interesting and sort of classic Hven. It’s interesting that I did not detect any peat on the nose. The delicate peat in the taste is absolutely beautiful and well-balanced, as well as the nice hints of (what reminds me of) oloroso sherry. Unfortunately this dram did not take me all the way because of the ”water-y” style and the lack of body. It’s in no way a ”bad” dram but in line with my preferences the whisky could’ve easily spent some more time in the casks. Hopefully Mizar 6.2 will satisfy my preferences! 

Big thanks to Camilla at Hven Distillery for sending me a sample and for the opportunity to review it despite not being able to attend the release! Please make sure to follow my FB-page by clicking here, my instagram by clicking here, and my twitter-page by clicking here. Copyright © and All Rights Reserved on all tasting notes and text by SamuelWhisky and pictures likewise belong to SamuelWhisky, unless stated. If you would like to use any such material that belongs to SamuelWhisky or associated with SamuelWhisky, please ask by sending me an email to samuelkarlssonorebro [at] gmail dot com and by stating the source