Southern Coast Distillers 7 Year Old Whisky Review!

A very rare single cask from an Australian distillery that closed over six years ago, selected by & bottled for one of Australia's best online whisky stores, The Odd Whisky Coy.

Southern Coast Distillers was founded circa 2004 in the Adelaide suburb of Welland, in South Australia. The distillery was setup as a part-time venture, but closed in December 2012 after a falling out between the three business partners. The distillery was housed in a flagpole factory of all things, using two small copper pot stills that were built by the owners themselves, and it was operating on an extremely small scale, filling less than a dozen casks per year. Those casks were usually re-coopered fortified wine casks and were generally small in capacity, at around 50-litres or so, which when combined with the Adelaide conditions meant the whisky could be ready for bottling in as little as two years. In fact their whisky was seldom older than five years of age. Interestingly a small portion of their malted barley was lightly peated, but I can't find any word on where that malt or the peat itself came from. Southern Coast was reborn in 2013 as the Tin Shed Distilling Company, with one of the original partners, Ian Schmidt, taking the helm. The resulting whisky is now sold under the Iniquity brand, which is very widely acclaimed.

South Australia now has a few whisky distilleries, including the excellent Fleurieu Distillery in Goolwa and the mysterious and sporadic Smith's Angaston whisky, plus quite a few gin producers, which is - unfortunately - still the flavour of the month in Australia. The state is home to some of Australia's most famous wineries in the Barossa Valley & McLaren Vale, including famous names in fortified wine like Penfolds, Seppeltsfield and Grant Burge, producing large amounts of Australian port (officially named Tawny) and Australian sherry (officially named Apera), among many other types. The state is also home to one of the country's largest breweries, Coopers (who already supply malt to Starward), and smaller and more recent additions like Pirate Life. So there's certainly no shortage of barley around, and there's certainly no shortage of wine casks around, and the local climate has a wide temperature swing with hot summers and mild winters, and relatively low humidity year-round. Oh and one of Australia's major cooperages is located a short drive south of Adelaide. Sounds like a good recipe for a good whisky region!

The single malt we're looking at today was distilled in 2009 under the original distillery name and the original owners, and is from a single cask that was selected by & bottled for Graham Wright's The Odd Whisky Coy, which is a hidden gem of an online whisky retailer also based in Adelaide, offering a very extensive range of international and Australian whiskies including many older bottlings. Graham has been part of Australia's whisky scene for a very long time, in addition to his extensive wine background, and he provides excellent service to boot. This Southern Coast Distillers bottling was matured for seven years in a single French oak Port cask, cask number #14 (told you it was a small operation!), and was bottled at 50% ABV with no chill filtration or added colouring. I couldn't find word on the number of bottles released, but it will be well under 200, particularly considering that seven years of maturation through Adelaide's hot & dry summers. In fact there are only a few Australian whiskies that are aged for much longer than this on a regular basis, even when matured in milder climates. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky geek who had this bottled stored away for quite a while, since it it sold out some time ago. So you may have to live vicariously through me for this one...

Southern Coast Distillers 7-year old for Odd Whisky Coy, 50%. Adelaide, Australia. 

Distilled 2009, matured in a single French oak Port cask, bottled 2016. Distillery closed 2012. Natural colour, non-chill filtered. 

Colour: Dark rust red. 

Nose: Musty & port-y, oaky, and very Australian. Loads of milk chocolate and dark fruit syrup, spiked (soaked) raisins and some dried orange. Eucalypt forest, spicy oak, a flash of melting butter and some spent coffee grounds around the edges. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, loads of port influence, and a slight touch of heat. 

Taste: Quite intense up front, with more dark fruit syrup, spicy charred oak, milk chocolate and a little peppermint. The eucalypt forest is still there too, drying and slightly earthy. 

Finish: Short-medium length. Fades quite quickly, most of the flavour is up front. There's more spice here, and more oak but it turns lightly bitter and chalky early on. Finishes with some dry cough drops and dark grape must. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: An enjoyable dram, with loads of cask influence. I can see why Graham chose to bottle this at 50%, if it was much higher in strength it would probably have been very port-heavy, and very intense. Perhaps too intense. And it's not exactly shy as it is! This is a very Australian whisky, and it won't be unfamiliar to fans of the style. Big, intense, cask-driven but still characterful and enjoyable. And that eucalyptus note is often found in some of the best examples, particularly at high strengths. It actually is reminiscent of the Australian bush, as strange as that sounds. 

It may seem like a bit of a shame that Southern Coast shut down, and it's definitely a shame that it was a messy situation that hasn't been fully resolved yet, but from all reports the distillery that rose from the ashes, Tin Shed, is only going from strength to strength. Another feather in South Australia's food & drink cap, then. I'm going to have to get down there and take a closer look!

Cheers!