SMWS Maverick Whisky Review!

A small batch 12-year old single malt from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, released to celebrate their 40th anniversary. 

Independent bottlings can be a minefield, and while I certainly appreciate what they do and the considerable following that they have, in my experience "The Society" is no different. Whether it's one of the extremely high highs or one of the surprisingly low lows, by their very nature the SMWS is actually more susceptible to these variances. Yes, of course personal preference plays a huge role here and cannot be underestimated. But since the SMWS' modus operandi is to bottle single cask spirits, whether they be whisky, rum, gin, or brandy, they don't often have the luxury of blending / marrying / vatting casks together. Or at least they didn't, until they started doing more small batch single malts and blended malts a few years ago. The main appearances here are the "Heresy" series of blended malts and small batch single malts, and the "Festival" bottlings of single malts. As much as us whisky nerds love to find exceptional single casks, it's important to remind ourselves that that's exactly what they are; the exception. Many independent bottlers do prefer to release single casks, but most of those are much smaller than the SMWS, with far less pressure put on them in comparison. Of the millions of casks that are filled with malt whisky every year around the world, only a very small portion will ever be bottled as single malt, and a much, much smaller portion will have a chance of being bottled as a single cask. Off the top of my head, I'd guesstimate less than .1 of a percentage - i.e. less than 0.1%. And of that 0.1% that do go on to be single cask single malts, a good portion are going to be duds. Even if the spirit is good and the cask seems good, the result may not be. Nothing is guaranteed in whisky. I'm tempted to go on another rant about cask investments here, but I'll resist for now...

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society was founded in 1983 by Englishman Pip Hills - who is the 'maverick' that this whisky refers to - initially as a private syndicate which purchased casks of single malt from distilleries and bottled them as-is, with no dilution, artificial colouring, or chill filtration. Famously the first distillery was Glenfarclas, which of course carries distillery code 1 in the SMWS coding system. This operation eventually turned into a successful independent bottling business, which 40-years later boasts over 35,000 paid members and shows no signs of slowing down. That year of founding is significant, because while the 1980s were a miserable decade for Scotch whisky, 1983 in particular was about as dark as they come, at least in 20th century terms. Following huge downturns in demand and some other factors, there were mass distillery closures and lay-offs, with many now-legendary distilleries closing their doors forever. Yes, the three most famous names are being reopened or have reopened and they get all the attention, but even among one company, DCL (now Diageo), nearly twenty malt whisky distilleries were closed in the first half of the 1980s, and nearly a dozen distilleries closed in 1983 alone. So that was some good & lucky timing from Pip Hills, since if the industry had been in a "boom" like they have been for the last decade or so they'd probably have told him to get stuffed. Just like many distilleries and distillery owners are saying to independent bottlers right now. 

'The Maverick' is a 12-year old single malt that was sourced from an unnamed distillery in the Speyside region. It was initially matured in ex-bourbon hogsheads before being filled into first, second, or third fill Spanish oak Oloroso and PX sherry casks for the final 2.5-3 years of maturation. 2,098 bottles were released at 50% ABV, which is the "go to" strength for most of the SMWS' blended malts and small batch single malts. Naturally this single malt is non-chill filtered and natural colour. That's finishing period is a very healthy one, but the addition of second & third fill sherry casks in that finishing period is also an interesting point - there's a good chance this'll still be quite a spirit-driven whisky. And that's a good thing! 

SMWS 'The Maverick', 12-Year Old Unnamed Single Malt, 50% ABV. Scotland.

Matured in ex-bourbon hogsheads and finished in first, second, and third fill Spanish oak Oloroso & PX sherry casks. 2,098 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Amber.

Nose: Spicy, nutty, fruity. Waxed bitter oranges & red apples, wood spices (cinnamon, nutmeg), creamy vanilla fudge. Nutty fresh oak, stewed stone fruit, rich tea biscuits. Touches of double cream & leather. 

Texture: Medium weight. Nice grip in the mouth, a tad on the dry side. Spicy & nutty. No heat.

Taste: Stewed stone fruit again, more leather, fresh oak, spicy & nutty. Dried orange peel, double cream, waxy red apples. Touches of marzipan & vanilla fudge. Pinch of ginger heading to the finish. 

Finish: Medium length. Wood spices, dry nutty oak, leather, and stewed stone fruit again. More marzipan, waxy red apples, and double cream. Touch of sultanas and more rich tea biscuits to close the show.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Notes: Nicely balanced sherried whisky, and certainly not a one-trick "sherry bomb". The Maverick is more on the drier, spicier, nuttier side of sherry-influenced malts, but that's absolutely fine by me. Maybe I'm reaching a little here given this bottler's history with the distillery, but I could see this being an anonymous Glenfarclas. Plus the SMWS has had plenty of ex-bourbon Glenfarclas releases in their regular coded single cask range, so given the flavour profile here and that it's a sherry finish, it wouldn't surprise me at all. For a $220 AUD single malt at 12-years of age and 50% ABV, I'd say it offers solid value here in 2023, and it won't disappoint any fans of sherried Speyside / Highland whisky. The cask finishing has certainly been well managed, there's a good balance to the sherry influence. I don't find any overtly PX notes in this one, maybe they've added a bit more richness and sweetness, but it's much more Oloroso-forward rather than PX-forward, to my tastes. Again, fine by me! 

This is a great approachable, relatively affordable way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the SMWS. Yes, there are cheaper 12-year old single malts out there at similar strengths, but again this is still a reasonable offer in the ongoing madness of 2023. Particularly when the flavour of the month (year) for such things is to release some mega-expensive "luxury" decanter made from pure Martian vibranium which is permanently encased in the hollowed-out tusks of the world's oldest narwhals, which were sustainably slaughtered for the occasion. Which would then sell for $150,000, of course. There have already been more commemorative releases from the SMWS for their 40th anniversary and I'm sure we'll see more before the year is out, but doing both high-end releases and this mid-range small batch bottling is just the way such things should be done. You still get the "halo effect" of the mega-expensive stuff, but us regular people can still partake in the celebrations by actually drinking the stuff.

Cheers!

The Hearach Single Malt Review!

After an eight-year wait, it's finally here... The first whisky release from Isle of Harris Distillery! They may be more famous for their very successful gin, but that's set to change!

Hearach is the Gaelic word for a native to the Isle of Harris, like an Ileach is to Islay. A different approach to just naming it "Isle of Harris Whisky" I suppose, which will help to to separate the newly-established whisky from the long-established gin brand. The success of that gin has undoubtedly helped this small privately-owned operation take its time with their first whisky release, which has been in the works since the distillery was established back in September 2015. Rather than being a gin distillery that dabbles in whisky, this is a whisky distillery that also makes gin, which means that they didn't need to push a whisky out the door on its third birthday for cashflow reasons. Instead they could make sure the whisky was exactly where they wanted it to be before releasing it on an almost-unsuspecting fanbase. Rather than doing a pre-release bottling for "founding members", or some one- or two-year old spirit releases to keep people's attention, or releasing a couple of hundred "halo effect" bottles at an exorbitant price, the launch of The Hearach single malt was kept relatively quiet until only a few months ago. Rather than a single cask or a small batch bottling for their first release, tens of thousands of bottles have been launched at an age of 5-7 years, at 46% ABV, and crucially at a very reasonable price. Waiting more than seven years after establishing the distillery would not have been an easy decision, and I'm sure there was pressure from some internal and external parties to release it sooner, and also to do more releases. But this is not a distillery that rushes things or one that takes shortcuts. 

Harris is a small island in the Outer Hebrides with a population of under 2,000. The stunning-looking island technically shares the same landmass as the Isle of Lewis to the north, with the official name of the island being "Lewis and Harris", but they're usually referred to as two separate islands. Lewis to the north is much larger both in population and geographically, with the main town of Stornoway being the largest in the Hebridean islands with a population of 8,000 people, whereas Tarbert, Harris' main town and ferry port,  is home to less than 600. While only an hour's flight north-west from Glasgow or a 1.5-hour ferry from Skye, Harris is still a small and remote island, only really famous for Harris Tweed fabric. But that has started to shift since Isle of Harris Distillery, the island's first legal distillery, was established in 2015. Today the distillery employs over 50 permanent staff, which is significant in such a small community and is in stark contrast to many of the larger corporate distilleries in Scotland. The distillery's gin is produced on separate equipment to the whisky, although both use copper pot stills that were made in Italy. The two smaller stills are only used for malt whisky, with casks filled on-site and matured on Harris in a mix of both dunnage & racked warehouses. There are five wooden washbacks, using a split fermentation time of either 72 or 120 hours, and all malt whisky so far has been lightly peated to 12-15 ppm using Scottish malted barley sourced from Bairds in Inverness. That obviously means mainland peat rather than local peat, although there's talk of using the latter for a heavily peated release in future. Regardless, there's no mistaking the coastal influence in The Hearach. 

As you'd expect from the design of the Isle of Harris Gin bottle, no shortcuts have been taken with the presentation or packaging of their first whisky release. Famous London-based design company Stranger & Stranger was responsible for the design and packaging of both products, in consultation with the distillery of course, and as you can see from the images below The Hearach bottle does share some broad similarities with the "straked" design of the Harris gin bottle. The whisky bottle is a squat almost-square shape, and the fully recyclable outer packaging is beautiful - it's even been debossed to resemble the gneiss rock that is found on the island. There's even a rather nice booklet (we need more whisky booklets!), and a branded thick cardboard coaster included, which was made from the excess cardboard used in the making of the outer packaging. As much as we whisky geeks try to argue the opposite, little extra details like these really do make a difference!

I suppose we should talk about the whisky itself at some point! As mentioned above The Hearach is a lightly peated 5-7 year old single malt. It's been matured in 85% ex-bourbon casks from Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace, 11% ex-Oloroso sherry casks, and 4% ex-Fino sherry casks, all matured separately and married together for a minimum of 12-weeks. It was bottled at 46% ABV and is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour. Eight different batches of the first release were released simultaneously in October 2023, with each batch consisting of around 12,000 bottles. Combined together that's a massive first release, which allows The Hearach to get into as many hands as possible at quite a reasonable price. The only notable difference between the batches is the marrying time after the casks are disgorged - largely because the distillery bottles everything on-site, so the bottling stage was always going to be a bottleneck (pun intended) for a release of this size. For Batch 1 that marrying period was 12-weeks, which increased with each until Batch 8 was married together for nearly 22-weeks. There'll naturally be some variance between batches of course - the batches are identified by a code printed on the paper seal across the closure, with all labelled as 'First Release' followed by the batch code. We'll be getting Batch 2 in Australia, with stock expected to arrive in early December thanks to the usual delays that often happen with international shipping. Pricing is expected to be under $175 AUD, which is very reasonable for a 700ml bottle of 5-7 year old single malt at 46% ABV, let alone for the first whisky release from a respected distillery. Thanks to those shipping delays the bottle I'm reviewing is from Batch 7, while the stock that arrives in Australia in December will be Batch 2. As mentioned, aside from the minor natural batch variation the only actual difference between these batches is how long they casks are married together prior to bottling. 

Before we get into the actual review, a quick disclaimer. I do work part-time for Alba Whisky, the Australian importers for both Isle of Harris Gin and The Hearach single malt. I don't normally review any products that we import or distribute, which is quite the challenge when some of them are fantastic! While I'd never let this skew my opinions or reviews, I decided to keep the two "halves" separate, purely so there is absolutely no chance of a conflict of interest or any questioning of my motives / integrity in either direction. But I'm making an exception here, because this is a brand-new release which has not technically landed in Australia yet, only some advance stock, and that advance stock is not the same batch that we'll be seeing down under. As always, my review is entirely my own honest opinion, and is completely unbiased. Plus this is a brand-new first whisky release that has been long awaited, and we need to know what it smells & tastes like! So let's do just that...

The Hearach Single Malt, Isle of Harris Distillery, NAS, 46%. Harris, Scotland.

Lightly peated 12-15 ppm, matured for 5-7 years in 85% ex-bourbon, 11% ex-oloroso sherry, 4% ex-fino sherry. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. Approx. 12,000 bottles per batch - Batch 7 tasted. 

Colour: Pale-medium gold. 

Nose: Oily, fresh, coastal & fruity. Warm sand, oily builder's putty, salty damp rock pools, fresh red apples. Soft & delicate earthy peat smoke, fizzy lemonade soft drink/soda. Maybe a touch of ginger beer. Lovely sweet biscuity maltiness comes through with more time, along with dried lime peel and a touch of dried banana chips. 

Texture: Medium weight. Lovely oily & viscous texture for the age. No heat at all. 

Taste: Oily, malty, sweet. Flash of rich honey, then dried banana chips, sweet red apples, and crumbly light caramel fudge (Scottish tablet). Some sugared almonds, and that fizzy lemonade soft drink/soda again. Caramel wafer biscuits, soft earthy peat smoke running underneath. 

Finish: Medium length. That gentle soft smoke carries through, then some acidic (sour) lime zest, those banana chips and red apples again. More caramel wafer biscuits, some apricot jam underneath which is interesting. Nice damp draff (spent barley) notes rounding things out. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Easily. 

Notes: As first releases go, The Hearach is extremely impressive! In fact it's extremely impressive in it's own right, first release or not. The complexity & depth at just 5-7 years of age is quite remarkable, particularly on the nose. The palate shows more sweetness and less of that coastal character than the nose, but it also has a lovely viscous texture to it that is quite surprising & really enjoyable. I'm assuming that viscosity is at least partly coming from the spirit itself, which is a good thing! I shouldn't be surprised really. As we're constantly being reminded in this wide world of whisky, age is just a number!

Local pricing on The Hearach is very reasonable, especially considering that it's a full-size bottle at a relatively decent age - not the minimum legal age of 3-years. That's the advantage of doing such a large quantity for your first whisky release, of course. The Hearach does hide its relative youth extremely well - there's a great mellow, even-paced balance to this dram. A "crowd pleaser" I'd say, but not by the usual bland & boring definition, more that there's something for everyone. Keep an eye out for this one when it finally lands down under!

Congratulations to The Isle of Harris Distillery on their first whisky release, and here's to many more in future! 

Cheers!

Ardbeg Heavy Vapours Whisky Review!

My first taste of the 2023 Feis Ile release; a "de-purified" Ardbeg. This another two-for-one review; featuring both the standard boxed release at 46% and the "naked" Committee Release at 50.2%. 

I'm trying to avoid being too negative and cynical here, but Ardbeg are trying to fix what most definitely was NOT broken with some of their recent limited releases. They've been mucking around with fermentation times, heavily roasted barley, and now the stills themselves, instead of just giving us a cask strength 10-year old or sticking to their tried & tested formula of different cask types married with "regular" ex-bourbon casks. Alongside Laphroaig, Ardbeg basically pioneered releasing widely available bottlings for the Islay Festival / Feis Ile. That started way back in 2012 with the first Ardbeg Day release, at a time when the other distilleries were still doing very small batches or even single casks that were only available from the physical distillery shops during the festival. Before anyone shouts "what about El Diablo and Alligator?" from the rooftops, they only released 1,200 bottles of the former PX-matured rarity in 2011 compared to 12,000 bottles of Ardbeg Day the following year, and while Alligator was fantastic it wasn't a Feis Ile / Ardbeg Day bottling. The other distilleries have mostly caught up on this act since, although most releases are still only available from their own shops and/or websites, while Ardbeg continue to ship their commemorative release to selected countries all over the world. Most of the Ardbeg Day / Feis Ile releases have been variations on a basic theme, featuring their regular spirit either partly matured or finished in some exotic type of cask, ranging from manzanilla sherry to rum. The ABVs continue to drop every year, but availability has improved, although pricing has increased substantially. That's the case with any distillery over that timespan, though. Lately Ardbeg seem to be focussing on more "experimental" whiskies that have been altered at the early stages of production rather than only in the final stage (maturation). You could argue that they've been doing this sort of thing for a while, from the unpeated Blasda to the super-heavily peated Supernova, but those were merely changes of peating levels on the malted barley and/or the source of that barley, rather than significant changes to the production of the spirit itself.

Which (finally) brings me to my point. 2023's Feis Ile / Ardbeg Day release, 'Heavy Vapours', has done just that. Ardbeg's main point of difference among the Islay distilleries - particularly both neighbours - has always started in its production regimen. Aside from more technical things like still sizes & fill levels, lyne arm angles, and spirit cut points, there are two main points of difference in their spirit production process. First is the partially-longer fermentation made necessary by the 23,500-litre washbacks which aren't matched / balanced to the size of the wash still, which has a capacity of 18,000-litres but is filled to 11,000 litres. So half of each batch of wash stays in the fermenter / washback while the other half goes through its first distillation. Prior to their recent expansion Ardbeg only had a single pair of stills, so this choke point was unavoidable, but they haven't said whether this partial-extra fermentation still takes place post-expansion where they now have two pairs of stills and have effectively doubled their production capacity. We won't see the results from this expansion for a few years yet, but I would hope that they've just increased production while keeping these quirks in place. The second and perhaps more important point of difference at Ardbeg is in the spirit still/s. Both the old and new spirit stills are fitted with purifiers, which are small copper drums that are attached to the lyne arms. The idea here is that heavier vapours travelling along (in this case, up) the lyne arm/s will be "caught" in this purifier which then channels them back into the body or neck of the stills for re-distillation, which in theory - all other things being equal - results in a lighter spirit. While plenty of other Scotch whisky distilleries use purifiers Ardbeg is the only one on Islay, and this is believed to be the main reason that Ardbeg's spirit profile is something of a contradiction, being balanced between heavy, oily & peaty, and relatively light, fruity & sweet. This is still a heavily peated southern Islay malt, using 55 ppm malted barley, but it's not as heavy as it could be if these two things, the partial extra fermentation and the purifier on the spirit still/s, didn't happen. 

As you've probably guessed by the name, for this year's Feis Ile release Ardbeg have blocked off that purifier, theoretically allowing those heavier vapours to travel up the lyne arm into the condenser to become spirit. So unlike the lacklustre Fermutation release which was basically an attempt to salvage the results of an accident, Heavy Vapours was created purposefully. More of a "what if?" than a "what now?". I'm trying to keep an open mind here, and an experimental heavier, thicker Ardbeg sounds promising on paper. But that purifier is there for a reason, and it's a crucial part of what makes Ardbeg Ardbeg. You don't see Bruichladdich cutting their still necks in half to see what would happen, and you don't see Lagavulin fitting a reflux onion / boil ball to their still necks to see what would happen. But Ardbeg have never been afraid to muck with things, and this time they've targeted the purifier. In theory this change would also allow more sulphur and more phenols to get through to the new make spirit. Aside from this change in production we don't have a lot of other information on this whisky, other than a quote from Bill Lumsden stating that this experiment was only done once, twelve years ago. So we can assume that Heavy Vapours is around 10-11 years old. We don't know what casks they've used, we only know that the purifier wasn't used, and that the two versions - the standard release at 46% ABV and the Committee Release at 50.2% ABV - haven't been chill filtered. That's all she wrote. The marketing department did have time & space to include some bullshit about "Agent 46", which is something to do with the ridiculous web comic that they're trying (and failing) to get us all to read. Seriously, Ardbeg marketing department, it's not going to happen! That space could be put to much better use - even by leaving it blank...

Just like my previous Ardbeg review, the more recent 'Ardbeg Anthology Harpy's Tale', Heavy Vapours is still readily available in Australia, in both of its iterations. Which is unusual compared to a few years ago, but not unexpected. At the time of writing, on top of Tales of the Harpy and BizzarreBQ and another overpriced batch of Traigh Bhan, Ardbeg have just released another special release, Anamorphic. Which many people, quite rightly, don't seem to give a shit about. Moving right along, we'll do the boxed general release version first, then the "naked" committee release at the higher strength. 

Ardbeg Heavy Vapours, NAS, 46%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled without using the purifier on the spirit still, rumoured to be around 11-years old. Non-chill filtered, assumed natural colour. 

Colour: Very, very pale gold.

Nose: Immediately very young. Hot tar & bitumen, hot industrial plastics, burning leafy & woody herbs. Aniseed jube lollies (not liquorice, the clear aniseed jellies/jubes), some old natural rope, and chunky, earthy, muddy peat. Freshly chopped red chillies, and a little under-ripe pineapple.  

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Quite oily, & viscous. Peaty & youthful. Touch of heat but the viscosity carries it well.

Taste: Big oily & chunky peatiness, industrial & slightly muddy. Hot tar & bitumen again, more red chillies but they're dried this time rather than fresh. There's a syrupy sugary sweetness to it, and it's entirely from the spirit itself rather than any cask influence (which is almost non-existent). Sharp lime juice and canvas / hessian sacking heading to the finish. 

Finish: Long length. Still considerably peaty, still raw & industrial. Hot industrial plastics, burning herbs, thick oily & dank peat. Black pepper, lemon oil, and a little cardboard. Throw a couple of Szechuan peppercorns in there too. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Not sure I believe that unofficial quote about this being 11-years old. Older than Wee Beastie yes, but I'd say 8-years old, or maybe 7. Those of us who tasted Ardbeg Very Young, Still Young and Almost There back in the day will know that there's absolutely nothing wrong with young Ardbeg on paper, but unlike those early releases Heavy Vapours has seemingly spent all of that time in very tired, very inactive refill casks. Third or fourth fill hogsheads at a guess. Which I suppose is fine by me, including active casks in the mix would potentially hide the difference that deleting that purifier has made. Thankfully the heavier, oilier peatiness and more viscous texture carries the youthfulness nicely here. I'd put the peat levels on par with some of the later 2014-on Supernova bottlings (not the originals from 2009 & 2010), but in terms of character there's a rather different peatiness to Heavy Vapours. That lime juice, black pepper, tar, and old rope is all very Ardbeg spirit, but it does definitely feel heavier, peatier, and more viscous. That could be because it's an entirely spirit driven whisky, which is not a criticism provided there's enough maturity and texture alongside, which I think there is in this case. Just. Fans of Lagavulin 8-year old will find this familiar, just with a little less depth and complexity in comparison. Only peat lovers need apply, and even then you may need to be in the mood. But I'm enjoying this one more than I expected to!

Right, on to the big one; the Committee Release at 50.2%. As usual, this one was a similar price to the regular version at the lower strength, and doesn't come with a box. Gone are the days when the committee releases were bottled at cask strength, the gap between the two versions seems to get closer every year. They're also sold at regular retailers these days, rather than only from the Committee website and promptly selling out. In theory this higher strength version should be heavier and oilier than the regular Heavy Vapours at 46%. But there's only one way to find out...

Ardbeg Heavy Vapours Committee Release, NAS, 50.2%. Islay, Scotland.

As above. 

Colour: Very pale gold again. No difference to my eyes.

Nose: Bigger & punchier, still very youthful and raw, if not more so than the 46%-er. More red chillies, plus some clove oil, and industrial hot plastics. Syrupy sweetness but it's also floral - which is unexpected. Disinfectant, tar, warm gravel & sand. Black pepper, and chunky, earthy peat that is drier & more vegetal. 

Texture: Medium weight. Raw and punchy, a bit of a bruiser. Rougher and hotter, but not overly so. 

Taste: Big peppery, jagged entry. Definitely sweeter than the 46% version, a syrupy floral sweetness, with more clove and lemon oils as well. Dry earthy peat, with more roots & plant matter to it. A little under-ripe banana behind all that. 

Finish: Medium length. Szechuan peppercorns & clove oil, bitter woody herbs, a little powdered aniseed and more hot plastic. Boiled root vegetables, flash of something a little metallic too. Touch of cheap cooking chocolate. 

Score: 2.5 out of 5. And only just. 

Notes: Fascinating that it feels both sweeter and more floral than the 46%-er, and also less peaty. That's not what most would expect from a higher ABV version of the same whisky, where that peatiness is hidden behind a higher ABV. But it certainly can happen with oily, peaty, spirit-driven whiskies. Also with some peated new make spirits for that matter, where water is needed to bring the phenolics out. The committee release version certainly feels younger and more raw & jagged than the 46%, which I suppose could be expected. While the standard version will appeal to fans of Lagavulin 8-year old, this 50.2% committee release is catering more to mezcal fans. Particularly the unaged, dirty, and industrial mezcals. Maybe the Committee Release is just too young, at least to my tastes. The 46% standard bottling is notably superior in my book. There's only been one previous instance where I've preferred the 46% version of an Ardbeg Day / Feis Ile release to the higher ABV Committee Release - which was back in 2017 with Ardbeg Kelpie. Unfortunately the 46% version of Heavy Vapours isn't any cheaper than the committee one, and it's also less "collectable". But if you're planning on drinking it, don't chase the higher strength this time. No, I didn't expect to be saying that either!

The "bigger picture" point to consider here is that Lagavulin 8-year old is half the price of both of these Ardbegs, and it's bottled at 48% rather than the 46% of the standard version of Heavy Vapours. Which is why I still say that Ardbeg shouldn't be trying to fix what isn't broken, obscuring their distillery's points of difference in the process - if we want a heavier, oilier, peatier & less fruity version of Ardbeg, then we'll just buy Lagavulin! Like most of the good distilleries Ardbeg's spirit character is unique, with the almost-contradictory bright & fruity sweetness that balances the oily & maritime peatiness. But if you do away with most of the former points and boost up the latter points, I'd say you're starting to emulate some of your competitors. I like an experiment as much as the next whisky geek, but I'll be glad if this experimental Ardbeg is only a one-off. Stick to the tried & true formula Ardbeg, it's why we love you!

Cheers!

Old Master Spirits 55-Year Old Cognac Review!

Another single cask brandy with a serious age statement from Melbourne-based duo Old Master Spirits! These guys really are spoiling us...

Old spirits are often taken for granted, so let's get some perspective here. 1968. Well over five decades ago. The Vietnam war is at its peak, Martin Luther King has been assassinated, we're still a year away from landing on the moon, and I'm still sixteen years away from being born. Meanwhile in south-western France, this cognac was being distilled and filled into a cask, where it would stay for the next 55-years. Longer than many readers or their parents, or even grandparents, will have been alive. Absolutely crazy to think about. Even more so when you see the price - $299 AUD in a 500ml bottle. Yes, a 55-year old single cask cognac, naturally presented and cask strength, at a similar price to many Australian whiskies, many of which are also 500ml bottles and are only 2-3 years of age. That's just as crazy to think about as the 55-year age statement. Sure, you could point to our ridiculous tax system as the culprit, but all brandies still attract an excise of $93.44 AUD per litre of alcohol - $7 lower than other spirits, because the Australian government loves the wine industry and hates everyone else. Don't get me wrong, many of those Australian whiskies are delicious, and I don't intend to entirely turn to the dark side anytime soon. But this 55-year old cognac is a totally different proposition to whisky in terms of value for money, and spirits geeks always love an underdog. Frankly, this cognac too cheap - in fact it's $65 cheaper than this 51-year old cognac that Old Master released 18-months ago. I don't see how they're still doing this when the rest of the spirits world has gone mad with price increases! That's what happens when two drinks geeks take on a passion project and decide to show us what we've been missing.

As a quick refresher, cognac is essentially a brandy that is made in the Cognac region of south-western France. It can only be distilled from a few legally permitted varieties of white grapes that are generally fermented for 2-3 weeks and produce a dry, highly acidic white wine that was never intended for consumption as-is. The wine must then be distilled twice in copper pot stills, and it must be aged in French oak casks for a minimum of two years before bottling at a minimum of 40% ABV. One murky area here is the inclusion of ageing in glass vessels in your age statement, where the spirit is taken out of cask and filled into inert glass demijohns / demijeannes to stop further wood impact, and to stop further evaporation. In this case though, just as with all Old Master bottlings to date, the entirety of those 55-years was spent in an oak cask. The vast majority of cognac is blended, particularly the big name brands, and just like whisky it will often have added e150 spirit caramel colouring. Another legally permitted additive in cognac that is thankfully not found in whisky is 'boise'. This is essentially wood flavour essence or wood syrup, made from boiling wood chips in sugar syrup, that is added to many cognacs for flavour purposes. Just like the all too common practice of adding sugar to rum, this process is artificially flavouring the spirit. Really, if your spirit needs additives for flavour, you're either cutting corners or doing something wrong. Mostly making a rough & nasty spirit, using tired old casks, and not letting it age properly. A quality cognac doesn't need such rubbish, especially when presented properly - i.e. at a decent strength above the minimum 40%, and without chill filtration or added colouring or flavouring. The independent bottling that we're looking at here is a prime example, albeit an extreme one since it's 55-years of age! But this is a single cask, single vineyard cognac, unblended and unadulterated. Just what the doctor ordered. 

This Old Master Spirits single cask cognac was distilled at Cognac Peyrot Francois, a small privately-owned producer five hours south-west of Paris in the heart of Cognac's Grande Champagne Cru appellation, the "crème de le crème" of the six cognac production regions. This single 25ha vineyard, known as "Les Bergeronnettes" (The Wagtails), was founded in 1893 and is currently in its fourth generation of family ownership. This 1968-vintage cognac was distilled by Mathilde Peyrot-Barret, grandmother of the current owners and daughter of vineyard founder Jean-Baptiste Peyrot. The vineyard began producing its own cognac in 1956, with the current alembic brandy stills being installed in 1967 - yes, the same stills that produced this 55-year old cognac are still in use today! This 1968 vintage cognac was distilled from Ugni Blanc grapes grown on vines dating back to 1928, and then spent its entire 55-years in Peyrot's cellar maturing in a single French oak cask before being bottled at a natural cask strength of 44.3% ABV. The cask was sourced from the famous Limousin Forest in central France, and yielded just 141 x 500ml bottles after its 55-years in oak - so just over 70-litres of cognac, i.e. not a lot, but that's to be expected after more than half a century in cask. Unlike most of the name brand cognacs and brandies, this independent bottling from Old Master Spirits ticks all the boxes that spirit geeks want - cask strength, natural colour, non-chill filtered, and no additives - no 'boise' wood flavouring, no sugar, no e150, no shenanigans. Single vineyard, unblended, and straight from the cask to the bottle, au natural. This 55-year old cognac is being released on Thursday the 26th of October 2023 - sign up to the Old Master mailing list here, or see here for more info. Happy hunting!

Old Master Spirits 55-year old Peyrot Cognac, 44.3%. Cognac, France. 

Distilled 1968, fully matured in single Limousin oak cask, bottled at cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, no additives. 

Colour: Rich mahogany.

Nose: Rich, sweet & fruity. Stewed stone fruit - apricot, plum, touch of yellow peach. Juicy sultanas, old leather armchair, dark chocolate mousse. Warm baking spices, touch of bitter orange peel, roasted chestnuts. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, sweet, and juicy. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Sweet stone fruit, both dried & stewed here. Apricot & plum again, with more raisins, and dark chocolate mousse. Sweetened espresso, rum & raisin fudge, and a touch of acetone-like floral sweetness. 

Finish: Long length. Dark chocolate, baking spices, orange peel. Sweet raisins in syrup and oily furniture polish take over, with a little vanilla essence. Warm nutty oak, plum pudding, and woody cologne. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Extremely moreish, and absolutely delicious. Great balance of fruit, sweetness, and oak. This would have to be my favourite cognac to date, and also my favourite brandy to date. I can see why the Old Master Spirits team had to jump on this one as soon as they'd tried it. What a find, and what a buy! I've said it before and I'll say it again; any 55-year old single cask spirit for $299 AUD is an absolute steal, and deserves to be more widely appreciated. An equivalent whisky would easily be 20-times that amount, if not more. The same goes for the big cognac brands - which are all blended, and bottled at 40% ABV, and most are artificially coloured and have added flavouring. Natural cognacs like this one need no such rubbish. They're still hidden gems, but they can't stay that way forever. The more they increase in popularity, the more the pricing will start to creep. Am I helping by writing about it, then? Probably not... Don't miss this one if you're a brandy fan. And if you're unsure, split a bottle with a few friends to share the cost. You won't regret it! 

Thanks to Deni from Old Master Spirits for the sample for this review. Once again my horizons have been broadened! 

Cheers!

SMWS 29.285 (23 Year Old Laphroaig) Whisky Review!

A 23-year old single cask Laphroaig from the SMWS' prestigious "Vaults Collection", titled "Fabulous Fusion". It spent 20-years in an ex-bourbon cask, then was secondary matured / finished in an STR ex-sherry cask for a further 3-years. That's something different, especially for a whisky of this age!

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a.k.a. the SMWS or "The Society", have never been afraid to play around with different cask types, whether for cask finishing or for full maturation. There aren't many independent bottlers who'd be game to play around with a 23-year old single cask Laphroaig, most just wouldn't take the risk of it going backwards or letting the cask influence go too far. But cask strength Laphroaig tends to hold up well to assertive casks, possibly better than any other Scotch whisky. Their spirit seems to easily withstand full-term maturation in Oloroso or even PX sherry, which is not something I'd say about any other Islay make. With these cask-heavy Laphroaigs the results can still be excellent. In this particular case, the Society have done something a little unusual. Rather than the usual refill bourbon maturation or oloroso sherry finish, this 23-year old single cask Laphroaig has been finished in an STR cask that was seasoned with Oloroso sherry. The STR (shaved, toasted, and re-charred) cask treatment was pioneered by the late Dr. Jim Swan, but is usually carried out on ex-red wine casks rather than sherry seasoned ones. What isn't made clear is whether this was an ex-sherry  cask that was given the STR treatment or an STR cask that was then seasoned / re-seasoned with sherry, but given the wording on the front label below, "first-fill ex-Oloroso barrique", I'm going to assume it was an ex-sherry cask that was then given the STR treatment. The STR part of the equation is only mentioned at the end of their official tasting notes. "Barrique" by the way is a generic French word for "barrel", so it doesn't tell us anything specific about cask size, but the term is most often used in the wine industry to refer to 220-250-litre casks, so broadly similar to a hogshead. What we do know is that this whisky spent 20-years maturing in a single ex-bourbon hogshead (250-litre) cask before being transferred into that STR ex-sherry cask for a further 3-years. 

Older Laphroaigs can be absolutely fantastic, both in official and independent bottlings. Rather than the assertive peaty & medicinal flavours found in the younger examples, when it hits roughly 20 years of age it can take on a more fruity, citrusy (particularly grapefruit in the good ones) and sometimes tropical profile, and in 25 > year old examples that's often joined by sweet & soft floral notes that are worlds apart from the standard 10-year old official bottling. However, just like every distillery in the whisky world, age alone is no guarantee of either quality or maturity. Some of the "old guard" may look down their noses at a significantly aged single malt that has been finished or secondary matured in an additional cask, but that's a very narrow view. Sure, sometimes a cask finish is done to give a lazy or under-par whisky a kick in the pants, to get it up to scratch and thus get it out the door. But this practice is also done to add complexity and/or additional flavours to that aged whisky to help set it apart. Often when done well the result is more than the sum of its parts, particularly when it's allowed to evolve over a decent period of time, rather than being thrown into a wet cask for a few months prior to bottling. 

Aged whiskies like this one are inevitably going to become harder & harder to find for the independent bottlers, particularly from the desirable distilleries and even more so the desirable Islay distilleries. Which of course means they'll become more & more expensive for both the bottler and thus for the customer. And they're already far from cheap, of course. You'll struggle to get a 20+ year old Laphroaig for less than $700 AUD from most independent sources let alone an official bottling, and another decade of age could easily double that figure. One exception is the recent run of 28-30 year old "unnamed" or "mystery" Islay bottlings that have popped up lately, from the likes of The Whisky Jury, Port Askaig and Thompson Bros, many of which seem to be anonymous Laphroaig. These can be had for sub-$1,000 AUD, which is still a big chunk of money for a bottle of whisky, but is unfortunately quite reasonable in the ongoing madness of 2023. As a comparison for those playing overseas, the 30-year old Laphroaig "Ian Hunter Series" official bottling is priced at $2,500-3,000 here. As for this SMWS single cask example, I can't find any Australian references to a retail SMWS members price for 29.285, but I'd assume it was similar to todays pricing for these 'Vaults Collection' bottlings which ranges anywhere from $900-3,500. As we've talked about before, the SMWS bottling code 29.285 means it's a Laphroaig, distillery code 29, and the 285 means it was the 285th cask of Laphroaig that the SMWS has bottled. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who opened this bottle to celebrate his 40th birthday, and it went down a treat. Let's see how it goes this time around!

SMWS 29.285, 23-year old Laphroaig, 55.2%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 13/5/98, matured in ex-bourbon hogshead for 20-years, secondary matured in single first-fill STR Oloroso sherry cask for 3-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 194 bottles, released mid-2022. 

Colour: Bronze.

Nose: Rich, dense, earthy, sweet & spicy. Thick chai & cinnamon spiced caramel, cigar box, old leather, earthy mushroom. Bitter orange around the edges. Getting quite meaty with more time - Chinese BBQ pork? With sweet dark soy sauce. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, thick, spicy, meaty, lightly peaty. Slight heat. 

Taste: Big, rich & powerful entry. Thick spiced caramel, BBQ pork with sweet dark soy sauce. Touches of that earthy mushroom & bitter orange. Furniture polish, cigars, Chinese five-spice mix. Touch of dried red chilli. 

Finish: Long length. Soft old leather, more mushroom, spicy charred wood, hint of sweet lemon. Thick sweet soy, maybe even hoisin sauce but not as sweet. More dried red chilli. Finally the peat gets through, dry, earthy & spicy peat, with a big dose of sea salt. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Big, big whisky! Mega-rich, dense, and powerful. Simultaneously sweet, earthy, meaty, and spicy, and certainly not shy. There's something very "Asian BBQ" about it, which is intriguing. There are still some shades of sherry cask as well, but with a much bigger wood impact - which is exactly what you'd expect from this cask treatment. Totally different to any Laphroaig that I've had before, particularly at this sort of age. Is this too much cask influence though? It's probably close to the line, but hasn't quite gone over it. At least to my tastes. Like I said above, Laphroaig can seemingly stand up to just about any cask treatment without losing its identity, probably better than any other Scotch whisky. And this 23-year old is just another example of that. If you'd put a Caol Ila or Bowmore etc. through this treatment, chances are there'd be no distillery character left at all.

They say Guinness is "a meal in a glass", right? Well this SMWS Laphroaig is a Chinese BBQ banquet in a Glencairn. 

Cheers!

Ardbeg Anthology 13 Year Old Whisky Review!

"A sauternes cask influenced Ardbeg! One please! Oh wait, what? It's $240? And 46%? OK, let me call you back..."

Despite the Ardbeg limited releases coming thick & fast in the last couple of years, the excitement surrounding this Ardbeg Anthology "The Harpy's Tale" was significant. Not only does it have an age statement of 13-years, it is the first in a new series of bottlings, and it is influenced by - but not 100% matured in - a cask that Ardbeg have never used before. We all knew it was going to be expensive, and to be fair it could've been worse. The sticking point for many came with the ABV, which is "only" 46%. I have no issue with 46% ABV myself, that's often the sweet spot for many single malts, and of course is also the official threshold that negates the need for chill filtration. But ABV does have to be taken into account when a large chunk of the competition at this price point (e.g. Lagavulin 12, Octomore 13.1, among others) weighs in significantly higher. Even in Ardbeg's own current line-up of semi-limited releases you have the 8-year old 'For Discussion' at 50.8% and the more recent 'BizarreBQ' at 50.9%, both of which are roughly 40-50% cheaper ($115 and $145 respectively) than this 13-year old. They're also very tasty, and arguably offer better value than even the regular core range Uigeadail and Corryvreckan do at their current prices. Let's be realistic, it's 2023 and this new 13-year old is a limited release Ardbeg, it was always going to sell regardless of price or ABV. They could have priced it at $300 or upwards - if it had been bottled at 50% they probably would have - and it still would've sold. Aside from attracting less tax/excise, bottling at the (relatively) lower strength also means there are more bottles to go around. The interesting thing is that despite being released last month, at the time of writing this whisky is still available on the Ardbeg Committee website, and probably in local retailers as well. The same applies to Heavy Vapours, the 2023 Feis Ile/Ardbeg Day bottling which was released back in May, even in the higher strength Committee Release version. Not long ago that would certainly not have been the case, these releases would be be long gone. Perhaps the number of bottles in these releases and/or the local allocations are larger than they used to be. Or maybe it's a sign of the times. Or maybe Ardbeg have alienated some of their fan base with all of these special releases...

Slight digression here; that 8-year old 'For Discussion' at $115 AUD from ardbegcommittee.com.au is an absolute bargain, and if you haven't bought one already then you really should. If memory serves it was $130 when it was first released a couple of years ago, which was already a great buy, but at $115 it's currently less than the local RRP for the core range 10-year old bottling. I wouldn't necessarily say that the 8-year old is a better whisky than the 10, but unlike many of the releases in the last few years it's certainly on par with it, and is nicely differentiated from it - being a higher ABV and being matured solely in sherry casks. I've reviewed it here if you'd like more details. Let's get back on topic!

This 13-year old is the first release in Ardbeg's new 'Anthology' series. They haven't said how many releases there'll be in the series or how often they'll be released, and "anthology" is just a fancy term for collection/compilation, so there aren't any clues there. They have told us that these releases will all be influenced by unusual cask types, meaning unusual for Ardbeg. In this case they've used sauternes wine casks, which can work brilliantly with peated whisky if you ask me, and is certainly something new for an official bottling of Ardbeg. Sauternes is a sweet white wine from the Sauternes region of southern France where the grapes have been affected by the botrytis fungus, which is also known as "noble rot". In basic terms this concentrates the sugars in the fruit, with the resulting sweet wine generally having flavours of sweet white & yellow fruit, balanced with some acidity. Some of these wines can also be quite "funky", particularly with age, and can also get very expensive. The interesting thing with this new Ardbeg is that it hasn't been 100% matured in the sauternes casks, nor has it been finished in them. This whisky is a combination of both ex-bourbon casks and ex-sauternes casks, both matured separately and vatted / blended together for bottling. That's significant to us Ardbeg nerds because it's what they used to do with most of their special / limited releases, up until Ardbeg Drum hit the shelves in 2019 which is when cask finishing became more prominent. In theory the separate maturation method should give us more distillery character and more balance, which does seem to be the case with some of those pre-2019 examples. We don't know the proportions of each cask type that went in to this bottling, nor the number of casks or bottles that were released, but based on smell & taste they haven't been shy with the sauternes influence. 

Oh, and what about the name "The Harpy's Tale"? Well, as we've come to expect from Ardbeg, it's a piece of mythology that has nothing to do with the distillery, or the island, or the whisky. A harpy is a half-bird, half-man creature from Greek or Roman mythology, basically a giant bird with a human torso and head. Supposedly Ardbeg have named this whisky after the harpy because it has a combination of sweet and smoky flavours, and a harpy is a combination of bird and person. Moving right along... Actually no. Dear Ardbeg, why couldn't you just give the marketing department the day off and call this "Ardbeg Sauternes Cask"? Or "Ardbeg Sweet Wine Cask"? Or even "Ardbeg Noble Cask"? I get it, it's supposed to add a bit of fun, but the extra fluff & flannel is totally unnecessary with something like this that actually has a genuine unique selling point. OK, now let's move along...

Ardbeg Anthology 13-Year Old "The Harpy's Tale", 46%. Islay, Scotland.

Fully matured in both ex-bourbon and ex-sauternes sweet wine casks, proportions unknown. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Sweet, spicy, and a little nippy. Touches of white wine vinegar acidity, sweet honey, and dried woody herbs. Sweet fruit - pineapple, lychee, white peach, touch of sweet banana. Green grapes and white pepper. Tar, hessian (sack cloth), and ashy smoke underneath. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, sweet, herbal. Slight heat but pleasant. 

Taste: Sweet fruit again, white peach nectar / juice. Touches of spearmint and white pepper around the edges. Bitter lemon peel, olive oil, more white wine vinegar, and dried woody herbs. Tarry smoke, hessian cloth again, and some fresh cut wood. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Still a little nippy here. Juicy sweet fruit again with that peach nectar, pineapple, and lychees in syrup. Olive oil and lemon peel again, touch of aniseed & powdered ginger. Tarry smoke, more fresh oak, and fruit syrup to finish. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Certainly does what it says on the tin (box)! The extra sweetness from the sauternes is immediately obvious, with that "white" fruit in syrup. Nicely oily in texture and taste as well. Seems a little rough though, that nippy heat is unexpected at a decent age and (relatively) lower ABV. Almost like the alcohol isn't fully integrated despite the use of active casks. And the texture isn't quite enough to cover it up. Still, I'd say this was a successful experiment! It's hard to resist comparisons with the two reigning masters of sauternes casks; Bruichladdich - e.g. Port Charlotte SC01, Octomore 4.2/10.2/12.2, and some of the Micro Provenance single casks - and Kilchoman - e.g. the Sauternes Matured from 2016 and the Sauternes Finish from 2018, and countless single cask releases. All of those listed were higher in ABV and are/were similarly priced to this Ardbeg when they were launched, albeit years ago now.

Still, this 13-year old is pleasantly fruity, very sweet but not cloying or overwhelming, and softly peaty & smoky with the distillery signature still intact. Which is what we're all looking for in a sauternes cask peated whisky. I have no doubt that being married with ex-bourbon casks has helped keep the cask influence in check, and if you ask me, it would've become overly sweet had they gone with 100% ex-sauternes. So, recommended, yes. But not entirely sure it's worth $240...

Cheers!

Bakery Hill Blunderbuss 2022 & Metamorphosis Whisky Reviews!

Two recent additions from Melbourne's quiet achievers, Bakery Hill! We have the second release of Blunderbuss, their stout cask finish, and Metamorphosis, their first Muscat cask finish, which is peated!

Distillery founder David Baker & son Andrew.

Once largely unknown outside of their home state of Victoria, Melbourne's Bakery Hill is finally starting to make significant waves in the Australian whisky scene after more than 23-years of hard work. I've gone through more of the distillery's origins and points of difference in this recent review, but for many years David Baker and his team were focused on building a solid core range of regular expressions, of consistent quality, at a time when most of the Australian industry were only concerned with the latest limited edition or single cask. Bakery Hill only release single cask bottlings across their entire single malt portfolio, but somehow still manage to keep a level of consistent quality that many larger distilleries would envy! From day one they also focused on retaining the distillery character and spirit character in their whiskies, via the use of larger format ex-bourbon casks, at a time when most of the industry was only concerned with producing the darkest, sweetest - and often youngest - cask driven whisky that they could. Sadly that's still the case for many of our distilleries, where a combination of very clean new make spirits, very active and/or small format wine casks, and of course the Australian climate, deprive their whiskies of any spirit signature or distillery character in no time at all. Thankfully that approach is changing in the wider industry these days! 

Aside from these two important points of difference, this tiny operation has always offered reasonable pricing and solid value for money, despite their tiny production capacity. Even here in 2023 where many Australian & Tasmanian whiskies are selling for (or at least asking for) exorbitant prices, Bakery Hill's three core range whiskies - Classic Malt, Double Wood, and Peated Malt - sit at $170 AUD or less, while the two regular cask strength bottlings - Classic Malt and Peated Malt - are at $220 or less. That may sound like a high figure for those playing overseas, and yes they're 500ml bottes, but here in the great southern tax land that's firmly in the mid- to lower end range of the smaller producers. For comparison's sake, Lark's entry level 'Classic Cask' retails for $200 in a 500ml bottle at only 43%, jumping to $250 for their core range Cask Strength, and both are around 5-year olds of age from a much larger company - they're even listed on the Australian stock exchange. Even Bakery Hill's limited releases, which like the core range are all single cask bottlings, are kept at that $180-220 price level, including the two that we're looking at today. 

First cab off the rank in this two-for-one review is the second release of Bakery Hill Blunderbuss, which is a stout cask finish. I've reviewed the first Blunderbuss release here, which hit the shelves in mid-2020, and once again with the 2022 release there's more to this story than a simple beer cask finish. This unpeated single malt first spent six years in an ex-bourbon barrel - already practically middle-aged for an Australian whisky - before spending two further years in an ex-stout cask from Melbourne's Hop Nation brewery. That would be interesting enough on its own, but the stout cask in this case was an ex-bourbon barrel which had previously matured a batch of Bakery Hill's peated single malt - for over a decade! So this cask was an ex-bourbon barrel which then matured Bakery Hill peated single malt, then matured a batch of Hop Nation's 'Kalash' Imperial Stout, then went back to Bakery Hill where it was filled with six-year old unpeated single malt to give us Blunderbuss. Which brings us to the differences between 2020's first edition and this 2022 second release! While the first spent one year in the stout cask for a total age of seven years, this second iteration has seen that finishing period extended out to two years, giving it a total age of eight. The other difference here is in ABV, with the 2020 coming in at 52.0% and this 2022 weighing in at a hefty 58.0%. While the distillery has sold out of this release it can still be found in a couple of other Australian retailers, and both releases were priced at $220 - it's tough to find anything that hasn't jumped in price between 2020 and 2022, so that's commendable. I definitely enjoyed the 2020 edition, but this one promises to be more intense!

Bakery Hill Blunderbuss 2022 Edition, Stout Cask Finish, 58.0%. Melbourne, Australia.

8-year old unpeated single malt matured in an ex-bourbon barrel for 6-years, finished in an ex-Hop Nation stout cask for 2-years. Stout cask was previously an ex-bourbon barrel which had matured Bakery Hill's peated single malt for over a decade. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 250 bottles.

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Malty, rich, toasty & "stouty". Rich burnt caramel, treacle, and fresh double cream. Fresh chocolate porter beer with foamy head. Touches of sweet tropical fruit & honey underneath. Lemon curd, passionfruit cream, and freshly roasted coffee beans. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich & warming, toasty & roasty. Slight heat but carries it well. 

Taste: More treacle, chocolate porter beer, and a lovely roasted maltiness. Fresh vanilla marshmallow, strong sweetened coffee with cream. Puffs of earthy peat smoke running underneath. 

Finish: Long length. Becoming fruitier with pineapple juice, passionfruit cream, and lemon curd. Dark chocolate mousse, some crystallised ginger, and coffee grounds. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Another big, rich, stouty, Blunderbuss of a whisky! There's definitely more stout influence here than in the first release from 2020, which is to be expected since it's spent twice as long in the stout cask. It hasn't gone too far though, there's still that sweet tropical fruit, citrus & honey from the spirit and from the original cask. The higher ABV doesn't seem to have done any damage either, carrying itself nicely at that significantly higher strength. I must admit though, while there's not much between them I have to give the win to the first release, and yes I did try them side-by-side just to be sure. The first release just feels a little rounder and more complete, but they're certainly very similar as far as flavour profile and character. Which is to say, they're both very tasty! Now on to part two...

Next up, the latest limited "seasonal" release from Bakery Hill, titled Metamorphosis. Quite the fancy title, but David was a chemistry teacher after all... The word essentially means "to change physical form or structure", e.g. from a caterpillar to a butterfly, in this case referring to the cask finish completely changing the profile of this whisky. Bakery Hill Metamorphosis is a peated single malt, distilled from heavily peated Scottish barley sourced from Baird's on the mainland. The vast majority of peated Australian whisky is made from imported peated malted barley, often mixed in with unpeated Australian malted barley to reduce the peat level, since our commercial maltsters won't entertain the small volumes required by our distillers and won't risk tainting any future batches of malt intended for their corporate brewery contracts. This Bakery Hill was distilled in 2014 and aged for 6-years in an ex-bourbon barrel before being finished in an ex-muscat fortified wine cask for 2-years, and was bottled in 2023 at 48% ABV without chill filtration or added colour. Muscat is a grape variety, but in Australia the term generally refers to a sweet fortified wine also known as a Liqueur Muscat or Rutherglen Muscat after the main producing region. It's broadly similar to a port or tawny in style, rich & sweet, often aged in French oak for a decade or more and typically bottled at 17-18% ABV. These muscat casks are becoming more commonly used in Australian whisky, with larger producers such as Lark, Starward, and Morris all releasing muscat cask whiskies recently. The cask used for Bakery Hill Metamorphosis was a single French oak muscat cask sourced from an unnamed winery in north-eastern Victoria. This release is still available from the distillery website and from a couple of Australian retailers, going for around $190 AUD. 

Bakery Hill Metamorphosis, Muscat Cask Finish, 48.0%. Melbourne, Australia.

8-year old peated single malt matured in an ex-bourbon barrel for 6-years and finished in a French oak ex-Muscat fortified wine cask for 2-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 290 bottles. 

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Big peat! Ashy, dry, bitter, earthy peat with touches of burnt fatty bacon and charcoal briquettes. Nicely acidic too, with lemon zest, white grapes, and a little green banana. Hint of creamy vanilla underneath. Sweet stone fruit coming through with more time. 

Texture: Medium weight. Surprisingly peaty, sweet & fruity. No heat. 

Taste: Big ashy, dry, earthy, bitter peat again. That burnt fatty bacon too, plus a pinch of black pepper now. Green banana and white grape again, but sweeter here with some fairy floss / cotton candy, candied lemon, and sweet dried orange. 

Finish: Medium length. Still peaty, but becomes more creamy, citrusy and fruity here. Touch of salt, and tart green apple around the edges. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Very tasty, and surprisingly peaty! It's been a while since I last tasted Bakery Hill's standard peated single malt, but I don't remember it being this peaty, even at cask strength compared to the 48% in this Metamorphosis release. The muscat cask is nicely integrated as well, not over-sweet & wine dominated like some of the other muscat cask Australian whiskies that I've tried. Instead this just adds some extra sweetness and fruitiness without overtaking the spirit or overdoing the sweetness. Not the most complex dram perhaps, but it's firing on all cylinders and will hit the spot for any lover of peated malts - which is not something I'd say about many peated Australian whiskies. Very well done. 

Overall Notes: More great work from this small team of quiet achievers. These two and the first Blunderbuss release are my first experiences of cask finished Bakery Hills, previously I'd only tried the Classic and Peated both at 46% and at cask strength, which are all straight ex-bourbon cask maturation. And I'm very, very impressed! The balance between the finishing cask influence, the original cask influence, and the spirit character is excellent. Which again is not something I'd say about many Australian whiskies where the cask often dominates completely. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone though, since Bakery Hill has always been about balance between cask and spirit, patient maturation in more supportive cask types rather than dominant ones, and in larger size formats as well. Which means allowing both aspects to shine, and creating a whisky that is greater than the sum of its parts. And that's the name of the game!

Thanks to the distillery's Andrew Baker for the samples for these reviews, and for all the hard work that he & his father David have put into their whisky over the years. There's a new larger distillery in the works at the moment that is much closer to Melbourne itself, which will certainly help Bakery Hill get more attention. Here's to more of their delicious whiskies in the years to come!

Cheers!

Glenallachie Future Edition 4-year Old Whisky Review!

4-year old Glenallachie? 60.2% ABV? The first release of a Glenallachie single malt that was distilled during Billy Walker's ownership? And the first-ever distillation of a peated spirit at Glenallachie. This'll very interesting!

Speyside's Glenallachie Distillery is looking like it'll be another Billy Walker success story, much like Benriach, Glendronach, and Glenglassaugh (to a lesser extent) that came before it. This legendary Master Distiller now has his own cult following, having rescued those three distilleries from their previous owners and then brought them out of the shadows, with the once largely-unknown Benriach and Glendronach now sitting comfortably among the most highly regarded distilleries in Scotland. The revival of these two distilleries under Walker & Co. was so successful that American corporation Brown Forman purchased them in a package deal along with third wheel Glenglassaugh, paying a whopping £285-million for the trio of distilleries back in 2016. Billy Walker didn't rest on his laurels for long, purchasing Glenallachie Distillery from Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard) in late 2017 with two business partners, and forming The Glenallachie Distillery Company. As you'd expect from Walker's past performance with rescuing neglected workhorse distilleries from corporate blended whisky machines, he did the same here. Glenallachie was largely unknown as a single malt outside of a couple of official bottlings and some scattered independent bottlings, with most of the 3-4 million litre annual production going into Pernod's blended whiskies like Chivas Regal and Clan Campbell. This is a relatively young distillery that was built in 1967, essentially designed to quickly & efficiently produce a light spirit destined to be used as blend filler. With only two pairs of stills that large production capacity was achieved by quick fermentation and quick & efficient distillation, all in the name of pumping out spirit that would be blended into oblivion and reduced to 40% ABV. One interesting point equipment-wise is that the condensers on the stills, which are the modern shell & tube type as you'd expect, are actually mounted horizontally, which is something I've never seen before. This was supposedly done since the distillery was designed to be gravity fed in the name of energy efficiency, and also to give more control over the condenser temperatures. 

Soon after Mr. Walker & Co purchased Glenallachie they extended the fermentation times out to 160 hours and drastically slowed distillation in search of a quality new make spirit. This cut that 3-4 million litre production capacity down to 800,000-litres, with actual production currently sitting at around 500,000. The GlenAllachie brand - note the change to a capital 'A', which is a hallmark of Billy Walker's rescued distilleries - was re-launched as a single malt in mid-2018, with the core range featuring 8-15 year old whiskies and beyond, mostly finished in a number of different cask types ranging from virgin oak to ex-rye whiskey casks and many, many more. As you'd expect from the owners Glenallachie whiskies are now bottled at 46% ABV and above, and are non-chill filtered and natural colour. There's also a range of single cask bottlings and small batch wood finished limited releases, which is another trademark of Billy's. In my experience so far Glenallachie is certainly quite heavy on cask influence, which is no surprise considering these releases were all distilled under the previous owners and probably needed a helping hand to get them up to par. That's often the case with these rescued / resuscitated distilleries. So far I've only tried the flagship 12-year old and a couple of different batches of the 10-year old Cask Strength, which in all honesty haven't exactly wowed me. I do hear that the 15-year old is the highlight of the core range, so I'll keep an open mind as always, but the 10-year old cask strength in particular was surprisingly rough and hot, even after adding water. That track record could be about to change though, since the Glenallachie that we're looking at here is the first release of spirit that was distilled under the current owners, so with the longer fermentation time and slower distillation put into practice. And it's also the first peated spirit ever released by the distillery! 

Glenallachie 'Future Edition' is a 4-year old single malt that was released to celebrate Billy Walker's 50th anniversary in the whisky industry. There was also a 'Present Edition' and a 'Past Edition' released at the same time, both aged for 16-years, with the 'Present' being finished in virgin Mizunara (Japanese oak) casks and the 'Past' being fully matured in sherry casks. This 'Future Edition' was distilled in 2017-2018 and bottled in August 2022 at 4-years of age, and at a cask strength of 60.2% ABV. 10,000 bottles were released, taken from a mix of ex-bourbon, ex-rye, and virgin oak casks that were matured separately and vatted together. Aside from the casks, the long fermentation, and the slower distillation, the obvious point of difference here is the peat. This is the first peated Glenallachie ever released, in this case using mainland peat from St. Fergus on the east coast of Scotland, with the malted barley apparently peated to 80 ppm. That's a surprisingly high figure, but I'm not sure if this release was entirely distilled from that peated barley or if there was some unpeated malt / unpeated spirit included in the vatting. For a 4-year old whisky this bottle was on the expensive side from day one, priced at £80 RRP in Great Britain, which would be the equivalent of around $220-250 AUD once landed here in Australia. But it's the first peated Glenallachie ever, it's taken from the first distillation runs under the new owners, and it's bottled at cask strength, so that's understandable. As you'd expect it sold out quite quickly, and it was never imported into Australia. Some local retailers have parallel imported small quantities, and their attempted pricing is frankly stupid. Circa $550 AUD stupid. Unsurprisingly that retailer still has stock available, and let's hope it stays that way. The sample for this review came from a fellow whisky nerd who imported a bottle straight from Europe, and generously sent me a sample to take a look at. Let's do it!

Glenallachie 'Future Edition' 4-year old, 60.2%. Speyside, Scotland.

First release distilled under Billy Walker ownership, first peated Glenallachie ever released. Mainland peat, 80 ppm but unsure of % of peated malt used. Distilled 2018, matured in ex-bourbon, ex-rye, and virgin oak, bottled August 2022. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 10,000 bottles.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Sweet, smoky & fruity. Quite sweet in fact. Brisket burnt ends, charcoal briquettes, chemical fire starters (hexamine / kerosene). Cold wood smoke, cinnamon sugar, fatty smoked bacon. Touch of rubber bandaids, fried banana drizzled with thin honey. Sweet nutty oak, red apples, and black pepper. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Syrupy texture, sweet & smoky. Quite hot & sharp. 

Taste: Sharp & hot entry, with burnt bacon and hot ashy wood smoke. Cinnamon flavoured syrup, touch of strong milk coffee, black pepper, and over-roasted nuts. Sweet oak, baking spices, touch of juniper around the edges. 

Finish: Long length. More cinnamon flavoured syrup, over-roasted nuts, and a touch of fresh rye bread. Sweet red apple, maple syrup, black pepper, and burnt bacon. Flashes of those bandaids & charcoal briquettes to finish. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Well it certainly is very interesting. The nose is excellent, although certainly on the sweet side there's a nice balance with burnt BBQ meats and wood smoke. The palate and finish lean away from the BBQ notes a touch but become really very sweet, with those cinnamon flavoured syrup notes bordering on sickly for my palate. It's also rather hot, and even aggressive at times. I know this is only a 4-year old whisky, but I always find the Glenallachie 10-year old Cask Strength to be hot & aggressive so I can't help but draw parallels here. Granted this "Future Edition" is substantially younger but unlike the 10-year old it's substantially peated, which would usually help to calm / hide some rough edges in the spirit. I have no doubt that Billy Walker knows what he's doing with the longer fermentation and slower distillation, so the spirit probably just needs more age to round it off. Which will hopefully negate the perceived need for virgin oak involvement, which has to be responsible for most of that almost-artificial syrupy sweetness that isn't really floating my boat. I'm not being an ageist here though, I've had some brilliant whiskies around this age or even younger - e.g. some Kilchoman single casks, Kilkerran Heavily Peated, even some Octomores - that didn't need another day of maturation. 

This spirit is certainly one to watch though, at least with a few more years under its belt. But for the love of god, don't pay $500 AUD for this 4-year old whisky. It's not worth that in any way, shape or form. Frankly I'm not sure if I'd buy it at the 85 GBP recommended retail either, which would probably equate to $220 AUD or so once it landed here in Australia. I know Billy Walker has his devout following in the whisky enthusiast world, and rightly so given what he pulled off with Benriach and Glendronach. Glenglassaugh too, to a lesser extent. But this 4-year old Glenallachie is really only a progress report, and it should be treated as such - a core range based on this spirit with some decent age should be excellent. Let's see what the future holds!

Cheers!