Hellyers Road 22 Year Old Whisky Review!

The oldest Hellyers Road single malt released to date, one of the oldest Tasmanian single malts released to date, and the second-oldest Australian whisky that I've ever tried. Judging by the 21-year old peated cask finish that I reviewed a few months ago, this 22-year old unpeated single cask should be good!

When this particular single cask of Hellyers Road single malt was distilled, way back in November 2002, the Tasmanian whisky industry was still in its infancy with only three distilleries operating on the island. Likewise the mainland Australian whisky industry, with only one tiny distillery operating; Melbourne's Bakery Hill, who were still a year away from releasing their first whisky. Sullivan's Cove, now easily the most-lauded brand in Tasmania, was only founded in 1994 and first launched in 2000 - and their very early releases under the original owner were a little murky and questionable. By now we all know the popular story of Bill & Lyn Lark resurrecting small-scale Australian whisky distilling back in 1992. But things were still relatively quiet for the subsequent decade and beyond - as recently as 2010 there were less than ten whisky distilleries operating in Australia, which is hard to imagine now! The boom in Australian whisky only began in 2014 when Sullivan's Cove won the top award at the World Whiskies Awards. This saw both Australian & Tasmanian whisky pushed into the spotlight both internationally and locally, whether the distilleries were ready or not - and many were certainly not. That's not to say that some of those earlier Australian whiskies weren't fantastic drams, many were, but some others were the polar opposite. Even today, save for a couple of the larger players and some of the more technically savvy operations, many of our distilleries still struggle with consistency, economies of scale, differentiation from the competition (without resorting to shock value), and cask management. 

That last point is probably the most crucial here in Australia. Our warm climate was initially seen as an advantage, with just about every Australian distillery thinking that it would enable them to "age faster" and start selling their whisky sooner. Compounding this, most were also filling into small casks of 20-50 litres, most commonly very active first-fill French oak ex-fortified wine casks. The best case scenario here was good but inconsistent whisky, while the worst case scenario was hot, immature whisky with some huge tannic fortified wine and wood influence overwhelming the spirit. Thanks to that warm climate of ours, a promising cask of whisky can take a sharp nosedive over the course of a month, or even less if it's in a small format cask during summer, and/or located a little further north. A missed sweet spot or an indecisive distiller can easily ruin what could've been a very tasty whisky, simply by leaving it for a month or two, whether by chance or by design. In my amateur opinion, as our industry has matured and most distilleries are now aiming for more consistency, more volume, and more maturity & complexity, the main obstacles in this pursuit are a) small format casks, and b) the local climate. Casks must be carefully checked prior to filling, particularly if they're ex-wine or ex-fortified and have been shipped from overseas, plus attention should be given to charring, toasting, and/or filling strength where needed. And once filled the casks must be watched extremely closely, particularly in the warmer months of the year. Even heavily peated spirit is not averse to this danger of being overwhelmed by cask, particularly when very long fermentation periods and tighter distillation cuts are used in order to give a "cleaner" peated spirit.

Back in those early-2000s, two Australian distilleries were bucking the local trends of small ex-fortified casks. Both actually began distilling in 1999; the first was Bakery Hill in Victoria, with David Baker choosing to follow a more "Scottish" method, initially using ex-bourbon casks of 50-100 litre capacity, then switching to 100-225 litre casks for longer maturation and more measured cask influence. David was also the first to use peated malted barley, rather than using the Lark method of "re-wetting" barley that was already malted before re-drying it with peat smoke. The other distillery bucking the trend was Tasmania's Hellyer's Road - who were also an early adopter of peated malted barley. Large format casks, relatively large scale production, international export, and a visitor's centre and café at the distillery - long before any of the other Tassie operations had thought about such things. Back then Hellyers produced a distinctly "funky" spirit, but not in a Campbeltown style or a worm tub condenser Scotch style. This was more of a metallic, butyric (sour & lactic), sulphuric style which certainly did not win the distillery many fans in those early days - steps have since been taken to rectify this at the distillery, including adding more copper to the still, increasing reflux and using more charred casks. But as we know from some Scotch whisky distilleries, when a funky, rough spirit is filled in to the right cask and left alone for lone enough, magic can happen. The right amounts of additive & subtractive cask influence and the evaporation & oxidisation of the spirit can round off those rough edges and add more complexity, turning that once unloved spirit into a lovely whisky. Which is just what we have here!

This 22-year old single cask release is the oldest Hellyers Road released to date. It was distilled from unpeated Tasmanian malted barley in November 2002, fully-matured in a first-fill American oak ex-Jack Daniels barrel, and bottled in March 2025 at 56.5% ABV without chill filtration or added colouring. The 200-litre cask yielded just 62-litres after those 22-years of maturation in northern Tasmania - a huge amount of evaporative loss - and there are only 80 x 700ml bottles released, available here at a retail price of $1,450 AUD. Yes that's a very expensive whisky, but as discussed here in my review of the 21-year old Peated Cask, compared to similarly aged whiskies from other Australian distilleries and some "world whisky" brands, it's actually reasonable. If memory serves this is the fifth oldest Australian single malt ever released, after two Sullivan's Cove 24-year old bottlings, and a 24- and 23-year old Cradle Mountain that were matured in the UK and bottled by Cadenhead's in Scotland. Obviously if we had decent regulations like those of Scotch whisky those two Cadenhead's releases wouldn't be classed as Australian single malt since they were neither matured in Australia or bottled in Australia, but I'm getting off topic - again! That Hellyers Road 21-year old Peated Cask Finish that I reviewed previously was surprisingly peaty, but it also had plenty of spirit character on show after such a long maturation period and then also the active cask finishing. That was a much larger release than this 22-year old too, with 300 bottles at $1,350 AUD, so you can understand the $100 increase for this older 22-year old with such a small number of bottles available - and again, this is the oldest Hellyers Road released to date. Thanks to David and the team at Hellyers for sending this generous sample for me to take a look it. Let's dive in!

Hellyers Road 22 Year Old, 56.5%. Tasmania, Australia.

Unpeated, distilled November 2002, matured for 22-years in single first-fill ex-Jack Daniel's barrel (200L), bottled March 2025. Cask #2325.03, 80 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Amber gold. 

Nose: Malty, tropical, creamy. Buttery & nutty toasted oak, damp malted barley, creamy vanilla yoghurt. Toasted desiccated (shredded & dried) coconut, fresh peaches & nectarines, touches of mango & passionfruit around the edges. Herbal honey, lemon tart, and roasted macadamia with more time. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily, tropical, sweet, rich, and malty. Slight heat, but carried well. 

Taste: Malty, tropical entry with sweet mango, peach, and nectarine, plus some passionfruit yoghurt in the background. No, make that passionfruit curd in vanilla yoghurt. Toasted oak, a little cinnamon sugar, eucalyptus leaves, lemon tart, and a touch of sandalwood. 

Finish: Long length. Roasted macadamias, eucalyptus leaves, and more lemon tart & passionfruit curd vanilla yoghurt. Touches of roasted almonds, toasted oak, and damp barley to round things out. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely whisky. Those fresh tropical fruit & stone fruit notes are delicious, reminding me more of a similarly-aged Irish whiskey than any Australian single malt. The fruitiness is balanced by the oak, acidic lemon & passionfruit notes, and the creamy vanilla yoghurt in the background. There's a little spirit-y heat on the back palate, but there's enough texture/weight and enough flavour to carry it. This 22-year old Hellyers Road is the second-most tropical Australian whisky that I've tasted to date - only beaten by an old single cask from Sullivan's Cove which was a total freak of nature. And I'm thinking there's more complexity in this Hellyers Road. It's great to see what their early distillate - challenging, divisive, and rough around the edges as it was - can morph into when left alone in the right cask for the right amount of time. As said above, that's where the magic can happen with spirits like these! 

But that's not all folks! The team at Hellyers also sent a sample of their flagship age statement whisky, the 12-year old American Oak. This is a small batch semi-regular release that is fully matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks and bottled at 46.2% ABV without chill filtration or added colouring. It was first released in 2022, which won "Best Australian Single Malt" at the World Whiskies Awards, the same organisation who gave Sullivan's Cove that famous "World's Best" award back in 2014. Pricing on this one, in a 700ml bottle, is $260 AUD. Let's see how this younger iteration fares!

Hellyers Road 12 Year Old American Oak, 46.2%. Tasmania, Australia. 

Regular small batch release, fully matured in first-fill ex-bourbon casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Dusty biscuity malt, red apples, orange peel, icing sugar, touch of lemon zest. Slight fizzy / effervescent - lemonade? Chewy caramel fudge too.  

Texture: Medium weight. Softer, creamy, no heat, but it's 10% lower in ABV of course! 

Taste: Sweet vanilla wafers, red apples, touches of fresh ground ginger & roasted macadamia. Orange peel, and sweet glazed puff pastry around the edges. 

Finish: Medium length. Chewy caramel fudge, vanilla wafers, apple pie, macadamia nuts. Orange peel to round things out. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Honestly, I don't think I'd pick this 12-year old as a Hellyers Road in a line-up. Like many longer-term Australian whisky drinkers I do have a little past trauma from their early releases (e.g. those bottled around 10-12 years ago), but the two well-aged releases that I've now tried in the last few months, and now this 12-year old release, have effectively cured me of that. The 22-year old is I think more recognisable as an Australian whisky, aside from those tropical fruit notes at least, whereas this 12-year old is much harder to pin down. If I was given this dram in a blind tasting, it would probably have me thinking northern hemisphere rather than Tasmania, and maybe at a more advanced age, since the age is definitely a factor in the quality of this dram. Definitely worth trying this one folks!

Age isn't everything. But how many Australian distilleries have a 12-year old age statement available for this sort of price? I'm actually struggling to think of any! Overeem did release their first 12-year old a couple of years ago, which was $400 in 46% ABV & 700ml guise, or you could get a 60% ABV version for around $600. Sullivan's Cove get close or beyond that age on a regular basis, but they're single cask releases ranging from $400 to $550 and beyond, and they're much harder to get your hands on. This is the advantage that Hellyers have, thanks to those relatively high volume early days they've been laying down stock for longer than just about anyone - except Sullivan's Cove at least, which Hellyers Road isn't far behind. And Hellyers have had something of an "economies of scale" pricing advantage since day one. I wonder who'll be the first to release a 25-year old Australian whisky? It would have to be one of these two Tasmanians. The (slow) race is on!

Cheers!

Yamazaki Distillery Exclusive 2024 Whisky Review!

A liquid souvenir from the trip to Japan last year, which included a visit to Yamazaki! Peated, 48% ABV and non-chill filtered, and a reasonable price for a 180ml bottle. Most importantly, it's one tasty souvenir!

Of the two Suntory malt whisky distilleries, Yamazaki is definitely the easier to visit. Hakushu is without doubt the more beautiful site and the more scenic trip, being around two hour's train ride west of Tokyo in the Japanese Alps. It's a stunning location and a beautiful experience, and if you have the time I absolutely recommend Hakushu as the distillery to visit and spend time in. Yamazaki is far more convenient to visit, being an easy 40-minute train ride south-west from Kyoto station, and while it's basically in suburbia it's still an attractive place! Yamazaki Distillery was the first dedicated Japanese malt whisky distillery, built in 1923 by Shinjiro Torii with help from Masataka Taketsuru, who would go on to found his own company, Nikka, and build Yoichi Distillery in Hokkaido in 1934. Like all of the large Japanese malt whisky distilleries who unlike the Scotch whisky industry don't like sharing whisky or trading casks with their competitors, Suntory's Yamazaki produces a huge range of different whiskies by using different barley varieties, fermentation times, peating levels, wash & spirit still shapes & sizes, spirit cut points, and cask types - including American oak, Spanish oak, and Japanese Mizunara oak. Yamazaki has its own cooperage, located in Suntory's warehousing complex around 60km north-east of Yamazaki in Shiga Prefecture, which apparently has a storage capacity of more than 1.7-million casks. There are nine stainless washbacks and eight wooden washbacks in use, the wash stills are direct fired, and there are now a total of eighteen stills, some of which have worm tub condensers, with the rest having shell & tube condensers. The end goal of all of this variation is to create many styles of whisky for their blenders to play with in order to create their different single malts, which again stems back to the Japanese industry not trading casks or sharing knowledge between companies, as is done in Scotland. 

Both of Suntory's malt whisky distilleries have visitor's centres, but there are some important points for those who are headed to Japan and want to visit them. Firstly and most importantly, unlike in Scotland or the U.S. you cannot just turn up to the distillery expecting to peruse the shop, taste some whisky, and buy a souvenir or two. To visit Hakushu or Yamazaki you must pre-book via the distilleries' websites, and they're often booked out well in advance, usually months ahead. So just fronting up to either distilleries' check-in counters, especially during peak times or major tourism seasons, will most likely get you turned away with polite apologies. This applies to both a full distillery tour, and just visiting the tasting bar and shop. At either site the proper distillery tours are paid ones, and they're reserved by ballot - usually selling out within a day or two of the date/s becoming available on the websites' booking system. Essentially, if you haven't entered the ballot and reserved your tour within this time frame, you're probably not going to get on the actual distillery tour. The other option is free and much more accessible, but will not let you step foot in the distillery itself. You'll only get access to the distillery museum, shop, and tasting bar, which are completely separate from the production facilities. Even then you can only book a one hour timeslot (in total including queuing time at the gift shop), you still have to make your reservation in advance, and you may have to be flexible with dates & times to get a slot, and/or be lucky enough to spot a cancellation on the online booking system. You'll then get to buy some merchandise, and if you're lucky also a small bottle of a distillery exclusive single malt - even the distillery shops do not usually have their regular products available for sale, particularly those with age statements, so don't make the trip to the distillery shop expecting to get a bottle of Yamazaki 12-year old at a bargain price. You're probably going to be disappointed. Japanese whisky is just as popular in Japan as it is elsewhere, if not more so, and the big brands and age stated products are difficult to find on Japanese shelves for a reasonable price. All of that said, it is absolutely worth the trip to Yamazaki for the museum, shop, and tasting bar alone, and also the scenery and local area - albeit nowhere near as beautiful as Hakushu. You'll be able to try the distilleries' products at the tasting bar, and the dram prices are reasonable - not as reasonable as they were prior to mid-2024, though. If you're wanting to try either of the 25-year old single malts or the Hibiki 30-year old at these tasting bars, you're now looking at over $100 AUD for a dram. That's a reasonable price by Australian whisky bar pricing standards (sadly), but it's certainly not cheap overall and is more than double what they were prior to mid-2024.

The cheaper and far better options at these tasting bars are the products that you can only try at the distilleries, such as new make spirit, cask components of the flagship single malts, or the distillery exclusive bottlings. For around $7-10 AUD you can try a pour of new make spirit from Chita grain distillery, and the respective malt distilleries' new make spirits, and three different cask component samples of their single malt. For example at Yamazaki you can try the single malt new make spirit, an ex-bourbon American oak cask sample, a Mizunara matured cask sample, a Spanish oak cask sample, a couple of limited release NAS single malts, and the current distillery exclusive bottling. There were two distillery exclusive Yamazaki single malts available during my visit; a 300ml American oak bottled at 40% ABV for around $40 AUD, and the one that I went for, a 180ml bottle of peated Yamazaki matured in Spanish oak bottled at 48% ABV, for around $37 AUD. All visitors are limited to one bottle per person. That 180ml bottle equates to around $125 for a full-size bottle, so that's a very reasonable price for a distillery exclusive Suntory single malt bottled at a decent strength - which is quite the rare thing. This distillery exclusive is not to be confused with the travel retail / duty free exclusive "Kogei Collection" peated Spanish oak bottlings that are only bottled at 43% ABV and are considerably more expensive, they're different products. This 48% ABV distillery exclusive bottling is clearly labelled as non-chill filtered, which is a strength and presentation normally reserved for the very expensive Suntory releases that are properly limited, like Yamazaki Golden Promise or Hakushu Heavily Peated. The majority of the Suntory range including the entire core range, from Hibiki Harmony to Hibiki 30-year old (which is over $10,000 AUD) blends, to Yamazaki & Hakushu 12-year old and 25-year old (also over $10,000 AUD), are all bottled at 43% and are chill filtered. 

The details about this distillery exclusive peated Yamazaki are quite scarce. Were the Spanish oak casks virgin oak, or were they seasoned with sherry? The infamous Yamazaki Sherry Cask - the 2013 release which won an award and was largely responsible for the absolutely insane explosion in demand for Japanese whisky that hit around 2015 - was last released in 2016 and so seems to have been discontinued, while the Yamazaki Spanish Oak special release was last released in 2022. The earlier Sherry Cask expression used Spanish oak ex-sherry casks that were seasoned with Oloroso sherry for three years, so we can safely assume that this Spanish Oak expression is doing the same and it's just a name change. It seems to be a cask terminology thing with Suntory, where they refer to ex-bourbon casks simply as American Oak, and ex-sherry casks simply as Spanish Oak. Japanese Mizunara oak isn't seasoned with anything prior to first use, but those casks are used multiple times for whisky maturation due to their cost & rarity. The same goes for their "Puncheon" bottlings, which seem to be virgin American oak puncheons of 480-500-litres capacity, but again these are then refilled after first use. Suntory does also use ex-red wine casks and ex-umeshu plum wine casks on occasion, among some other oddities like cedar wood casks. The other mysterious point on this peated Yamazaki, which was a very rare thing itself until those travel exclusive "Kogei" peated malts were released, is where the peated malt was sourced from. There aren't any details available on this point, but since most Japanese distilleries are sourcing peated malted barley from Scotland or elsewhere internationally, we can assume it was the same story here. There is a separate Yamazaki Islay Peated bottling that was released in mid-2024, so at least we can assume this distillery exclusive doesn't use Islay peated malt i.e. from Port Ellen Maltings. Anyway, let's see how this $37 180ml bottle of 48% ABV peated Yamazaki goes!

Yamazaki Distillery Exclusive, NAS, 48% ABV. Yamazaki, Japan. 

Distilled from peated malt, matured in Spanish oak casks. 180ml bottle, 2024. Non-chill filtered, unknown colouring but likely natural. 

Colour: Dark bronze. 

Nose: Oaky, spicy, fruity. Spicy oak (cinnamon, clove, etc), black tea, buttery pie crust pastry, loads of dried fruit - currants, raisins, bitter orange peel, plums. Soft earthy peat underneath. Burnt toffee, leather, dark chocolate syrup. A little rancio as well, with roasted nuts, dried mushrooms, forest floor. Touch of spent coffee grounds. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oaky, peaty, syrupy, slightly astringent. No heat at all. 

Taste: Peatier here than on the nose, an earthy dry peat, Ardmore or Benromach level maybe. Leather, dried mushrooms, spicy oak, leather, bitter orange peel. Ashy peat smoke comes through with more roasted nuts, buttery pie crust pastry, currants & raisins, touch of aniseed. 

Finish: Medium length. Earthy peat & forest floor, bitter orange peel, burnt toffee, dark chocolate syrup. Touch of Vietnamese coffee, more currants & plums, roasted nuts, cinnamon & cloves. Slight touches of sandalwood, ginger, and aniseed around the edges. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Very tasty dessert dram, without being overly sweet. Something like an over-spiced rich Christmas mince pie with extra orange peel & dark chocolate sauce poured over the top, but then with earthy peat in there somehow... Sounds strange, but I'd eat it! The Spanish oak & sherry influences are very prominent, but they're balanced out a little with that earthy peat - strong sherry casks can easily overwhelm peat influence in anything short of Laphroaig, but that hasn't been allowed to happen in this peated Yamazaki. This is a very easy-drinking whisky even with that heavy cask influence, still refined in the typical Japanese style, but far less-so than in most Yamazaki that I've tasted to date. That's probably down to the peat, which is a very rare thing in Yamazaki as it is, even more so combined when with sherry casks! 

Given the quality of this dram and the rarity of this style of Yamazaki, I'm more-than happy with the value for money here since I picked it up at the distillery for that $37 AUD. But for the love of God do not pay the ridiculous secondary prices that some "retailers" are asking (some over $300 AUD for 180ml, which is laughable). This is a 180ml bottle at 48% ABV which is meant to be a liquid souvenir or keepsake, not a flippable commodity. It's a shame that many people see all Japanese whisky as the latter, but with any luck that'll be slowing down in the current market - it certainly has locally and will probably continue to do so. Fingers crossed!

Cheers!