Heartwood 2nd Moment of Truth Whisky Review!

A blended / vatted malt from two different distilleries that has collectively been through four (yes, four!) different first-fill casks. So just the usual level of craziness from everyone's favourite mad Tasmanian alchemist, then!

Like I've said many times before, independent bottlers Heartwood have always dared to be different. In the case of this recent release named "2nd Moment of Truth", one of the points of difference is marrying two single malts together, which is a common thing, but less so when you're marrying a Tasmanian single malt with a mainland Australian single malt. In this case, one from Fanny's Bay Distillery in northern Tasmania and the other from Fleurieu Distillery in South Australia on the mainland. But the main point of difference is the cask treatment: each was first put through an Australian sherry (apera) cask, with one then further matured in another much older sherry cask, and the other then further matured in a topaque cask. Topaque is the official term for the Australian version of Tokay/Tokaji, a sweet Hungarian wine that is produced in a similar way to the French Sauternes, i.e. late harvest sweet wines that generally employ botrytis / noble rot, but not always. This is quite an unusual cask type, and while Heartwood has played around with the type a couple of times, I only know of one "mainstream" / conventional single malt that uses Tokaji casks, which was Glenmorangie's rather lacklustre "Tale of Cake". Although Bunnahabhain and Glen Moray have dipped their toes in the water with some smaller limited releases. Heartwood and sister company TIB (Tasmanian Independent Bottlers) have used a number of less-common sweet and/or fortified wine casks in recent years, from muscat to botrytis, which tend to produce quite a sweet "dessert whisky" style of spirit, even more so than the more common PX sherry or tawny (port) fortified wine casks. But tokay casks seem to take that up another notch. Which may not be to everyone's taste of course, and that's also the case with Heartwood's big, bold flavours that are famously unapologetic. Or to use Tim's favourite tagline "you'll either love it or hate it, but you'll never forget it"!

Heartwood is among a select few independent bottlers in the world who actually source new make spirit for their bottlings, rather than sourcing (or being offered) casks of mature/maturing whisky. Like most of the bottlers that are doing the same, that's largely because Tim has been in the industry for a relatively long time, in this case since 1999, when the Australian whisky industry wasn't even an industry, and there were only a handful of distilleries in the entire country - five, by my count. That means Heartwood have much more control over their product than most independent bottlers - they select the new make spirit and approve the sample/s, they source their own casks, and they generally supervise the filling and transport of said casks to their bond store/warehouse - or sometimes the casks are thrown in the back of Tim's car and personally driven to their new home for maturation. But that's not where the story ends! A large part of Heartwood's success is their ability to quite literally beat casks & vattings into shape - with a canoe paddle, to be specific. Whether that means filling a whisky into a second/third/fourth first-fill cask, or blending it with other casks, or just letting time run its course, and/or tipping the cask/s into the decanting vat, moving it into a hot room or leaving it in front of a metal roller door for some heat treatment, and/or beating the hell out of it until it submits. If you ask me, there aren't any better blenders in the local industry when it comes to blending/vatting casks and creating the best whisky they can from those casks - and I'm including both Tim and his son Louis in that statement.

Part of the fun with Heartwood has always been the names & labels of the whiskies themselves, and the name of this release is a bit of a jab at corporate marketing / sales jargon. The "second moment of truth" is a marketing term for when a consumer has already purchased a product, and is actually using it for the first time. In whisky terms, that moment would be when the cork is removed, the whisky is first poured, nosed & tasted. And that moment would be the one that actually matters. I haven't yet had the chance to visit the tiny Fanny's Bay Distillery on Tasmania's northern coast yet, but I did enjoy the one example of their official bottlings that I've tasted to date. I have visited South Australia's Fleurieu Distillery though, located in Goolwa on the coast, and it's a great operation run by husband & wife team Angela & Gareth Andrews. You may notice that both of these distilleries are coastal, but that may be purely happenstance since once filled the casks were sent to Heartwood's bond store in southern Tasmania. Heartwood 2nd Moment of Truth does not carry an age statement, but Fanny's Bay was only founded in 2014 so it won't be any more than 8-years of age. But that's practically middle-aged for an Australian/Tasmanian whisky, and this vatted / blended malt has been through multiple first-fill casks, rendering an age statement all but redundant. Being a Heartwood product it was bottled at cask strength of 60.1% ABV, and is non-chill filtered and natural colour. 2nd moment of truth, here we come!

Image from oldbarrelhouse.com.au 

Heartwood "2nd Moment of Truth" Blended Malt, NAS, 60.1%. Tasmania, Australia.

New make spirit from Fanny's Bay Distillery, TAS, and Fleurieu Distillery, SA. Matured initially in apera (Australian sherry) casks, then an older sherry cask and a topaque (Australian tokay/tokaji) sweet wine cask. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 233 bottles. 

Colour: Dark brown. 

Nose: Sweet, fruity dessert whisky. Plum pudding (Xmas pudding) flamed with brandy, blow-torched bitter orange rind, thick black treacle toffee and spiced roasted nuts. Sweet pear juice - make that pear nectar (thicker & sweeter than the juice). Brown sugar & charred oak underneath. Sultanas, dates & caramelised figs in there too. Slight earthiness around the edges. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, sweet & syrupy. A touch of heat, but passes quickly. 

Taste: Sweet fruit syrup, more plum, sultana and blow-torched bitter orange rind. Pear nectar again, and some nectarine. Slightly burnt fruit mince pie. Candied roasted nuts & black treacle toffee. Caramelised figs & date caramel syrup. 

Finish: Medium length. A touch of tannic earthy bitterness - coffee grounds, or maybe spent tea leaves. That balances the sweetness slightly before that pear nectar comes back in under the treacle toffee and brown sugar. Mouth-watering sweetness. Bitter orange rind & baking spice underneath. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. But only just, mainly due to the huge sweetness. 

Notes: It's a big, rich, sweet & dense whisky, as you'd expect from the cask treatment. 100% a dessert whisky that is very cask-driven, and frankly it's pushing my sweetness boundaries. But the quality is certainly there! Both Fanny's Bay and Fleurieu make big, rich spirit, and I'd guess that one or both is responsible for that pear nectar note in this Heartwood bottling. Thankfully there's that slight earthy, tannic bitterness to temper the sweetness a little, but you're going to need a real sweet tooth to dig this one. Personally it's right on my limit, or even just over it. These big, rich cask-driven whiskies are very much the Heartwood M.O., although more recently they've dabbled in more spirit driven, relatively subtly-flavoured whiskies which are mainly the department of Tim's son Louis, who is already a great distiller & blender in his own right - and along with Jack Lark he also makes a great absinthe! 

I'm not sure if Tokay / Tokaji casks are to my liking in all honesty, the few examples that I've tasted have been extremely sweet. Much more so than a muscat or PX sherry cask in most cases that I've tried. Heartwood 2nd Moment of Truth will make for a great Xmas whisky - what a shame it's only June! Let's change that to a great winter warmer for us southern hemisphere folks, then. 

Cheers!

Overeem Sherry Cask AWAS Exclusive Whisky Review!

An "exceptional marriage" of two sherry casks from Tasmania's Overeem Distillery, exclusive to the Australian Whisky Appreciation Society (AWAS). And this just happens to be my first Overeem review!

Tasmania's Overeem are certainly one of the quieter Australian whisky producers, preferring to let the whisky speak for itself rather than jumping on the marketing bandwagon like some other brands. This quieter approach is part of the reason for them amassing quite the loyal following - the rest of the reason being that they consistently produce good quality whisky in an industry that struggles with consistency, or in some cases even the concept of consistency. There have been a few hiccups in the last few years, including the sale of the Overeem brand and then the entire operation to Australian Whisky Holdings, the ASX-listed company that is now calling itself Lark Distilling Co. which at one point saw the whole operation including the stills relocated to Lark's distillery in Cambridge, around 20-minutes north-east of Hobart. But thankfully as of early-mid 2020 the Overeem brand is now back in family hands, and I doubt they'll be letting it go anywhere given the warm reception that the "re-launch" of the brand has had!  

The original distillery behind the Overeem brand was founded as Old Hobart Distillery by Casey Overeem in 2007, housed in a purpose built shed on the family property south of Hobart. It was only the fourth whisky distillery operating in Tasmania at the time, preceded by Lark of course, and also Sullivan's Cove and Hellyers Road. The Overeem brand of single malt officially launched in 2012. At the time of writing there are over fifty distilleries in this small state of 550,000 people, with many more on the way, which is a massive number. Around half of those are yet to release whisky and are mostly making gin, and the majority of Tasmanian distilleries are making spirits in very small quantities that wouldn't even register on the scale of the Scotch whisky or bourbon industries. The exceptions are Hellyers Road, Sullivan's Cove, Launceston's Adams Distillery, Oatlands-based newcomer Callington Mill, and of course Lark Distilling Co. with it's collection of distilleries formerly known as Lark, Nant and Shene, all of which it bottles under the Lark Distilling Co. label - see here for more information on that unfortunate situation. The Overeem operation was sold circa 2013 when Casey retired, and the brand unfortunately became part of that messy, misleading "Lark Distilling Co." situation from around 2018 when it was fully taken over by Australian Whisky Holdings which was soon re-named as Lark Distilling Co., and the Overeem stills and equipment were moved to Lark's site in Cambridge, TAS. But those darker days are over, since in early 2020 Casey Overeem's daughter Jane and her husband Mark Sawford were given the opportunity to purchase the Overeem brand back from what had then become Lark Distilling Co., and they jumped at the chance. The couple had started their own Sawford Distillery in early 2017, with some mentor-like guidance from Casey, and that distillery, back in family hands, has now been re-named as Overeem. 

Right from the start Overeem has done things a little differently from most Australian and Tasmanian distilleries. Larger casks than most, mostly 100-litres in capacity but with full format (200-300 litre) casks currently maturing, and exclusive use of first-fill casks that are generally aged for at least 5-years. That may sound young, and it is young in the larger whisky world, but in Australian whisky 5-years could almost be considered a teenager. For many years they stuck to a tried & true mix of single cask bottlings from sherry (Australian apera) and port (Australian tawny) casks, both at 43% and at 60% ABV. In more recent years they've added ex-bourbon casks to the billing, and they're soon to launch their first finish, a stout cask finish. The Overeem single malt that we're looking at today is exclusive to the Australian Whisky Appreciation Society (AWAS), and is a marriage of two 5-year old sherry (apera) casks, that were blended/married/vatted the Overeem and AWAS teams. So it's a slight departure from the Overeem "norm", which is all about single cask bottlings, but that's no bad thing, not at all. This AWAS bottling is bottled at 55% ABV, and is non-chill filtered and natural colour. 

Overeem AWAS Exclusive "Exceptional Marriage", 5-years old, 55%. Tasmania, Australia.

"Exceptional Marriage" of 2 x 5-year old sherry casks, exclusive to Australian Whisky Appreciation Society. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 275 bottles. 

Colour: Bright copper. 

Nose: Fresh timber, strawberries & cream, bubble gum (natural/unflavoured) and oily furniture polish. Dried orange peel, rose petals, some new leather & powdered ginger further in. Honeycomb (a.k.a. cinder toffee) coated in white chocolate. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, spicy, oily. No heat. 

Taste: Fresh timber again, and strawberries & cream again, but now with mixed / forest berry syrup poured over the top. Vanilla, powdered ginger & melted white chocolate. 

Finish: Short-medium length. More powdered ginger, natural (unflavoured) bubble gum, furniture polish. Melted white chocolate and rose petals. Touches of sawdust, tropical fruit & new leather in the background. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Quite a tasty dram! There's a nice balance of sweet, fruity, woody & spicy flavours & aromas,  and it's far less cask-driven than most Australian whiskies are still known for - although thankfully there are a number of older & newer producers that are now moving away from that typecast "Australian style" of under-matured & over-oaked 2-year old whiskies from 20-litre casks. To be fair though I don't think Overeem has ever followed that school of thought, or at least not in the handful of examples that I've tasted. Which is a very, very good thing. Another "Australian style" whisky pigeonhole is that single casks are always the best - which is of course 100% incorrect, as this Overeem 'marriage' and a few other examples demonstrate very well. Yes, single casks can be great or even exceptional, but the good ones are just that: exceptions! Regardless of your views on marriage, there's nothing at all wrong with a small vatting, also known as a blend (but that's a dirty word!), of casks, and they often result in a whisky that is greater than the sum of its parts. 

 

Well done to Overeem and to Niko and his team at AWAS in picking these casks out and marrying them together nicely. This AWAS-exclusive bottling is still available in Australia at the time of writing, for $279 AUD - which is the going rate for a high-ABV Australian whisky, but unlike many this is a 700ml bottle and that price includes both shipping (within Australia) and a 20ml sample of the whisky. So that's not a terrible deal! Thanks also to Niko for the sample for this review, it's much appreciated & much enjoyed. 

Cheers!

Bunnahabhain Hand Filled Whisky Reviews!

Not one, but two delicious Hand-filled distillery exclusive Bunnahabhains. One from a Manzanilla sherry cask, and one from a bourbon cask - a very rare thing for a Bunnahabhain - which also happens to be peated! 

Bunnahabhain was the first stop on my most recent pilgrimage to the Queen of the Hebrides. We had just gotten off the ferry at Port Askaig in the early afternoon, but it had already been a long day by that point - we'd left Oban ridiculously early for the drive down to Campbeltown, although it was completely & absolutely worth it. As soon as the ferry from Kennacraig had landed at Port Askaig we turned right and headed straight to Bunnahabhain. It was the one distillery I didn't have time to visit on the previous trip, having not had access to a car on that occasion, and this being the least accessible of the nine active distilleries on Islay. So this time that box was the first to be ticked as soon as we arrived! The distillery itself was just as expected - old, dirty, dated, and resembling a Victorian-era prison rather than a distillery. But that aesthetic is all part of Bunnahabhain's charm! Or at least it was until owners Distell finally decided to invest some funds in the distillery in 2019, building a new visitor's centre including a cafe and converting the old cottages into holiday accommodation, but also demolishing four seaside warehouses to make way for the new facilities. Apparently most of the single malt stock will still be matured on the island, so I'm assuming they're building new warehouses to replace them - let's hope they're proper dunnage warehouses!

None of that upgrade/renovation work had been announced when we visited back in late 2018, so the visitor's centre was just a tiny shop nestled next to the famous pier that looks over the water at the Paps of Jura. Just looking at that beautiful view while waves washed over the pebbles below made for a very peaceful & restorative experience after a long day. The shop was well-stocked as well, with a massive range of cask samples available, including small bottles of their new make spirit - something that more distilleries should be offering. They also had a range of distillery exclusive bottlings, both unpeated and peated, from a huge range of cask types, and a "fill your own" cask sitting in the corner. You really couldn't ask for anything more from a distillery shop! But the samples that I'm reviewing here didn't come from there directly - a friend purchased these from an online auction site, which while expensive is basically the only way of getting these distillery-exclusive bottlings without visiting the distillery. Like many of these "Warehouse 9" Bunnahabhain bottlings, they are 200ml bottles - which means they aren't high on the list of priorities for the collectors, investors & speculators who often drive up prices on the auction sites. So this friend scored quite a good deal, even with the added costs of shipping, Australian customs, and DHL courier fees factored in. Luckily for us, he was also generous enough to share them!

What we have here are two "Warehouse 9" distillery exclusive 200ml bottlings of Bunnahabhain. One is an unpeated 10-year old from a manzanilla sherry cask, and one is a peated 16-year old from a bourbon cask. Both were fully matured in said cask type, and bottled at cask strength without chill filtration or added colouring. Neither of these cask types is often seen from this distillery, but there was a manzanilla sherry cask matured bottling back in 2020 which I've reviewed here which was quite a dirty, funky whisky, but the Bunnahabhain spirit worked very well with the salty, nutty, dry & acidic manzanilla sherry. Manzanilla is a pale sherry that is "biologically aged", meaning it matures under a yeast layer known as "flor" that naturally forms in the casks, as opposed to the "oxidative" ageing of the darker sherries where this flor layer doesn't form or is killed off. As uncommon as a fully matured manzanilla sherry cask Islay whisky is, the second bottling in this review is much, much rarer. For starters, a 16-year old peated Bunnahabhain single malt is not something you see every day, most of their peated single malts are bottled young, generally under 10-years of age. But believe it or not, a bourbon cask matured Bunnahabhain is even more unusual! Unlike just about every other distillery in Scotland these days, bourbon cask whisky is basically something that Bunnahabhain doesn't do in their official bottlings. They seem to much prefer to use first-fill or refill sherry casks, or occasionally refill hogsheads, while bourbon cask Bunnahabhains in the realm of the independent bottlers, e.g. the SMWS and a couple of others, but even then this is still an uncommon thing. Time to give these littlies a go, then!

Bunnahabhain Hand-filled Manzanilla cask, 10-year old, 55.1%. Islay, Scotland.

Single cask #3201, unpeated spirit fully matured in a manzanilla sherry cask, bottled late-2019. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 200ml.  

Colour: Copper.  

Nose: Rich, semi-dry & nutty. Very Bunnahabhain so far, then! Fresh yeasty, salty & tangy manzanilla sherry, some honeyed oak & black pepper. Honey-roasted peanuts, but savoury rather than sweet. Touch of fennel, light brine and a few warm chestnuts.  

Texture: Heavy weight. Rich, oily, semi-dry, cleaner than expected. No heat at all. 

Taste: Rich nutty entry, with salted caramel-coated peanuts, a touch of light olive brine and honey-roasted ham. White pepper and a hint of dried tropical fruit - dried mango? 

Finish: Medium-long length. Fresh salty, tangy manzanilla, more chestnuts and light brine. Walnut skins, pinch of paprika, and dry oak. Black pepper, liquorice, honey-roasted ham and a touch of yeasty, crusty sourdough bread. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely stuff. Bunnahabhain and manzanilla casks seem to be a match made in heaven! This is actually much cleaner and far less funky than the Manzanilla cask general release that I mentioned above, there's no sulphur here at all. And it's a touch lighter and sweeter in comparison as a result. Lovely oily texture, plenty of depth and complexity, but with a good amount of cask influence. We need more pale sherry cask whiskies! Salty, nutty, dry Bunnahabhain seems to love a salty, nutty, dry sherry cask. Who'd have thought! More please!

Bunnahabhain Moine Hand-filled Bourbon Cask, 16-year old, 55.4%. Islay, Scotland.

Single cask #300073, heavily peated spirit fully matured in a bourbon barrel, bottled late-2019. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 200ml. 

Colour: Bright pale gold. 

Nose: Buttery, creamy & earthy. Melted salted butter, soft earthy peat - let's make that peat embers, actually. Touch of brackish sea water, a whiff of sulphur - that's a surprise, but it's only light. Salted caramel fudge, pistachio nuts, and dried green chilli flakes without the heat, i.e. no seeds. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, buttery, salty - and cheesy! No heat at all. 

Taste: Starts soft and buttery, then a huge chunk of hard blue cheese (stilton) whacks you in the face! That was unexpected! Luckily I'm a blue cheese fan. There's also dusty dry peat, but it's quite gentle & integrated after that 16-years of maturation. White pepper, hint of sweet shellfish and toasted vanilla bean. 

Finish: Long length. More salty blue cheese, touches of creamy vanilla custard and melted salted butter. Soft dry, earthy & dusty peat, creamy caramel fudge, touch of tropical fruit - over-ripe melon. Still quite cheesy too, right through to the end. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Well that was a surprise! I've only found blue cheese notes in whisky a few times previously, and it's going to be an acquired taste - much like blue cheese - although I personally don't mind it at all. This is far beyond the cheddar cheese notes you find in some Kilkerrans or occasionally a Bruichladdich, this is much saltier and funkier, and I didn't expect to find it in a bourbon cask Bunnahabhain! Is that a product of some sulphur in the spirit, perhaps? It's unlikely to be from the cask in this case. Maybe a product of slight sulphur combined with the salty, nutty & semi-dry spirit character then. Or maybe the empty cask was left sitting for too long before it was filled with spirit, so there was some bacterial involvement? Either way it's intriguing! I've had the pleasure of trying another peated bourbon cask Bunnahabhain before, and it had no sign of this blue cheese note in it, so I'm stumped. It does work for my palate, but you're going to need to like blue cheese, or you'll probably run for the hills!

Overall Notes: Two completely, totally, hugely different Bunnahabhains here. One is much more what you'd expect from the label, while the other is a complete curve-ball! Both are very enjoyable though, and they show two opposite ends of the Bunnahabhain spectrum, bypassing the distillery's modus operandi that is the Oloroso sherry cask. Despite my love of peat and my fondness for blue cheese, the unpeated manzanilla sherry cask is the clear winner here. By a mile. Having tasted a few examples now, it's clear that Bunnahabhain works very well with the pale, dry, biologically aged sherries that don't get enough attention from the Scotch whisky industry. Fino, manzanilla, amontillado, and palo cortado sherry casks need more time in the spotlight!

Cheers!

Kilchoman AWAS Exclusive Single Cask Whisky Reviews!

Two single cask, cask strength Kilchomans that are exclusive to the Australian Whisky Appreciation Society (AWAS); a Sauternes cask finish, and a Mezcal cask finish! Sweet meets smoke!

Islay distillery Kilchoman is now of the island's more reliable makes when it comes to consistent quality. But this small, privately owned & family run distillery doesn't stick to the same tried & true formula for the sake of "tradition" like many of the larger, older Islay brands. The overall level of quality remains very high in their two core range releases - it wouldn't really be fair to use the words "entry level" here - of Machir Bay and Sanaig, both of which punch above their weight classes and compete with and/or beat any of the Islay stalwarts. That high level of quality applies to both spirits that Kilchoman produce; the heavily peated spirit - using 50 ppm barley sourced from Port Ellen Maltings - which goes into most of the limited releases, the vintage bottlings and the Loch Gorm sherry cask expression, and the more lightly-peated spirit - using 20 ppm barley grown and malted in-house - used in the 100% Islay releases. The latter is still the only Islay single malt that is made entirely on the island, from the growing of the barley on the distillery's own farm, to floor malting that barley at the distillery, plus fermentation, distillation, maturation, and bottling. The distillery also releases a huge range of single cask bottlings, where despite the distillery's small production volumes the scope & variety is considerable. Always presented in their resplendent red packaging (pictured above) and proudly displaying the month & year of distillation and of bottling, this is where Kilchoman comes out to play. The distillery has released a huge range of different cask types in this program, both full cask maturation and cask finishes from various types of sherry through to red wine, port, and more recently cognac, calvados, marsala and even tequila & mezcal. Some of these single cask releases are available from the distillery's website, but the majority are bottled either for specific distributors and their respective market/s, or for specific retailers or specific customers in those markets. And what we have here are two such single cask bottlings, both exclusive to the Australian Whisky Appreciation Society (AWAS), to be released simultaneously in mid-June (2022). Australia has never seen either of these cask types from Kilchoman before, and we've also never had two single cask Kilchomans released simultaneously!

Before we get into that, let's take a brief look at how & why Kilchoman are able to set the bar so high at relatively young ages, in terms of both the distillery itself and the whisky it produces. Having been established in 2005 and celebrating their 17th birthday later this year, Kilchoman is still the youngest Islay distillery with single malt whisky on the market - until newcomer Ardnahoe drops their first release. Without the corporate ownership that the rest of the Islay distilleries have behind them or the 140-240 years of experience that those distilleries have under their belts, when it came time to fire up the stills at Kilchoman the Wills family & their team weren't tied to tradition, nor the need to maintain the status quo for consistency's sake, nor the need to pump out volume destined for a corporate owner's blended whiskies. Considering the relatively low output of this small, independent operation the variety of whiskies they release and their utmost commitment to quality really is remarkable. Kilchoman has never bottled a whisky below 46% ABV, and has never chill filtered or added caramel colouring to any of their whiskies. And let's not forget that every Kilchoman product is bottled on site, being one of only two distilleries on Islay with a bottling hall - the other being Bruichladdich - while the remaining distilleries all send their whisky to the Scottish mainland for bottling. Nor does Kilchoman sell any spirit or whisky to blenders, or these days even to independent bottlers or private buyers. Kilchoman's maximum theoretical output has recently doubled after a second still house was commissioned in late 2019 adding two exact copies of the original stills for a total of four, plus a second mash tun and six additional washbacks for a total of ten. But even after that doubling of capacity to a theoretical maximum of 480,000 litres of spirit per year, this is by far the smallest output on Islay. Even Ardnahoe is aiming for over 500,000 litres per year in its infancy, and the next-lowest capacity on Islay is Bruichladdich with over 1.5-million litres. So despite the recent expansion this really is a small operation.

One key aspect of Kilchoman's quality-focussed approach is the longest fermentation time on Islay, where the wort is fermented for a minimum of 85-hours, followed by slow distillation in their four small pot stills. For some perspective here, even Laphroaig's much-lauded six small stills (which are supplemented by one much larger still) are almost three times as large as Kilchoman's, while Islay giant Caol Ila's spirit stills are over six times as large. Aside from their small size, Kilchoman's two spirit stills also have relatively tall & narrow necks and reflux bulbs, a.k.a. boil bulbs/onions, all of which contribute to higher levels of reflux, resulting in a lighter, brighter spirit. All of this is crucial to Kilchoman's spirit reaching maturity at a relatively young age - provided the spirit is also filled into the right casks, of course. Much of the distillery's production process was designed & implemented with the help of the late Dr. Jim Swan, and distillery founder Anthony Wills attributes a large part of Kilchoman's success to the work of Dr. Swan and his team, who were also instrumental in setting up the distillery's cask policy. Ex-bourbon casks are sourced almost exclusively from Buffalo Trace Distillery in the US and are kept whole as 200-litre barrels rather than being flat-packed to save on shipping costs and/or recoopered into 250-litre hogsheads in search of higher efficiency. Ex-sherry casks, both 250-litre hogsheads and 500-litre butts, are sourced from Bodegas Miguel Martin in Spain. Right from the very start the distillery has had an absolute commitment to using only exceptional quality casks, and they will only use these casks a maximum of two times, although most releases are from first-fill casks or majority first-fill casks. As I've mentioned above, Kilchoman are advocates of playing around with a huge variety of cask types in search of new & different flavours, and as you'd expect it's in the distillery's extensive single cask releases where this really shines. 

The two AWAS-exclusive single casks that we're looking at today are both great examples of that. What we have here is a 7-year old Sauternes finish single cask, followed by an 8-year old Mezcal finish single cask! These unique Kilchomans will be released in June 2022, with a 24-hour pre-sale offer for AWAS members launching on the 16th of June. During that 24-hour pre-sale offer the asking price is just $369 AUD - for both bottles! You're going to want to sign up for that pre-sale offer, right? Well then click here! Following that 24-hour offer the twin-pack will be $379 AUD and individual bottles will be $199 each until sold out. That's a very, very sharp price for cask strength, single cask exclusive bottlings from exotic cask types, and I wouldn't expect them to last long at all! 

Full disclaimer before we get into the reviews themselves. I do some part-time sales work for the Australian importers of Kilchoman, Alba Whisky, but I was not involved with these two bottlings in any capacity at any point for either side, in fact I didn't even know they existed until a friend (who was also not involved) mentioned that they were coming, and they were actually already in the country at that point. AWAS' head honcho Niko Devlin later got in touch and asked if I'd be interested in reviewing them, and he was kind enough to send sample bottles for that purpose. This write-up and the reviews below are 100% my own honest opinion, I have no involvement or motives whatsoever in the sale of these bottles from either the importer's perspective or the seller's perspective. As always this site and all of the reviews and articles within are my own personal opinion. So fear not!

If you ask me, along with their Islay neighbour Bruichladdich, Kilchoman are the masters of Sauternes casks. This sweet French white wine seems to work very well with Islay whisky in particular, but only when done well - sometimes the result can be overly sweet and wine-dominated, or at the opposite end of the scale, sometimes the wine influence is almost undetectable. Both the fully-matured Kilchoman Sauternes Cask release from 2016 and the Sauternes Cask Finish release from 2018 were very tasty whiskies, although Anthony Wills himself has said that he much preferred the latter and that he finds sauternes easier to work with and more suited to the Kilchoman spirit when used as a cask finish rather than a full-term maturation. Neither of those previous releases were cask strength or single cask releases, and among the large range of single cask bottlings released by Kilchoman over the years sauternes has only made a few appearances to date. None have ever made it to Australia. Until now! 

Kilchoman Sauternes Finish Single Cask AWAS Exclusive, 7-year old, 55.4%. Islay, Scotland.

50 ppm barley from Port Ellen Maltings. Distilled 24/9/2014, bottled 1/12/2021, matured in a bourbon barrel & finished in a Sauternes sweet wine cask for 11-months. Cask number 710/2014. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Soft, fruity & buttery. Thick honey, stewed yellow stone fruit (apricot & nectarine), black pepper, and ashy, dry peat smoke. Dried sweet orange slices, soft ashy & earthy peat, sea salt flakes and buttery pastry dough. Dried kelp and more sweet orange around the edges. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Lovely mouthfeel, almost chewy. Fruity & buttery, soft peat, no heat at all. 

Taste: Thick chewy honey, sweet yellow stone fruit again, but with vanilla-spiked syrup this time. A slight flatness here for a moment, but that's gone in a flash when the soft earthy peat comes in, followed by thick ashy smoke building, and sugar-dusted lemon peel & sweet orange. A little vanilla & black pepper hiding behind. 

Finish: Medium length. Creamy vanilla, hints of tropical fruit, more lemon peel and sweet dried orange. Buttery pastry dough, and some more stewed apricot & nectarine with honey. Soft ashy peat and creamy vanilla round things out.

Score: 4 out of 5. Just over the line, but it's there! 

Notes: Hard to believe this whisky is only 7-years old. But then, that's the magic of Kilchoman! Plenty of depth, balanced sweetness and a lovely soft, ashy, dry, spicy peatiness. The 11-month finishing has been spot on if you ask me, the added sweetness & yellow fruit is there as you'd expect from a sauternes cask, but it works with the spirit and that softer Kilchoman peatiness. That lovely fruity, honeyed & chewy mouthfeel is mouth-watering. So the cask finishing has added extra layers to this whisky rather than stealing the spotlight for itself and dominating - which is exactly what a cask finish / secondary maturation should do! Showing that bright, fruity make nicely. A great Kilchoman for a summer's day!

Next up, the mezcal cask finish. If we can agree on calling a sauternes cask Islay whisky uncommon, then a mezcal cask Islay whisky is the equivalent of unicorn blood in comparison. The use of mezcal casks in Scotch whisky has only been possible, or rather legal, since the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) regulations regarding cask types were updated & amended in 2019. Prior to these changes the permitted cask types were vaguely limited to those where there was "sufficient evidence of traditional use in Scotch whisky", whereas now there are much more explicit regulations. Oak is still the only legally permitted wood type of course, but the previous contents of the casks are now broader, provided that the previous contents is traditionally barrel aged, is not made from stone fruit and has not had flavourings or sweeteners added following fermentation/distillation - all of which could potentially cause issues with some fruit wine, rum & brandy casks in future. Kilchoman were quick to act on these regulations and were among the first to "legally" fill mezcal and tequila casks. 

Mezcal is a Mexican spirit made from the agave plant, and the word "mezcal' translates to "roasted agave" in English - tequila is actually a type of mezcal, but it's quite a different spirit to traditional mezcal. In mezcal production the agave is traditionally roasted in fire pits using wood and/or charcoal, which results in many examples having smoky aromas & flavours in the spirit. A growing percentage of mezcal spirit is then barrel aged for periods ranging from a few months to a number of years. Obviously mezcal has a different flavour profile to peated whisky, generally with more "green", vegetal, sometimes mineral and agricultural flavours combined with the wood smoke notes, and it's going to be interesting to see how those flavours work with a peated Islay single malt! To my knowledge, Kilchoman have only bottled around half a dozen mezcal cask finishes to date, all single cask releases for specific customers. So this AWAS-exclusive single cask is quite the rare beast, and like the Sauternes cask above this is the first example of its type to come to Australia. Next stop, smoke town!

Kilchoman Mezcal Finish Single Cask AWAS Exclusive, 8-year old, 54.0%. Islay, Scotland.

50 ppm barley from Port Ellen Maltings. Distilled 14/10/2013, bottled 1/12/2021, matured in a bourbon barrel & finished in a mezcal cask for 11-months. Cask number 728/2013. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Very pale gold. 

Nose: Ooh we're in very different territory here. Dirty, grassy, almost vegetal smoke. Touch of vanilla & sweet tropical fruit. White chocolate, sharp candied lemon, jalapeno (green chilli) flakes - but without almost all of the spice - and sea salt. A little engine oil, toffee fudge and a touch of cut grass. 

Texture: Medium weight. Creamy. Lighter in feel and smokier. No heat at all. 

Taste: Beautiful warm, sweet smoke, but it's a dirtier, more vegetal smoke. Creamy vanilla, sweet fruit syrup, juicy white melon. Creamy white chocolate, vegetal, dirty (diesel) smoke but well integrated. A little dried lemon, touch of brine, and a little salty meatiness - marmite? Lovely.  

Finish: Medium length. Saltiness and dirty, warm smoke carry through, and that fresh grassy note. Slightly minty, touch of bitter herbs, more juicy white melon & a pinch of jalapeno flakes, and more grassy, vegetal, dirty smoke. 

Score: 4 out of 5. Comfortably. 

Notes: Delicious. That dirty, grassy & vegetal smoke is just wonderful - it's almost like there was a few litres of young Lagavulin in the cask. That's the mezcal influence showing itself of course, but that dirty style of smoke is very reminiscent of Lagavulin. The mezcal cask finish has again worked very well with the sweet, citrusy Kilchoman spirit, but in a completely different direction from the sauternes cask, giving a very different smoke & peat profile to the "typical" bourbon cask Kilchoman. Sweet, smoky, dirty, but well-balanced. And while it presents as a more youthful whisky to the sauternes finish, particularly in the mouthfeel and length of the finish, maybe with a little less complexity, I certainly wouldn't call it young or immature by any means! In fact it's remarkably easy-drinking - provided you like this dirtier, more spirit-led style of Islay whisky, anyway! 

I have to confess that this is not the first mezcal finished Kilchoman that I've tried. The first example was a Royal Mile Whiskies single cask, and - apologies to the owner of that bottle - it was a bit of a mess. Almost like the mezcal cask had clashed with the spirit, rather than working with it, and the result was enjoyable, but very odd. Apologies again to the owner of that bottle, but this AWAS single cask absolutely smashes it. This is a delicious dram!

Overall Notes: Two very different Kilchomans here, naturally. Yes, the mezcal cask finish wins it for my palate; I'm a fan of that dirtier, more vegetal and smoky style. But there's not much of a spread between them really, and the sauternes finish is a fruitier, richer, rounder whisky in comparison. Kilchoman always set the bar high when it comes to quality! So, I'm sure you've already seen this coming, but the Islay fans out there are really going to want both. Given that very reasonable - in fact, I would even say cheap - combo price of $379 AUD (or $369 in the pre-sale special - sign up here), frankly you'd be silly not to!

Major thanks to Niko Devlin and AWAS for the sample bottles, and for the opportunity to taste & review these lovely little Kilchomans! Happy hunting folks!

Cheers!

Sherry Cask Caol Ila Three-Way Whisky Review!

Three cask strength, sherry cask, independent bottlings of Caol Ila. And while two are from refill casks they could easily pass for first-fill based on smell & taste. This'll be fun!

It's actually difficult to find anything that resembles a "bad" Caol Ila. As with every distillery and every brand there are some examples that are better than others, some very much so. But the starting point with this Islay giant is very solid, and it doesn't often dip below that bar unless something has gone wrong at some point - which is a rare occurrence. That's largely because of the distillery's primary function, which is to provide peated - and occasionally also unpeated - malt whisky for owner Diageo's blended whiskies - e.g. Johnnie Walker. That means taking a methodical & conservative approach in production in search of consistency, which will then make the blender's job easier down the line. But consistency in malt whisky is not an easy target to reach, particularly once one of the largest variables in the equation rolls into the picture: the cask. Natural variation is a huge part of what makes whisky fun, and it's a stubborn, almost alchemistic part of the process which is really rather fascinating. Try as a large corporate-owned distillery might, no two casks are ever identical, even those filled on the same day from the same spirit run, and even those matured in the same warehouse. In most cases, the larger companies and distilleries will compensate for these variations in their core range and their parent company's products by way of blending, which is an art form in itself. It's in the limited and/or single cask bottlings that the variances are allowed to shine, and even in the continuing whisky boom that sort of thing is often left to the independent bottlers. 

The three independent bottlings of Caol Ila that we're looking at here are single cask bottlings from different bottlers, all filled into Oloroso sherry butts (500-litre casks), albeit one first-fill and two refill, and all are fully matured in those casks rather than being cask finished or double matured. I should add though that the two refill casks likely hadn't been used for very long in their first filling, since both have certainly been very active on their second tour of duty. All three casks were distilled in broadly similar vintages and bottled at broadly similar ages, and at broadly similar natural cask strengths. All three bottlings have age statements and are proudly declared to be non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Despite their similarities on paper the variances between these three Caol Ilas are huge, and they were just crying out for comparison! The three different independent bottlers in question are rather different also; Glasgow-based North Star being the trendy, more progressive youth, London-based Elixir Distillers (a.k.a Specialty Drinks) being the thriving middle child, and Pitlochry-based Signatory Vintage being the older, more conservative sort that tends to be a little more conventional in packaging & presentation, but not necessarily when it comes to the whisky itself. The Elixir Distillers bottling that we have here is a little different since it was bottled for New Zealand-based importer & retailer Whisky Galore in 2019, specifically for their bi-annual DramFest whisky show. Technically it was a secret / mystery bottling, but if you peeled off the little white sticker on the label that said "censored", you'd find Caol Ila named right there on the label - hence the quirky name, but perhaps also because it's very much a dirty little secret - I've tasted it previously, and let's just say that the sulphur-sensitive will find it a challenge! Let's kick this three-way off with the most recent bottling, the North Star. 

North Star Caol Ila 11-year old Single Cask, 58.2%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled September 2009, fully matured in a first-fill Oloroso sherry butt, bottled October 2020. From cask series (release batch) 011. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 410 bottles. 

Colour: Gold. By far the palest of the three, despite being the only first-fill cask. But that doesn't matter. 

Nose: Nice. Loads of caramel fudge, touch of cold ashy peat smoke and oily smoked salmon with dill - let's make that salmon gravlax, then. Some banana toffee (banoffee) pie, freshly charred wood, smoked bacon rind (uncooked), touch of dried seaweed and salted butter. Sounds like a strange combination, I know, but it works! 

Texture: Medium weight. Starts soft & sweet and builds quickly. Sweet & quite youthful. Touch of numbing heat. 

Taste: Sweet entry with banoffee with caramel on top, some pear juice behind, then big ashy peat smoke, fatty bacon (burnt, this time) and oily cured fish again - no dill this time. Grassy and malty. 

Finish: Medium length. Touch of milk chocolate, slightly floral & malty, grassy sweetness. Caramelised pear and lemon zest. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Well this is a surprise! Quite young & fresh, but still reasonably rich. Loads of caramel, but I'd never have picked it as a first-fill sherry cask, particularly of the Oloroso variety. Having already tasted the other two whiskies featured in this three-way, this is the least overtly "sherried", and also the most youthful. What little sherry influence there is has been very well integrated with the spirit and doesn't really stand out at all. That's not a complaint mind you, just an observation. This sort of integrated sherry influence thing is why refill sherry casks tend to work well - but this is a first fill cask! So it's not quite what I expected from the "spec sheet", but there's nothing wrong with a youthful Caol Ila when done right.    

Signatory Vintage Caol Ila 9-year old Single Cask, 59.7%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled September 2010, fully matured in a refill Oloroso sherry butt, bottled March 2020. Signatory Cask Strength Collection, cask #316658. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 625 bottles. 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Bacon bits, rich toffee fudge, dried fruit - currants, dates, bitter orange. Salty cheese & bacon balls (cheetos / corn snacks), lemon zest, more bacon bits, muddy/damp peat and some ginger powder. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich & powerful, sweet & salty. Touch of heat but well integrated. 

Taste: Salty, with dried seaweed & bacon bits. Dark, sweet salted caramel, pork rind and a touch of soy sauce. Maybe a little miso paste as well. Dried fruit - currants & orange, ashy peat around the edges. 

Finish: Long length. Peaty & salty. Soy sauce, cheese & bacon balls (cheetos / corn snacks) again. Touch of grassy smoke and dried seaweed, and salted caramel fudge to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Far richer, more sherried, and more mature in feel as well. Plenty of character and a great mix of salty, umami & richly sweet flavours, and a good amount of sherry influence backing it up. Yes it's a refill cask, but as I said at the beginning it could pass for a first-fill quite easily. The previous occupant certainly wasn't allowed to stay for very long! This Signatory was quite expensive unfortunately, circa $280 AUD, but if you can get past that it's a great Caol Ila that belies its age. 

DramFest's Dirty Little Secret (Elixir Distillers), Caol Ila 11-year old, 56.9%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 2008, fully matured in a refill Oloroso sherry butt, bottled 2019 for Christchurch NZ-based Whisky Galore's DramFest whisky show 2020. Cask #2. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 204 bottles. 

Colour: Dark copper. 

Nose: Definitely dirty - and by that I mean sulphured. Rubber, vegetable chips, i.e. fried & salted root vegetables - parsnip & pumpkin, I'd say. Some salt & vinegar corn chips in there too. Touch of red bean paste, liquorice and dark soy sauce. Rancio notes - cured meats & roasted nuts. 

Texture: Medium weight, but thins out quickly thanks to the sulphur.. No heat at all. 

Taste: Rich & dirty on impact, more rancio sherry notes and thankfully less sulphur - but that's because it's had plenty of breathing time, both prior to pouring and in the glass. Cured pork, beef stock, salted nuts and a little orange. Rubber, aged balsamic vinegar. Sweeter sherry notes saving the day then with raisins, caramelised peanuts, and a touch of marzipan around the edges. 

Finish: Medium length, but again it fades quickly thanks to that dirty, sulphured sherry influence. Rancio cured meats & balsamic, burnt peanut oil, dried fruit, sweet orange and date syrup (caramel). 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Definitely not one for the sulphur sensitive or sulphur averse. I'm not usually overly sensitive to it myself, but despite substantial breathing time this is right on my limit. Well actually it's over my limit on the nose & finish, but thankfully the palate saves the day - just. This whisky has improved substantially with a lot of breathing time, i.e. a few months after opening. Was this intentional sulphur, ala Longrow 14-year old Sherry? Well I loved that whisky, but this Caol Ila is really pushing the limits of my friendship, so I'd say no, the sulphur here was probably more of the accidental variety. That's not to say that it's a "faulty" or "bad" whisky though, it's just going to be very, very divisive. 

Overall Notes: Well, like I said, three totally different styles of sherry cask Caol Ila, and all are basically unrecognisable compared to the distillery's official bottlings. The Signatory is by far the winner for my tastes, but I can see the appeal of the other two as well, despite them each being at opposite ends of the spectrum. From clean, light, young & more integrated flavours in the North Star to the dirty, funky, acidic "Dirty Little Secret". The Signatory sails right up the middle between the two, taking the best from both worlds, and coming across as the most mature of the three despite actually being the youngest and also boasting the highest ABV. Unfortunately it was substantially more expensive than the other two, nearly double the price in fact, but I'd have to concede that the value is there. 

Cheers!

SMWS 26.170 (Clynelish) Whisky Review!

A.k.a. "Creamy Coconut Lime Mojito", in the typical 'society' fashion! An 8-year old first-fill bourbon cask Clynelish that convinced me to finally join the SMWS after avoiding it for years! But how, and why?

Well, because it was essentially free! The Australian branch of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, a.k.a. the SMWS or "the society", recently ran a controversial promotion which saw membership discounted from the usual $120 AUD annual fee to $99, but more importantly new members also received a free single cask bottling of cask strength single malt - specifically it was advertised as receiving a bottle of the 8-year old Clynelish that I'm reviewing here. And when I say it was a controversial promotion, I mean the promotion itself was unfortunately a complete mess. Initially advertised as spanning three days, it ended up being called to a halt after approximately three hours due to a huge amount of demand. To make matters worse - depending on your perspective perhaps - the free bottle offer was also extended to "referrals", meaning that if an existing member referred a new member to the society, both the existing member and the new member would each receive a free bottle of whisky. Not exactly a sustainable business practice, and unfortunately there was no mention of "limited to one per person" or even a simple "while stocks last" anywhere to be seen, meaning that some more enterprising members were referring handfuls of their friends to join, and receiving multiple free bottles in return. Which turned the whole thing into a complete disaster and I'm fairly certain it would've cost the Australian branch of the SMWS a massive amount of money. Or rather, it would've lost them a massive amount of money, at least in the short term. Since the demand was so much higher than they had predicted, even over the much shorter period than originally intended they did not have enough of the particular promised whisky and in many cases had to substitute this Clynelish with various other bottles. But enough said, I'm sure the people responsible would sooner forget this ever happened. Although it certainly did achieve their initial goal of getting an influx of new members into the SMWS, including yours truly!

I've reviewed a few SMWS bottlings in the past and have tasted many more, and I've also attended a couple of their events, both physical and virtual. But this is the first SMWS bottling that I've ever purchased myself (well OK, sort of purchased!), then opened, and then placed on my shelves. And being a first-fill bourbon cask Clynelish, even at such a young age, it was a reasonably safe bet. In fact I'm yet to try a Clynelish that wasn't at least enjoyable, regardless of who bottled it or at what age. Like a few of the larger Diageo distilleries like Caol Ila and... err... OK maybe just these two, "bad" bottlings of Clynelish are really quite rare, and they're both really quite reliable despite their size and their primary role of producing whisky for Diageo's blended whiskies. This Highland distillery is located near the village of Brora (yes, namesake of the legendary Brora) on the east coast of the Scottish mainland, around 1.5-hours drive north of Inverness. The current guise of Clynelish opened in 1968, but the distillery that was originally named Clynelish opened in 1819, located on the other side of the road to the current Clynelish, which was re-named as Brora in 1969 until it closed in 1983. That would've been the end of the Brora story if Diageo hadn't rebuilt and reopened it in 2021, and it'll be exciting to see what happens with it in the future. I never thought I'd be able to pop down to the shops and pick up a 12-year old Brora single malt without the help of a time machine, but now there's a very real chance that it will happen!

As Clynelish fans will know, one of the most endearing things about this distillery's single malt is the waxy character of it's fruity spirit, which is particularly present when matured in refill or ex-bourbon casks, an attribute that has been traced back to an oily residue that builds up in their feints receiver. This discovery was largely accidental though, when they cleaned out said receiver a little more thoroughly than usual and then realised that the trademark waxiness in their spirit was gone. These days the receiver is emptied prior to cleaning during the the annual 'silent season' maintenance period, and the residue is then tipped back in to the feints tank prior to production kicking off again. If you're yet to try a Clynelish I recommend starting with the 14-year old official bottling from Diageo (reviewed here), which is decently priced, seems to be rather consistent in terms of quality & character, and is the only example of Diageo's "Classic Malts" flagship bottlings that is served up at 46% ABV rather than their preferred strength of 43%.  

But we're looking at a cask strength independent bottling here, and a single cask bottling no less. This 8-year old Clynelish, SMWS code 26.170 - 26 being their distillery code for Clynelish and this being the 170th cask of Clynelish that they've bottled - is named "Creamy Coconut Lime Mojito". Frankly, unlike many of the society's silly names and excessively fluffed & frilled tasting notes, this is actually rather accurate! It was distilled in October 2012 and bottled in 2021 at a natural cask strength of 61.1% ABV, and like all SMWS single malts it is non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Tasting time!

SMWS 26.170, Clynelish 8-year old. 61.1%. Highlands, Scotland.

Distilled 23/10/2012, matured in single first-fill ex-bourbon cask and bottled 2021. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 245 bottles. 

Colour: Medium gold. 

Nose: Perfumed & floral, with sweetened double cream, loads of sharp natural/real lime cordial (e.g. Bickfords), fresh beeswax (i.e. honeycomb), pinches of drying sandalwood & nutmeg wood spices. Vanilla cheesecake slice with lattice biscuits - sweet pastry-like glazed biscuits for those playing overseas. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Creamy, rich & dense. Sweet, sharp citrus & drying wood spices. Touch of heat, but this is an 8-year old whisky at 61.1% after all. 

Taste: Vanilla double cream again, loads of lime cordial again but a little sweeter & slightly less intense here. Beeswax again, more sweet pastry biscuits (lattice biscuits), and continental cheesecake. Sandalwood & nutmeg spice again, plus a couple of cloves. 

Finish: Medium length. Astringent spirit-y heat initially, but passes into that intense sharp lime cordial with those drying wood spices underneath. More sweetened double cream, fresh beeswax and sweet glazed pastry biscuits. Floral & citrusy as it winds up.

Score: 3.5 out of 5.  

Notes: I would've gone with "Spiced Lime Cheesecake Slice", but I can see where they were coming from! Hopefully cheesecake slice is a thing outside of Australia so you know what I'm talking about... A nice young Clynelish here with some rather intense lime citrus notes and a nice creaminess to it, and a great mouthfeel until the slightly astringent spirit-y heat kicks in. That's partly to be expected with an 8-year old whisky at 61% ABV of course, and it's not particularly harsh or unpleasant, just a little "spiky", if that makes sense. That lime cordial note really is quite intense at times too, but I'm not talking about the modern/artificial kind that is aimed at kids and loaded with sugar, more the real/natural type with plenty of real fruit juice in it - Bickford's is the Australian brand that comes straight to mind if that helps. That lime citrus intensity is not something that I can recall finding in a Clynelish before, they tend to be more lemon-centric in my experience, and if I hand a magic wand I might have added a little more wax to this one - like many Clynelish fans, we're always in search of more wax! But that's the beauty of single cask whiskies after all, no two are ever exactly alike and they're a little unpredictable - which just adds to the fun!

As a free/bonus bottle included with SMWS membership I really have no complaints here, its a very enjoyable young Clynelish that punches above its weight. If you managed to get a bottle of this cask, then you've done well!

Cheers!

Ardbeg Fermutation Whisky Review!

An age statement Ardbeg Committee Release that was fermented for over three weeks prior to distillation, rather than the distillery's average of 72 hours. This should be interesting! But a word of warning first; this is going to be a long one, and we're going to get nerdy!

Where the magic happens: wooden washback at Ardbeg. 

The fermentation stage of whisky production doesn't get the praise or attention that it deserves. Without it, there'd be no alcohol to capture & concentrate by distillation, so there'd be no whisky, but this is also where a large part of the flavour is created. We've all heard that to make whisky you first make beer, but malt whisky wash isn't boiled like beer, and there aren't any hops involved - if you're following the SWA regulations, at least. But there's so much more to it, including a huge amount of science, a decent serving of tradition, and a small amount of magic. And it's almost entirely thanks to microorganisms. Yeast of course, but also bacteria, among others. That doesn't sound so romantic, but it's a key part of the flavour development that really starts a step earlier in the process, with the mashing. Here the freshly-milled malted barley is mixed with hot water where the natural enzymes present in the grain are activated and then go to work starting to convert some of the grain's starch content into fermentable sugars. Side note here - the Scotch whisky regulations do not allow the addition of commercial enzymes. But many other spirits industries do, although they don't shout about it because it's adding an artificial ingredient to the process. Why do those other industries do it? It boils down (pun intended) to efficiency, consistency and yield. These enzymes are why many grain whisky / whiskey - including bourbon - distilleries include some malted barley and/or other malted grains in their mash bills, gaining flavour at the same time. If a commercial distillery does not have any malted grains in their mash bill, e.g. a 100% corn or 100% wheat mash bill, then they're probably adding commercial (artificial / synthetic) enzymes.

Getting back on track, once those fermentable sugars are ready to go after the mashing stage, the distillery's preferred yeast is added to the sweet liquid now known as wort, and the yeast consumes those sugars creating alcohol (among other things), subsequently giving us the "distiller's beer" that is known as wash. A few of the smaller malt whisky distilleries such as Kilchoman and Dornoch are playing around with different yeast strains these days in search of different flavours, rather than sticking to the common & safer 'M' strain distiller's yeasts for the sake of consistency & yield. Even Diageo have dabbled with different yeast strains on a trial basis, and Ardbeg's sister distillery Glenmorangie have cultivated a wild yeast strain that was found growing on their local barley, using it to create 2019's private edition release, named Allta, meaning "wild". There are also a few distilleries using ale / brewer's yeast in combination with distiller's yeast, while at least one is using wine yeast - Loch Lomond - and it's all in search of finding different flavours. But Ardbeg haven't played with their yeast strains for this "Fermutation" release, and this whisky was something of an accident. When the distillery's boiler broke down back in 2007, the production team was left with thousands of litres of wash sitting in their wooden washbacks for far longer than usual - over three weeks in fact. 'Regular' Ardbeg is fermented for an average of 72 hours, which in Scotch whisky terms is considered a medium-length fermentation. 75 hours and longer is considered to be a long fermentation, with very few whisky distilleries in Scotland ferment for longer than 120 hours - although many of the "new world" producers are. So three weeks is a very long time in this industry, and is more often seen in high ester rums or other spirits rather than whisky. Is this going to make Fermutation "better" than the normal Ardbeg? No. But it's certainly going to make it different to the normal Ardbeg! 

Not a galaxy far, far away: the warm, busy, foamy darkness inside said washback!

The standard average fermentation times at Islay's nine distilleries vary from a minimum of 48 hours at Bowmore to over 85 hours at Kilchoman, although it's not an exact science and many will often go over their minimum times when necessary, generally up to 120 hours. Back in the days when 5-day weeks were more common at distilleries, almost all of them would leave each weeks' final washback charge to ferment for an extra two days while they were closed for the weekend! In general, the longer your fermentation time, the less fermentable sugasr - primarily maltose in our case - remain in the wash as the yeast runs out of food and begins to break down as the temperature and alcohol levels rise, and the oxygen level lowers, resulting in an increase in acidity as the yeast fights a losing battle against both the alcohol that it unintentionally created, and more importantly against a 'foreign invader': bacteria. 

While the yeast has done its thing during the earlier stages of the fermentation, around the 60-hour stage it has started to lose ground - which is around where most Scotch whisky distilleries stop fermentation - and by the 70-hour mark lactic acid bacteria becomes the dominant player. And that's particularly important for one group of flavour compounds, a.k.a congeners: esters, which are the main source of sweet, fruity & floral flavours in your spirit. While production of esters & other congeners starts during fermentation and continues through distillation and through maturation, it really starts to ramp up where longer fermentation times are used as the bacteria levels in the wash are on the rise and as the yeast breaks down through autolysis. In this case after that three week ferment most if not all of the yeast would be dead, with little to no fermentable sugars remaining, although in some cases wild yeast will have a chance to get in alongside bacteria and fungi. In fact Ardbeg even opened the washback lids during this involuntary extra fermentation time to really get the funky party pumping. Wooden washbacks are thought to help with the creation of esters in the wash since despite regular cleaning they're impossible to sanitise entirely, and there'll always be some microbes remaining in the pores of the wood.

So all things being equal, leaving your wash for 3 weeks rather than your usual average of 72 hours is going to give a much fruitier and probably funkier spirit, mostly thanks to the higher amounts of esters that have been created. Remember though that said bacteria & other microorganisms will largely be killed off during distillation by the heat and by the high alcohol level, and remaining microorganisms including dead yeast will be left behind in the bottom of the stills after distillation, both in the "pot ale" that remains in the wash still, and then in the "spent lees" that remains in the spirit still. The esters & other congeners in the spirit will then change during maturation, and new ones will be added, through interaction with the cask. If I haven't lost you yet - and to be fair I did warn you that we were going to get nerdy - and if you'd like some further reading, I highly recommend delving into the technical goldmine that is Whisky Science. 

Getting back to Ardbeg, the interesting point here is that despite the high peating level (55 ppm as standard) Ardbeg has always been quite a sweet and fruity whisky, and a relatively light one. Which is down to any & all of a myriad of reasons - from the purifier on the spirit still which gives more reflux, to the size, shape & fill level of both stills with their upwards-angled lyne arms which again gives more reflux and a lighter spirit. Another interesting point is that Ardbeg's wash still, with its capacity of 18,000-litres but an actual fill level of around 11,000 litres, can only hold roughly half of the contents of one washback at a time, with each of the six wooden vessels holding up to 23,500-litres of wash. This unbalanced capacity means that the second half of each washback stays there while waiting for its turn in the wash still. Another important factor is the cut points that are used during the distillation runs, which are the times, temperatures & alcohol percentages that mark when the distiller switches from the foreshots (a.k.a. heads) to the spirit cut (a.k.a. hearts) and then the feints (a.k.a. tails). Generally, later cuts where spirit is captured deeper into the feints will give a dirtier, funkier, oilier spirit, while narrower cuts will give a lighter, brighter spirit. We can't forget maturation either, which plays a huge role in flavour development as new congeners are introduced to the spirit from the wood, or as the existing congeners evolve and their levels increase/decrease through that interaction with the wood and the local environment. This is influenced by a huge number of factors such as the size and previous contents of the cask, the number of times it has been used, the storage location and conditions, and of course how long the whisky is allowed to mature for before it's bottled. The number of variables here is basically infinite.

Now let's be honest, most people who buy Ardbeg Fermutation won't really care about any of the above. They'll see that it's a collectable limited release Ardbeg, and that is has a cool green label and a cool name and a new marketing angle, so they'll buy a bottle. And many will then re-sell it, but let's try to ignore that part for now. This release does appeal to the real whisky geeks because of that anomalous fermentation time, but also because it has been matured purely in ex-bourbon casks (both first-fill and refill), it has an age statement of 13-years, and it was bottled at a slightly higher strength of 49.4% ABV - gone are the days when these committee releases were bottled in the mid-to-low 50s, it seems, and the chances of one ever being released at cask strength are basically zero! Now we can't talk about an Ardbeg limited release without talking about pricing. And let's not beat around the bush - this one was definitely on the expensive side: $320 here in Australia, and around £150 GBP in Britain. But it still sold out very quickly, and unfortunately is already being flipped for profit on the usual auction sites. That amount is enough to buy 2.5-bottles of the excellent 8-year old "For Discussion" or two bottles of the core range Uigeadail, so this 13-year old is up against some great expectations. Personally, I went in for a bottle split with four mates, giving us plenty of Fermutation to taste without each of us having to shell out for a full bottle. So let's see what those marvellous little microorganisms have been up to, shall we? 

Ardbeg Fermutation, 13-year old, 49.4%. Islay, Scotland.

Fermented for three weeks rather than the average 72 hours for 'regular' Ardbeg, matured in ex-bourbon barrels (probably first-fill & refill). Non-chill filtered, colouring not declared but likely natural. 8,000 bottles. 

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Fresh, floral & zesty. Watery salted caramel, star anise, seaweed & tar. Floral with herbs, dried lime and freshly cut grass. Touch of buttery vanilla & black pepper. With more time, lemon zest and a touch of dry maltiness. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Floral, zesty, grassy, thin. No heat. 

Taste: More cut grass, thin with runny salted caramel and a light, dry, earthy peat. Dried lemon & orange peel, touch of milk chocolate and star anise. 

Finish: Short-medium length. Yeasty bread dough, new lather, dried herbs & cut grass. Vanilla and a touch of zesty acidity - tart/sharp rather than sour. Slighty soapy & bitter towards the end. 

Score: 3 out of 5. But only just. 

Notes: So, thankfully Fermutation has mutated nicely after plenty of exposure to air. On first & second contact it was thin, sharp, and bitter, even vegetal - and it definitely would've scored lower then. It's still quite thin now though, and Fermutation can't compete with even Ardbeg 10 in terms of richness and character, but a few weeks of air has helped the distillery's coastal character claw back some territory. Mind you it's still light on the peat, and there's no smoke. But the tar, seaweed and black pepper are showing through just a little, where they were non-existent before. The nose is the highlight here, or rather it's the most enjoyable aspect, while the palate and finish are quite the let-down. Is that down to the extra fermentation time? Well I could be wrong, but no, I wouldn't have thought so. I'm thinking most of those ex-bourbon casks were refill rather than first-fill, and that it's been diluted too much. Surely a cask strength / 55%-ish presentation would've helped preserve more of the intensity, richness & character that we look for in an Ardbeg. But maybe it was too similar to the norm at that higher strength, so they watered it down a little more to show more of the differences between it and the core range. As usual, the greatest threat to any Ardbeg limited release is the Ardbeg core range!

Still, this was an interesting accidental/forced experiment and I'm glad to have tried it, but I'm also glad I didn't buy a full bottle on my lonesome. It was certainly too expensive to start with, and I'd advise not paying the secondary prices for this Ardbeg if you're ever planning on opening the bottle. And surprise, surprise, the secondary prices are already silly! Let's hope the new 'Ardcore' fares better than this one. 

Cheers!