Highwayman Tokyo Nights Whisky Review!

A small batch Highwayman single malt bottled in collaboration with Tokyo's outstanding Aloha Whisky Bar and Japan-based whisky personality & consultant Armando Sandoval. Half of the 240 x 500ml bottle batch stayed in Australia, while the other half travelled all the way from Byron Bay to Tokyo! 

Almost sounds like the opening to one of those "walks into a bar" jokes, doesn't it? A bald-headed Australian man named Dan and a bald-headed Mexican man named Armando walk into a whisky bar owned by a Hawaiian man (with a full head of hair) named David, and they decide to bottle a whisky together... But it's certainly not a joke! This is a Highwayman single malt whisky distilled and matured in Byron Bay, NSW, Australia, which was bottled as a share between Highwayman Whisky proprietor Dan Woolley, Japan-based whisky personality & consultant Armando Sandoval (@armandrinksss on Instagram), and Aloha Whisky Bar proprietor David Tsujimoto. Highwayman Tokyo Nights features Dan's trademark Grim Reaper theme on the labelling, but with unique artwork to mark this special occasion. Dan also travelled to Japan to launch the whisky at Aloha Whisky Bar - it's a tough life, hey Dan? Someone has to do it I suppose...

I've had the pleasure of visiting Aloha Whisky Bar a couple of times now, and it's an absolute must-do for any whisky fan visiting Tokyo. Aloha is located in Ikebukuro in north-western Tokyo, an easy walk from Ikebukuro Station on JR's 'Yamanote' train lines that loop around Tokyo's main districts. Owner & operator David Tsujimoto is from Hawaii and famously doesn't speak fluent Japanese, despite having run a popular bar in Tokyo for many years now! But he's an absolute gentleman and a true hospitality professional, and his knowledge of whisky, rum, and spirits in general, is beyond reproach. The extremely well stocked and organised back bar consists of mainly Scotch whisky, but also packs a huge variety of Japanese whiskies, American and Irish whiskeys, and a carefully selected range of quality rum and other spirits. I'm yet to meet Armando, but a few chats over Instagram and his general reputation in the whisky world has me regarding him highly, and having tasted his private bottling of Shizuoka Japanese single malt, I have no doubts about his taste in whisky! That Shizuoka was cleverly named "MexicaNOH" with artwork featuring the masks worn by the Luchadores in Mexican wrestling as a nod to the legendary 'Noh' series of Karuizawa bottlings which featured the masks worn by the actors (and latterly also actresses) in traditional Japanese theatre. The connection is deeper than that however, since one of the pot stills used at Shizuoka Distillery was originally used at Karuizawa Distillery which closed in 2000 and was demolished in 2016, and Armando's private cask was distilled on that still. Most importantly, it was a delicious whisky!

Highwayman of course needs no introduction here, and you'd struggle to find an Australian whisky fan who isn't aware of the stuff! But the international audience may be a different story, and it's been a couple of years since the last review regardless, so we're overdue for a refresher! Highwayman Single Malt Whisky is fermented and distilled on Dan's own equipment which (for licensing & practical reasons) is housed at the Restall family's Lord Byron Distillery in Byron Bay. Once distilled and filled into Dan's own casks, the spirit then travels a whopping 10-metres to Dan's Bond Store - Australian industry speak for maturation warehouse - and Cellar Door pictured above, aptly named Highwayman HQ. Since the spirit is entirely made literally next door Dan has full control over the production and maturation, while Lord Byron produces their high quality rum and other spirits on their own separate equipment. Highwayman's unpeated spirit is produced from NSW-grown malted barley, while the peated spirit is a combination of Scottish peated malted barley and the NSW-grown unmalted barley. More recently though Dan has been upping the percentage of the peated malt to create a heavily peated spirit, and having tried a couple of different cask samples so far - and begging him to bottle one straight away, which sadly fell on deaf ears! - they're quite special. When it comes to casks Dan comes into his element here, playing around with a multitude of different & unusual cask types like ex-stout, ex-rum, and ex-tequila, and different cask sizes ranging from 20-litres to 200-litres, with many of his whiskies going through multiple different cask types. In the heat and humidity of Byron Bay, those casks often don't need long to make their presence known!

As usual with Dan's whiskies, the details behind this 'Tokyo Nights' bottling are quite the mouthful! Highwayman Tokyo Nights is comprised of 2/3rds peated single malt that was initially matured in a first-fill fino sherry cask and finished in a second-fill apera (Australian sherry-style fortified wine) cask, and 1/3rd unpeated single malt that was fully matured in a second-fill bourbon cask fitted with virgin (new) American oak heads. Naturally it's bottled at Dan's standard strength of 55.0% ABV, and is non-chill filtered without added colouring. As mentioned above, half of the 240 x 500ml bottles went to Japan, and the other half remained in Australia for sale on the Highwayman website , where a small quantity are still available at $249 AUD. 

Highwayman Tokyo Nights, NAS, 55.0%. Byron Bay, Australia.

Vatting of 1/3 unpeated single malt aged in second-fill ex-bourbon barrel with virgin American oak heads, and 2/3 peated spirit aged in first-fill Fino sherry cask and finished in second-fill Apera (Australian sherry-style fortified wine) cask. 

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Nutty, rich, sweet & savoury. Salted caramel, fizzy lemonade soft drink, salted peanut brittle, with a few salted brazil nuts & smoked almonds thrown in. Cola bottle lollies (not the sour kind), meat-y mushroom-y earthiness, toasted oak. Touches of ashy smoke & soy sauce around the edges. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Silky, rich, warming. Salty, not overly sweet, no spirit heat. 

Taste: Big salty entry, with rich salted caramel and more salted nuts - peanut brittle, salted brazil nuts, and smoked almonds. Cola bottle lollies, soy sauce, and that meaty mushroom-y earthiness again. Buttery oak and oily furniture polish around the edges. 

Finish: Medium length. Ashy peat smoke (especially on the exhale), more cola bottle lollies and soy sauce, then the salted nuts come back through with the savoury earthiness. Buttery oak around the edges. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Very tasty and nicely savoury, salty, rich whisky. Fans of salted caramel, peanut brittle, or cola bottle lollies, will love this one - and who isn't a fan of all of those? Highwayman whiskies are always rich, but in peated form - and particularly with fortified casks involved - they tend to have this earthy, mushroom-y, forest floor sort of savoury character which is very different to both the unpeated ex-bourbon casks and particularly the unpeated ex-fortified or wine casks, which can swing way over to the sweet side in comparison. That earthy mushroom-y savoury character helps balance out cask influence and add complexity, which when combined with the big saltiness and nuttiness in this 'Tokyo Nights' bottling, is delicious! 

We need to see more peated Australian whisky spending time in ex-Fino sherry casks if you ask me, or maybe ex-Fino casks married with ex-bourbon casks. For that matter, we also need to see more peated Australian whisky in general! 

Cheers!

Redbreast 27 Year Old Whiskey Review!

One very special Redbreast Irish whiskey, the brand's oldest regular bottling, and my favourite single pot still whiskey to date! We may as well have a refresher on what that actually means, while we're at it!

The Redbreast brand of Irish whiskey dates back to 1912, when a 12-year old was sold by wine & spirit merchants W&A Gilbeys. Supposedly one of the company owners was an avid birdwatcher, and Redbreast is named after the European robin, also known as the "robin redbreast" owing to the red feathers on their chests. The spirit for this first iteration of Redbreast was purchased from Dublin's Bow Street Distillery (a.k.a the original Jameson distillery) for maturation in the Gilbey's' own casks and bottling under their brand name. When Irish Distillers Limited (IDL) closed that original Jameson distillery in 1971 Gilbey's, had to sourced from the same company's Midleton Distillery in County Cork in the country's south. Gilbey's continued to produce Redbreast until 1985 when they discontinued the brand, and they sold the brand name to IDL a year later. Irish Distillers Limited was purchased by Pernod Ricard in 1988, who re-launched Redbreast in 1991 with a 12-year old bottling of Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey. The current Redbreast core range consists of two NAS expressions (Lustau Edition and PX Edition) and six age stated core range expressions; a 12-year old, 15-year old, 18-year old, 21-year old (previously reviewed in 2021 here), and two smaller batch releases; the 12-year old Cask Strength, and the 27-year old. The entry-level 12-year old is bottled at 40% ABV, while the rest of the core range is bottled at 46% and above, and most are matured in second-fill or first- and second-fill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. Aside from the core range there are a number of limited release Redbreasts, often exclusive to the distillery shop and/or website, the most recent of which was a 15-year old Cask Strength that sold out very quickly. There's also been one single cask Redbreast bottled for Australia, exclusive to Ray Daniel's Barrel & Batch group, which was a 19-year old Oloroso sherry matured at 60.1% ABV.

Midleton Distillery is located in the namesake town of Midleton, a little over 2.5-hour's drive south of Dublin. The original Midleton Distillery was built in 1825, with that original site now being the visitor's centre and "home of The Jameson Experience". The current actual distillery was built in 1975 and is the largest distillery in Ireland, housing three mash filters for mashing (replacing the mash tuns in 2012), 48 washbacks, six column stills for grain spirit, and ten pot massive stills for pot still spirit. Two of these pot stills have a capacity of a whopping 75,000-litres each, which is over six-times the size of the spirit stills at Caol Ila on Islay. Midleton's production capacity for both grain & pot still spirit combined is roughly 70-million litres per year, with the majority of this production being blended together for owner Pernod Ricard's blended whiskeys. Pernod own six different brands of Irish whiskey that are produced at Midleton; blended whiskeys Jameson (which sold over 60-million bottles in 2023), Powers, and Midelton Very Rare, plus single pot still whiskey brands Redbreast, and Spot (e.g. Green Spot), plus the Method & Madness range of blends, single malts, and single pot stills. Midleton also produces gin and vodka in their column stills, and also supplies whiskey to a number of other companies producing "sourced whiskeys" - independent bottlings in Scotch whisky terms, or non-distiller producers (NDPs) in American whiskey terms. Fermentation time for the pot still whiskeys produced at Midleton is 60-hours, giving an ABV of 10-12%, and while the pot still spirit varies by the chosen cut points it is triple-distilled to up to 85% ABV. There are currently 74 maturation warehouses on site at Midleton and another 88 near the village of Dungourney around 10-minutes north of the distillery site. Most of these warehouses are palletized, each of which can hold up to 16,000 casks. This is an absolutely massive operation!

Single Pot Still Whiskeys are a little confusing from a Scotch whisky perspective. The main differences are that they're made from both malted barley and unmalted barley, plus optionally a small amount of other grains, and that they are basically always triple distilled. Just like in single malt and single grain whisky/whiskey, the word "single" only means that the spirit was made at one single distillery. It does not mean that it was produced in one still, just as "single" in single grain whisky/whiskey does not mean that the whisky was made from one type of grain. Aside from single pot still whiskeys, just like there are blended malts containing single malts from different distilleries there are blended pot still whiskeys containing single pot stills from different distilleries. Adding confusion though is that these blends aren't labelled as blended pot still whiskeys, they're labelled either as "pure pot still whiskey" or simply as "pot still whiskey". The Irish pot still whiskey regulations dictate that a minimum of 30% malted barley must be used in the mash bill, and that a minimum of 30% unmalted barley must be used, plus a maximum of 5% of non-barley grains. For example you could a single pot still from 30% malted barley and 70% unmalted barley, or you could make one from 30% malted barley, 65% unmalted barley, 2% oats, 2% rye, and 1% wheat. The commonly accepted story behind the unmalted barley and other grains being included in Irish pot still whiskeys is the Malt Tax that was imposed on malted grains in 1785, but there are records of mixed mash bill Irish whiskeys which pre-date that tax. In the case of Redbreast single pot still whiskeys, only malted barley & unmalted barley are used with no other grains being included. The Irish pot still whiskey regulations state that traditional practice in Irish pot still whiskeys is to triple distill, but this is not actually a requirement, and obviously these whiskeys can only be distilled in pot stills as the name suggests.

Redbreast 27-year old was added to the range in 2019. The sample that I'm reviewing is from Batch 5, released in 2024 and bottled at 54.6% ABV. There has since been a Batch 6 released which is yet to arrive in Australia. Officially we're only told that it was matured in ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-ruby port casks, while the label states that it was "enriched by" ruby port casks, which isn't very helpful. I have it on good authority from local Pernod Ricard Brand Ambassador Nick Miles that this 27-year old spent ten years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks before being transferred to those ruby port casks for the remaining 17-years of maturation, all second-fill. It's non-chill filtered and natural colour. Being a 27-year old cask strength single pot still whiskey this isn't a cheap bottle, ranging from $850-1,100 AUD on these shores. Let's see how it goes!

Redbreast 27-year old Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey, Batch 5, 54.6%. Midleton, Ireland.

Triple distilled from both malted barley and unmalted barley, matured for 10-years in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks then finished in ex-ruby port casks for 17-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Bronze. 

Nose: Rich, fruity, and deep. Stewed cherries, plums, and apricots, roasted nuts (hazelnuts, maybe brazil nuts?), warm cinnamon and nutmeg, powdered ginger, and rich dark chocolate. Some toffee fudge, and bitter orange peel. Slight touches of vanilla and caramelised banana around the edges. Time brings out soft leather. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, chewy, fruity. No heat at all. 

Taste: Rich and fruity. Chewy toffee, stewed stone fruit (cherry, plum, and apricot again), soft leather, and more roasted nuts. Then turns sweeter and beautifully tropical, with sweet mango and white peach. The stone fruit is still there too, but it's sweeter now - glace cherries, and plum and apricot jam. The back palate really is the star of this show! 

Finish: Long length. Handfuls of honey-roasted nuts now, and more tropical fruit - mango and white peach again, slight touches of lychee and banana. The bitter orange peel & toffee come back through, along with a good pinch of drying oak, powdered ginger, and leather. 

Score: 4 out of 5. Very close to a 4.5 though. 

Notes: OK, I know this whiskey is widely loved, but just let me get my controversial opinion out of the way here; did this whiskey really need the additional port casks? They've clearly been quite active, and I'm guessing they're responsible for the extra oak notes too, but I don't see why that was necessary! Before you start writing angry emails, yes they've added more richness and decadence, but without them we might have gotten more of that lovely tropical fruitiness and hopefully more of the pot still spicy chewiness that we love in some of the younger expressions from Redbreast, and also the 18-year old. Don't get me wrong, this is still a delicious whiskey. Very rich & chewy, loads of flavour, and a fantastic switch on the mid-palate from a rich dessert dram to a luscious tropical fruit whiskey which really gets the pulse racing. And the pricing, while expensive, is sadly competitive in the current market for a high-strength whisky/whiskey at this age. 

This is a fantastic whiskey, but - here's another controversial opinion - if you're a fan of the more spirit-driven side of pot still Irish whiskey you're probably better served by Redbreast 12-year old Cask Strength and the newer 18-year old. Both are more identifiable as pot still whiskey, more "singular" as Ralfy would say, and the value for money that they offer is tough to beat!

Cheers!

Octomore 2.2 Orpheus Whisky Review!

My original bucket list dram, my original holy grail whisky, and the starring whisky of my 40th birthday celebration - which is well behind us now! This was the third-ever Octomore official bottling, released nearly 16-years ago now. Seems a good way to celebrate this humble site passing one-million views - which is also well behind us now. I still had to mark the occasion!

Rare "bucket list" whiskies that we aim to tick off the wishlist before we kick the bucket. They're usually legendary bottles that we've seen or heard about online or in bars & bottle shops which are either relatively rare, or are beyond our personal reach at the time. All whisky nerds have at least one - more often many - of these that are ingrained in our brains from the early days of our whisky adventures. Our bucket lists are like a whisky bottle-shaped version of the Hydra from Greek mythology; you cut off one of the beast's heads only for two more to take its place. If a bottle on said list is actually available when it first catches our eye, then it's beyond our reach for some reason - either due to pricing or relative rarity, or both. Said whisky is then placed somewhere near the top of the bucket list in the hope that circumstances will change and we'll eventually get our hands on one. More often though we catch wind of a bottle while trawling online reviews & Instagram posts when we're first falling into the whisky rabbit hole, only to find that we've missed the boat and said whisky is already legendary, is only sporadically available on the secondary auction market, and is already selling for multiple-times its original pricing. Personally, the latter is far more common. When I fell into the rabbit hole properly around 2012-2013 there were three on my list; the original Ardbeg Supernova from 2009, Port Charlotte PC6, and Octomore 2.2 Orpheus. No prizes for guessing which were my two favourite distilleries back then! Those three bottles may seem like low-hanging fruit for the readers who have been deep in the whisky world for decades longer than I, but these bucket lists depend on when we are first engulfed by the obsession and what our circumstances are at the time. Over a decade later I've now been lucky enough to taste and own bottles of all three, and like the bottle-shaped Hydra mentioned above they've since been replaced on my bucket list by a myriad of others, most of which are rarer and much more valuable than those initial three. Regardless, I'm privileged to have tried them, and while not necessarily the "best" whiskies that I've tried so far on this adventure, none of the trio have been disappointing in any way. They've lived up to my high expectations - click the subsequent links for earlier reviews of 2009 Ardbeg Supernova, and for Port Charlotte PC6. 

The last of the three to be ticked off my original bucket list, and the last of the three to feature on this amateur whisky blog, is the legendary Octomore 2.2 Orpheus. This was the third official release of Octomore, following after 1.1 and 2.1, with 2.2 being bottled 16-years ago back in 2009. The inaugural Octomore 1.1 was released in 2008 in the opaque black bottle & tall black tin that are now iconic, while 2.1 landed roughly a year later with the same bottle design but in a rectangular cardboard box - the only boxed Octomore so far - and 2.2 Orpheus arrived in the same year in the regular black bottle but with some red labelling and a bright red tin - the only red-tinned Octomore so far. Right from the start the Octomore numbering system has remained the same, where the _.1 bottlings are ex-bourbon cask matured, and the _.2 are either partially- or fully-matured in ex-wine casks. Octomore 2.2 Orpheus was the first of these. The first _.3, denoting an Islay-grown barley release, didn't come around until 6.3 landed in 2014, and the first _.4, denoting either partial- or full-maturation in virgin oak casks, arrived with 7.4 in 2016. There have also been a few 10-year old releases, Feis Ile bottlings, "Futures" bottlings, and a couple of other special releases and single cask bottlings, but they've been excluded from the regular numbering system. 

The other numbers that everyone loves to hear about with Octomore are of course the ppm figures, which Bruichladdich successfully turned into an Islay arms race in the late 2010s. See here for more information, but as a brief reminder, these ppm figures are a measure of the phenolic content (speaking very broadly; the level of peat and/or smoke) in the freshly peat-smoked malted barley, measured in parts-per-million. This does not reflect the phenolic content of the distilled spirit or the final whisky, with every subsequent step in the process - from milling to maturation and everything in between, will reduce that figure - the generally accepted rule of thumb is that around 60-70% of the phenolic content is lost, but with Bruichladdich using longer fermentation and narrow cuts in tall stills, that would likely reduce even further, not to mention maturating in active casks. Which is why most Octomores are bottled at only 5-years of age; to keep more of the phenols intact. Another important reminder is that Bruichladdich don't use Islay peat in their whiskies, they use mainland peat in all expressions including the Islay barley releases, where the Islay-grown barley is shipped to the mainland for malting at Bairds in Inverness. This mainland peat gives different flavours than Islay peat would, generally more earthy and less medicinal, but don't get me wrong, these are still very peaty whiskies! Ppm figures for the earlier Octomores were huge compared to all competitors at the time - the barley for 1.1 was peated to 131 ppm, and both 2.1 and 2.2 were peated to 140 ppm, while the highest competitor, Ardbeg Supernova, was "over 100 ppm". Since those early days Bruichladdich have dwarfed their own figures with 309.1 ppm in Octomore 8.3 (reviewed here), 307.2 ppm in 15.3, and 258 ppm in 6.3 (reviewed here). 

Octomore 2.2 Orpheus was the first to feature ex-wine casks, which were a staple at Bruichladdich back then, just as they are now, but they were far less common in Scotch whisky in general back in the late 2000s. For 2.2 Orpheus the entire batch was finished for an undisclosed period in ex-red wine casks, but these weren't just any wine casks. Unlike today, back then Bruichladdich were happy to disclose the source/s of their wine casks for each release, often naming the individual wineries on the packaging. For Octomore 2.2 those were ex-red wine casks from legendary French winery Chateau Petrus, which dates back to 1837 and is located in the Pomerol area of the Bordeaux wine region. Petrus wines are predominantly made from Merlot grapes and are among the most expensive wines in the world, ranging from thousands of dollars at retail to hundreds of thousands of dollars at secondary auction. While we're talking prices, Octomore 2.2 currently ranges from £500 to £700 at the largest online auction in the UK, with a bottle appearing in their monthly auctions roughly 3-4 times a year. That hammer price would easily equate to over $2,000 AUD once landed here in Australia. Closer to home you're looking at $1,500 AUD at auction plus the 10% buyer's premium and postage, but there's only been one bottle listed for sale in the last two years. That's quite an expensive 5-year old whisky, particularly one that was bottled "only" 16-years ago, and with a large release of 15,000 bottles. Octomores aren't cheap whiskies, and Orpheus is the most legendary of the early releases, probably more so than the inaugural 1.1 release. My bottle of 2.2 is now empty, but I was lucky enough to have the tin signed by Jim McEwan on his most recent visit to Australia, which you'd think would make it harder for me to open the bottle - but no! The ABV for 2.2 Orpheus was 61.0%, and it is of course non-chill filtered and natural colour. The name "Orpheus" refers to a hero from Greek mythology, a magical singer, poet, and musician, who travelled to the Underworld in an attempt to rescue his (deceased) wife from Hades. He was later killed by followers of Dionysus, the god of wine & festivity. Octomore 4.2 "Comus" was named in a similar fashion, but they've since moved away from the Greek mythology references. Now, on to the whisky!

Octomore 2.2 'Orpheus', 5-years old, 61.0%. Islay, Scotland.

Released 2009. Barley peated to 140 ppm, finished in Chateau Petrus red wine casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 15,000 bottles. 

Colour: Polished copper. 

Nose: Huge chunky, earthy, tarry peat. Strawberries in quality balsamic vinegar, apricots & nectarines behind that. Soft leather & polished old wooden furniture, smoked sea salt. Touches of olives in chilli oil, and creamy yoghurt with black cherry. Turkish delight, orange dark chocolate, and fresh road tar. 

Texture: Heavy weight. Big, viscous, oily, rich. And peaty! Slight heat initially as you'd expect for a 5-year old whisky at 61%, but it breathes off quickly. 

Taste: Peaty, fruity, smoky. Huge chunky peat again, spicy & ashy peat smoke, fresh road tar. Smoked & sweet paprika, black pepper, and BBQ-grilled stone fruit - peaches, apricots, nectarines. Big waves of fresh tar and chewy dark chocolate fudge. Touch of liquorice straps. 

Finish: Very long length. Very, very long. More strawberries in balsamic vinegar, touch of cocktail onion acidity, and the salty whey that mozzarella is packed in. Fresh oranges, smoked sea salt, touch of black cherry jam. And the peat, tar, and ashy smoke never quit!

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Fantastic whisky. Without doubt my favourite wine-influenced Octomore to date, and there have been quite a few of those! Yes, Orpheus easily beats both 4.2 and 8.3 in my book. Wine casks and peat don't always get along well; see most of the Longrow Red series and also Octomore 9.2 for some bad examples. But here the peat & wine casks are almost evenly matched, and they've worked extremely well together. Octomore 2.2 Orpheus is now jostling with 6.3 and OBA for the number one spot in my personal top three Octomores of all-time. Although the Feis Ile 2025 'Polyphonic' bottling is also in the running now. Orpheus has an incredible texture and huge volume of flavour, and it's a great example of the magic of Octomore at just 5-years of age. A 5-year age statement might be more common and more acceptable now, but in 2009 such a thing was basically unheard of, and at 61% ABV many would've expected a full-on assault on the taste buds. In fact many would've turned their noses up and overlooked this dram altogether. But that's the beguiling nature of these earlier Octomores, neither the level of peat influence, the young age, or the high bottling strengths, are as aggressive as you might expect if you only looked at the numbers and took them at face value.

I can absolutely see why Orpheus enjoys the reputation that it does, and it does belong on every peated whisky fan's wishlist just like it was on mine. I'm very lucky to have been able to get a bottle 15-ish years after putting it on my bucket list, and I'm very glad that I opened it and shared it on my 40th. I sometimes struggle to open unicorn bottles like this, since they tend to be almost irreplaceable, but I have no regrets here. This is a hero I'm very glad to have met!

Cheers!

Lagg Inaugural Release Whisky Review - Plus a Bonus!

The first whisky release from the Isle of Arran's newest distillery and the island's second legal distillery; Lagg. Despite being bottled nearly three years ago now, this is my first Lagg!

Lagg Distillery is the second distillery, and the newest, on the Isle of Arran in the west of Scotland, around a 2.5-hour drive & ferry trip south-west from Glasgow. Like most of the Scottish islands Arran was home to a lot of illicit (illegal) distillation in the past, and the island's last legal distillery operated from 1825 to 1837. Arran Distillery opened in 1995 in Lochranza near the Island's northern coast, backed by a private consortium including a former Chivas Bros. executive. That northern Arran distillery is now known as Lochranza - but their whisky is still branded as Arran - after the same company built a second distillery in Lagg on the southern side of the island, around a 30-minute drive from the island's main town of Brodick. Lagg Distillery is located near the site of that last legal distillery which closed in 1837, and was always intended to only produce peated whisky, where the Lochranza distillery would switch to only produce unpeated whisky after initially producing both unpeated and peated spirit - the latter was sold under the "Machrie Moor" brand. Interestingly despite the two distilleries only being twenty miles apart, Lagg is officially in the Lowlands whisky region, while Lochranza / Arran Distillery is in the Highlands region, since Lagg is below the 'Highland line'. But both distilleries are on an island, and the Scottish islands are considered part of the Highlands region, but Arran isn't part of the Hebridean islands since it sits in-between the Kintyre Peninsula and the mainland. So Lagg is the only Lowland distillery located on an island, and the only non-Islay island distillery that is not in the Highland whisky region. Not confusing at all! 

Lagg Distillery has a production capacity of around 750,000-litres of spirit per year, mainly peated to 50 ppm using malted barley sourced from the mainland, although there have been experiments using both lower and higher peating levels. There are four wooden washbacks employing a fermentation period of 72-hours, and distillation takes place in a 10,000-litre wash still and 7,000-litre spirit still, and maturation is in a variety of cask types but principally ex-bourbon, which are matured in both dunnage and modern palletised warehouses on the island. All expressions are non-chill filtered and natural colour. Once Lagg's single malt came of age in mid-late 2022 there were three initial releases, with Batch 1 being matured in ex-bourbon casks, Batch 2 being matured in ex-bourbon and finished in small ex-sherry casks, and Batch 3 being matured in ex-bourbon and finished in small ex-red wine casks. All three bottlings were 3-years of age and bottled at 50% ABV, with 10,000 bottles of each released. Following those inaugural releases hit the shelves in late 2022 two core range whiskies were launched; The ex-bourbon matured 'Kilmory Edition', and the Oloroso sherry finished 'Corriecravie Edition'. Both are named after local landmarks. Other than that, the distillery seems to have been relatively quiet, and the inaugural releases are still readily available here in Australia, at around $200 AUD. That's a steep price for a 3-year old with 10,000 bottles released, even at 50% ABV, which is probably why it's still available today. It's still available from the distillery's own website as well, three years after release, for £75, which is around $160 AUD - so with shipping and duties $200 sounds about right in comparison. Also sounds about $20-30 too much, though... Let's find out!

 

Lagg Inaugural Release, NAS (but 3-years old), 50% ABV. Isle of Arran, Scotland.

Heavily peated 50 ppm, distilled 2019, matured in ex-bourbon barrels, bottled September 2022. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Herbal, smoky, grassy. Bitter orange, hay, wet barley, caramel sauce, grassy wood smoke. Lemon-flavoured white chocolate. Dry earthy peat, a little peppermint, fresh flowers, and a touch of beeswax around the edges. 

Texture: Light weight. Peaty, youthful, zesty. Touch of heat. 

Taste: Oily & sweet entry, big chunky earthy peat, black pepper, touch of disinfectant. Caramel sauce, bit of ginger, and malt vinegar. Maybe even salt & vinegar potato chips?

Finish: Medium length. That chunky peat carries through, with some black pepper and tar underneath. Some hints of vanilla caramel syrup, cocktail onions, dried herbs & dried flowers around the edges. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: It's youthful and quite straightforward, and without the peat to cover it there might've been more heat & rawness to contend with. But we already knew that going in! The youth shows in the thinness on the palate, and the only thing of note in the finish is the peatiness, which is the dominant force throughout this dram. But again, that's to be expected, it's a 3-year old first release! The cask influence does seem very light in comparison to other "modern" ex-bourbon cask inaugural releases, but I'm sure that's intentional to keep the peat influence intact. The other two batches, wine cask & sherry cask respectively, can take care of the rest. It'll be interesting to see where Lagg goes from here, they certainly seem to be relatively quiet compared to most of the "new breed". Maybe they're waiting for more stock to hit maturity? Time will tell!

And the bonus for this review... A distillery exclusive from the original Arran, now known as Lochranza. This is an Arran single cask released way back in 2015! This bottle was a recent auction win that piqued my curiosity, partly because it was a distillery exclusive from ten years ago, but mostly because it was fully matured in a Spanish oak Fino sherry butt and bottled at a cask strength of 58.7%, non-chill filtered and natural colour. Fino sherry casks are growing in popularity but still aren't particularly common, even less so ten years ago when this one was bottled. They are quite divisive as a cask type (as is the dry, yeasty, and salty Fino sherry itself), although in my experience they can work very well - admittedly most of that experience is with peated malt whisky, which this Arran is not. Adding to my curiosity, after I had placed the winning bid I mentioned it to a mate of mine who decided to tell me that he had bought a bottle locally back in the day, and that he'd found it almost undrinkable back then. Since it was too late to do anything about the purchase, I'm choosing to take that as a challenge! It seems that Arran's Australian importer at the time was able to get the distillery to send some of these distillery exclusive bottles over, even going to the trouble of having the Distillery Manager, James MacTaggart who joined the distillery in 2007 and retired in 2022, sign the bottles before they were shipped. Said importer still has this bottle listed on their website - long sold out of course - for $220 AUD, which means that after auction fees I saved a whopping $6 off the original retail price... At least that original price was from almost a decade ago!

As mentioned above, the original Arran Distillery is now known as Lochranza Distillery, but their single malt is still branded as Arran. Since Lagg Distillery opened in 2019 the Lochranza site has switched to 100% unpeated production, with a production capacity of around 1.2-million litres per year after a second pair of stills were added in 2017. Actual production is reportedly around 800,000-litres per year. Obviously this Fino sherry cask matured distillery exclusive pre-dates all of that, including the Arran packaging update that happened in 2019. Let's see how it goes!

Arran Fino Sherry Matured, NAS, 58.7%. Isle of Arran, Scotland.

Distillery exclusive, bottled 2015. Fully matured in Spanish oak ex-Fino sherry cask, 308 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Copper. 

Nose: Rich, sweet, salty, fruity. Rock salt, rich chewy toffee, thick sultana syrup. Baked nectarines, thick honey, sweet glace (candied) cherries, sugared almonds, sourdough bread, and freshly sawn wood. Bitter orange peel, lemon drops, hint of fresh flowers. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, chewy, sweet & fruity. Slight heat but carries it well. 

Taste: Rich sweet entry with sultanas in syrup, sweet glace cherries, sugared almonds, and sweet pastry - Bakewell tarts, anyone? Some white pepper, fresh flowers, and lemon drops underneath. Some sweetened tea, and cinnamon sugar around the edges. 

Finish: Long length. Sweet juicy sultanas, glace cherries, white pepper, and rock salt carry through. Sweetened tea, sweet flowers, sugared almonds, lemon drops, and baked nectarines with honey. Hints of tropical fruit and rich tea biscuits to finish. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Delicious dram, very rich & very tasty. You'll have to like sultanas, sherry, and maybe Bakewell tarts; but who doesn't? This is a very different whisky to the other Arrans that I've tried so far, even those bottled around the same time, and it's my clear favourite whisky from the distillery. The fino sherry influence is front & centre, but it's worked very well with the Spanish oak and the Arran spirit, giving a sweet & rich dessert whisky that is quite moreish. That's not exactly what I expected from a fino sherry cask, being a dry, yeasty, salty sherry, but I've had a Deanston fino cask matured (Union Exclusive or something like that) which had a similar profile, so maybe certain unpeated whiskies in fino casks at the right age can give this sort of result. Regardless, it's worked. The auction gamble paid off!

Cheers!

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 *Edit - there was also a "Knopwood" independent bottling of Sullivan's Cove spirit that did not have an age statement, but was 1999 vintage and bottled circa 2023. 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!

Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire Whisky Reviews!

These "Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire" whiskies are small batch mystery single malts from Atom Brands, the independent bottler owned by UK retailer Master of Malt, which they've dubbed the "& Whisky" brand. Look, I like an ampersand as much as the next guy. But this might be a bit much...

This is Atom Brands' take on a Port Askaig / Scarabus / Finlaggan series of mystery bottlings, although rather than solely consisting of Islay single malts like those examples, in this "& Whisky" range there are also Highland single malts, blended whisky from different distilleries, and even blended whiskies from different countries - Islay single malt blended with Canadian corn whisky, for example! Atom / Master of Malt also produces the Boutique-y and Darkness ranges of independent whisky bottlings, alongside a couple of gin and rum brands. There is & has been a large number of releases in this "& Whisky" series, ranging from an NAS at 40% ABV to a 45-year old single grain whisky, plus a few oddities like a Canadian corn whiskey and even a blend of Islay single malt & Canadian corn whiskey! Most of these releases don't seem to make it to Australia, but Sydney-based online retailer Barrel & Batch seems to have the largest range on these shores. The local contact here is Brand Ambassador Simon McGoram, an industry stalwart who previously had a long tenure with Diageo, and was the source of the two samples. They were leftovers that were provided with no obligation to review, but this is my first go at their "& Whisky" range, so I thought I'd take a closer look. We have one 12-year old Islay and one 18-year old Highland to look at, both heavily peated single malts and both cask strength, and both quite reasonably priced. 

Thanks to the scale of production most, but not all, anonymous Islay single malts will be Caol Ila. With a huge annual capacity of 6.5-million litres of spirit, it's producing double that of Laphroaig, which is the next inline on Islay in terms of size. But that's not to say that Caol Ila doesn't make fantastic whisky, because they absolutely do! Most of the distillery's production goes into owner Diageo's blended whiskies, but when it comes to single malt this is easily one of the more consistent malt distilleries in Scotland, and plenty of independent bottlers take advantage of that. So the 12-year old Islay single malt from "& Whisky" that we're looking at here is most likely a Caol Ila. The 18-year old that we're looking at after that is much more difficult though, because it's from the Highland region. It's heavily peated, which helps narrow it down a little, but there are still many options - especially if you include the islands, which aside from Islay are part of the Highlands region. To my mind that leaves Ledaig (Tobermory), Knockdhu (AnCnoc), Ardmore, Ben Nevis, Ballechin (Edradour), Glenturret, Loch Lomond, and Cu Bocan (Tomatin). Obviously it won't be Ardnamurchan or Wolfburn since they've only recently had their tenth birthdays, and this whisky is 18-years of age. Mystery malts like these can be a bit of a gamble, since there's often no provenance given at all. At least in this case we have a good age statement and bottling strength, but without having tasted the liquid before purchase, the only real source of reassurance here is knowing the bottler's previous work. In this case I've never tried the "& Whisky" series, but I've had a few bottlings from the Boutique-y and Darkness brands which have been tasty. As always though, the proof is in the tasting. It's the liquid that counts!

First up is the Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire 12-year old Sauternes finish, which is a cask strength single cask Islay single malt bottled at 54.4% ABV. Sauternes is a sweet wine from the Bordeaux region of Southern France, which can work very well with peated whisky - Kilchoman and Port Charlotte/Octomore in particular. Sauternes is a sweet wine produced from white grapes that are affected by the naturally-occurring botrytis cinerea fungus which infects the fruit and consumes its water, concentrating the sugars within. Yields are low and fermentation takes a long time thanks to the high sugars, with the resulting wine often aged in casks for a decade or more. Typically Sauternes casks will add white (grapes, melon) fruit, honey, and sweet citrus flavours, generally they're only used for a short finishing period, but occasionally for full maturation. On paper those flavours wouldn't necessarily be your go-to pairing for a smoky & peaty coastal whisky, and like many cask finishes it doesn't always work! We don't know how long this "& Whisky" has spent in Sauternes casks, or which distillery it came from - chances are it was Caol Ila, of course. Pricing on this one is around $200 AUD, which isn't unreasonable for a 12-year old single cask Islay in this day & age. 413 bottles were released in late-2023, still readily available here in Australia. Just to be confusing, I'm writing this one up before the 18, but I tasted them in the opposite order since this one is a younger Islay. Let's see how it goes!

Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire 12-year old Islay, Sauternes Finish, 54.4%. Islay, Scotland.

Anonymous Islay single malt, finished for unknown period in Sauternes sweet wine cask. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 413 bottles.

Colour: Amber. I'm not sure now if these are natural colour, both have a bit of the "fake tan" glow to them... Hopefully my suspicions are wrong. 

Nose: Peaty, sweet, fruity. Chunky muddy coastal peat, sweet but under-ripe fruit: bananas in particular, bit of apricot and touch of nectarine, all in vanilla syrup. White pepper, drinking chocolate mix / sweetened cocoa powder, bit of fresh tar. Damp freshly mowed grass, and lemon peel. 

Texture: Medium weight. Big peat, ashy, embers, sweet. No heat. 

Taste: Peaty & sweet. Big muddy coastal peat, burnt honeycomb in cooking chocolate / compound chocolate. Those under-ripe fruits plus some pineapple here, and vanilla syrup again. Touch of oily olive brine heading into the finish. 

Finish: Medium length. Thins out a little here, maybe some youth showing through under the cask finishing. Still a nice muddy chunky coastal peatiness, warm woodfire embers & charcoal, white pepper, and a bit of that olive brine again. Those sweet under-ripe bananas and burnt honeycomb again, but with the peat running underneath. Touches of passionfruit & apricot around the edges. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Feels significantly more mature than the 18-year old - Whoops, I suppose that was a spoiler for the next review! Oh well, I might as well double-down then, the 12-year old is the winner in my book! The level of cask influence from the Sauternes finish is just right if you ask me, I wouldn't want any more or less sauternes impact in this style of whisky. Is this a Caol Ila like most of the anonymous Islays? I don't know of course, but I can certainly see it being one. That grassiness and lemon peel is a bit of a giveaway, although I don't recall having a Sauternes cask Caol Ila before so it's tough to guess. I suppose I can tick that box now! Caol Ila's spirit does seem to work with just about any cask, as long as it's not an extremely aggressive sherry cask which would overwhelm any spirit!

Next we have another anonymous single malt from Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire, an 18-year old cask strength which seems to be a semi-regular release - this example is from Batch 2. This one is from the Highlands region which also includes the islands, which makes it impossible to pin down. Based on a quick sniff, out of the list of possibilities above I'm discounting the Island distilleries since the only possibility for this style would be Ledaig, and it isn't dirty or industrial enough in my opinion. Plus Tobermory/Ledaig has never stopped an indy using the distillery name, as far as I can recall. I'm guessing it's either AnCnoc, Glenturret, or Loch Lomond. AnCnoc is the given name for the official bottlings from Knockdhu Distillery, and they do produce some peated bottlings, but I can't recall how long they've been doing so - 18-years is an unlikely possibility, plus that distillery is located in the Speyside region, although the official bottlings are labelled as Highland single malts as Speyside distilleries are permitted to do. So Loch Lomond or Glenturret? Maybe! Mainland peated malts from the can be a little hit & miss in my opinion, and I'm yet to taste one that can compete with the equivalent from Islay or the Islands. But we shouldn't be judging a book by its cover...

Seaweed & Aeons & Digging & Fire 18-year old Highland, 54.8%. Highlands, Scotland.

Anonymous Highland single malt, heavily peated. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 606 bottles. 

Colour: Amber. Again, unsure on colouring but it does look slightly suspicious - hopefully I'm wrong.

Nose: Sweet, meaty, surprisingly peaty & smoky! Loads of burnt smoky bacon, charred pepper steak, touch of aniseed & woody herbs. Runny caramel sauce, wood smoke and chunky earthy peat alongside. Salt-laden driftwood, bitter orange peel, touch of mushroom-y earthiness underneath. 

Texture: Medium weight. Oily sweet, spicy, meaty. Distracting spiky spirit heat, but not overly harsh. 

Taste: Meaty again with more burnt bacon, charred pepper steak, with more green peppercorns now. Sweet vanilla & caramel sauce. Some green chilli flakes & that aniseed again. Less wood smoke here, but it's still there, plus some sweeter orange, and that mushroom-y earthiness underneath. Spiky alcohol heat on the roof of the mouth. 

Finish: Medium length. Spiky heat carries over. More green chilli & green peppercorns, and a little coppery metallic edge. More bacon, caramel sauce, plus sweet orange around the edges. Mushroom-y earthiness and aniseed in the background. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Plenty of flavour here, including a lot of sweetness. It's also quite meaty, but not in a Mortlach or worm tub sort of way, more in a bacon-y, peppery, smoky way which leads me to think that this is a Glenturret. Especially with that slightly metallic edge on the finish, although I do sometimes find that in Inchmoan / peated Loch Lomond as well. Either way my money is on mainland rather than Ledaig, but I'm only guessing. That spiky spirit-y heat on the roof of the mouth is a little distracting, and it seems to anaesthetise the palate a bit which is a shame. But there's enough peat, meat, and sweet to carry it. That would've been a better title for this one; Sweet & Meat & Peat. Atom Brands' marketing department, I'll take my commission via bank transfer thanks!

Cheers!