A great Australian name for a great Australian whisky. One of the rarer styles of Australian whisky too - peated single malt matured in a bourbon cask! But there's much more to this dram than the name might imply.
Iniquity is the single malt whisky produced by South Australia's Tin Shed Distilling Co., which is located in a former flagpole factory in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, SA's capital city. This is not a ritzy, glamorous distillery by any means; and you won't find a fancy visitor's centre or fine dining restaurant attached to it either. But what you will find is a couple of people making tasty whisky in their own quiet way, without cutting corners and without shouting their own praises from the rooftops. Tin Shed is not a newcomer to the industry either, in fact the first iteration of this small distillery was one of the first built on the mainland of Australia. It was then known as Southern Coast Distillers (see here for more information), but after a disagreement between the business partners that company was dissolved in 2012. Ian Schmidt, one of the original owners, along with his business partner Vic Orlow saw the distillery reborn as Tin Shed Distilling Co. in 2013, and they now produce vodka, rum and more importantly, single malt whisky under the label 'Iniquity' - which essentially means naughty or wicked behaviour. Importantly, Iniquity single malt is mashed and fermented/brewed on site prior to distillation - which is sadly not a legal requirement for single malt in Australia - and is then double-distilled in a copper pot still.
Being located in one of Australia's main wine-producing states has its advantages, and Ian & Vic are able to source red wine, white wine and fortified - tawny (Australian port) and apera (Australian sherry) - wine casks, but also brandy, rum and bourbon casks from further afield. I've prattled on about this before, but more Australian distilleries should be looking into bourbon casks to help their spirit stand apart from the rest, rather than the "standard operating procedure" route of 20- or 50-litre French oak tawny/apera casks. If you ask me, going for a lighter cask influence in our climate - whether that be ex-bourbon casks, or full-size rather than smaller casks, or refill casks, or all of the above - is even more beneficial when you're looking at making peated spirit to avoid the peat influence being overwhelmed by the wood and/or the previous contents. Most peated Australian whiskies are only very lightly peated by Scotch whisky standards, and many of them have a peat influence that is barely detectable in the completed whisky. Thankfully a couple of our producers have been doing this for years, but there are now more options on the shelves when it comes to ex-bourbon cask Australian whisky and peated ex-bourbon cask Australian whisky. Unfortunately a large proportion of Australian whisky drinkers still believe that darker means better, which is absolutely not the case, but thanks to that misguided belief the darker your whisky is, the faster it will sell. Although to be fair that's still a common train of thought all over the whisky world. A pale whisky is nothing to be afraid of folks!
Which brings us to today's review: Iniquity Flustercluck. If you haven't picked up on it already, this name is a play on words, relating to the series of errors that went in to producing this particular whisky. Error isn't really the right word though, so let's quote Bob Ross instead. These "happy accidents" started with the malted barley itself, which is peated, but not in the usual way. Iniquity's peated barley is commercially malted and brought in to the distillery unpeated, but is then "re-wet" with water and then dried using peat smoke. A couple of other Australian distilleries do this, and it's mainly because most of our commercial maltsters either don't produce peated barley at all, or they won't produce peated barley in small enough quantities to suit the size of most of our distilleries. Naturally this method does not give you the same effect as using peat in the actual malting process, and as always it also depends on where the peat itself was sourced from, just like it does in Scotch whisky. So far, Iniquity's peated barley has been re-dried using South Australian peat. But in the case of this Flustercluck release, the first "happy accident" happened when the distillery instead used some old Tasmanian peat that had been gifted to them by an agricultural research institute. And when I say old, I mean it was cut long ago - this peat was cut from the Tasmanian Highlands in 1932! Pre-World War II, and pre-atomic age.
The second "happy accident" happened when there was a misunderstanding when it came time to fill the new make spirit into a cask - rather than being reduced from still strength to 60% for filling, it was reduced down to 48% before going into cask. They filled this spirit into a 200-litre ex-Heaven Hill bourbon cask, which was a complete departure for Iniquity at the time - hence it being part of their "Anomaly" series of limited bottlings that show a different side to the distillery! The cask was also "temporarily" left in a high spot on the distillery's racking - which I'm guessing means that they forgot it was up there! Given that low initial filling strength, cask strength in this case was 49.1% ABV, so it's actually increased slightly over its 2-3 years of maturation (because more water has evaporated than ethanol), and is natural colour and non-chill filtered. Pricing was reasonable at the time of release at around $180 AUD in a 700ml bottle, and stock did seem to last for quite some time, although it seems to have almost dried up now. So let's see if these "happy accidents" have paid off, shall we?
Distilled from malted barley dried with Tasmanian peat cut in 1932, filled into cask at 48%, matured in a 200-litre Heaven Hill bourbon barrel for 2-3 years and bottled at cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.
Colour: Pale gold.
Nose: Creamy, smoky, lightly musty. Melted salted butter, creamy vanilla custard and dusty, dry & earthy peat. Touch of strong aged cheddar, lightly acidic too. Touch of cinnamon around the edges and a little fizzy effervescence as well.
Texture: Medium weight. Creamy, dusty, musty & smoky. No heat at all.
Taste: Dry, earthy peat and ashy smoke with creamy vanilla custard running underneath. A lovely dank, dusty mustiness and a touch of that salted butter again.
Finish: Short-medium length. That dry, earthy peatiness follows through, plus some bitter smoke, touch of warm oak and some white pepper.
Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Notes: Adelaide goes to Islay!?! There are certainly shades of Caol Ila or Bowmore-level peatiness with a dry, earthy style of peat that is totally different from the lighter, floral peat influence found in the Tasmanian whiskies that also use the state's peat and the same "re-wetting" smoking method. Although few of those use 100% peated malted barley like this Iniquity, they're usually a mix of peated & unpeated barley for an extremely light, often undetectable, peat influence. That more prominent peat in this Iniquity is helped by the lighter impact of the bourbon cask, which is giving a lovely creaminess and a balanced sweetness without dominating the spirit or the peat.
A great young showing from Iniquity, very different to their usual output - which is why it's part of the "anomaly" series of course! I also don't see much wrong with that lower cask filling strength - that's something that a few Australian distilleries are going towards now, and all the better for it! Whiskies like Melbourne's Starward and Byron Bay's Highwayman are purposely filled into casks at around 55% ABV rather than the natural still strength or the Scotch whisky standard of 63.5% ABV. And that helps both with wood influence but also with volatile alcohol compounds, which in many Australian whiskies survive the (admittedly short) maturation periods and give a hot & harsh spirit as a result. Particularly when they're matured in small casks - another great point of this Iniquity, with just 2-3 years in a full-sized bourbon barrel doing the trick nicely. So keep an eye out for a bourbon cask peated Australian whisky!
Cheers!
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