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!