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!