Old Master Spirits Joadja Whisky Review!

While Old Master Spirits has been dabbling in bottling cognac, armagnac and fortified wine for a while now, proprietors Deni & David are whisky obsessives at heart, and whisky was always going to make an appearance in their portfolio! 

And here it is. The first whisky release from Melbourne's Old Master Spirits ! This is an independent bottling of Australian single malt whisky from New South Wales' Joadja Distillery; a single cask release that was fully matured in a Pedro Ximinez fortified wine cask. But that's not all folks. Old Master have also bottled an actual PX fortified wine to be released alongside theis first whisky release! While they've bottled a fortified wine once before, a Spanish sherry in fact, the difference here is that this PX has been partially aged at Joadja Distillery alongside the single malt release. Which is a very cool idea! Only a couple of Australian whisky producers have released fortified wines to support their wine cask whiskies, and it's a rare occurrence in other whisky markets. That's partly due to the laws surrounding sherry production, but you'll notice that I'm using that term sparingly here. Sherry is protected by a designation of origin (a.k.a DOC/AOC) and can only be made in the "sherry triangle" of Southern Spain, but it must also be bottled in Spain. While this PX was made in Jerez and aged there for some time, it was shipped to Australia in cask, and cannot be sold / labelled as sherry. That also means it's not an apera, which is the Australian industry term for a sherry-style fortified wine. So instead it's simply a PX fortified wine, made in Spain, aged in both Spain and Australia, and bottled in Australia. As important as these regional designations are, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. And this one is certainly sweet! 

Joadja Distillery is located in the historic town of Joadja in southern New South Wales, roughly two hours' drive south-west of Sydney. When I say "historic town" there, you could actually use the words "ghost town". Joadja township is largely ruins, having been abandoned in 1911 after the local shale oil (for kerosene) mine had closed down a few years prior. The land was then sold to a private buyer, and the area became heritage listed in 1999. Joadja Distillery was founded in 2014 by husband & wife team Valero & Elisa Jiminez after they purchased the property at auction in 2011, and found that the previous owner had obtained a distilling license but had never put it into action. As you may guess from their names, Valero & Elisa were both born in Spain, with Elisa hailing from Jerez, the home of sherry, and family ties back to the region have helped Joadja Distillery source authentic Spanish sherry casks. This is quite a rare thing in Australia, where most whisky producers are using Australian apera (Australian sherry-style fortified) casks for logistical reasons. Unfortunately our lax regulations and lack of any real oversight mean that some of these brands can get away with using the word sherry on their labelling & marketing - obviously wanting to capitalise on the popularity of sherry cask whiskies. Joadja are sourcing their sherry casks directly from the sherry bodegas in Spain - and these are not short-term "sherry seasoned" casks like much of the whisky industry uses, these casks have actually been used for sherry maturation, which is a very rare thing these days. There's much more to this distillery than their casks, though - something that can't be said about some other Australian distilleries!

For a start, they have their own natural spring on site, supplying all production (i.e. mashing and diluting) water for their spirits. Speaking of which, aside from malt whisky Joadja also makes gin from their own spirit - another rare thing in Australia - and also aniseed liqueur. Getting back to whisky, Joadja is one of the few distilleries in Australia that is growing their own barley, used for their "Paddock to Bottle" releases, while the other releases use NSW barley sourced from Voyager Maltings. The distillery doesn't have a maltings, although there are plans to build a floor maltings on site, so their farm-grown barley is sent off to Voyager to be malted and then sent back to the distillery for processing. So it's halfway between the setup at Kilchoman, where their farm-grown barley is malted on site and used for their 100% Islay bottlings, and that of Bruichladdich's Islay Barley bottlings, where the Islay-grown barley is malted on the mainland of Scotland. Joadja is also mashing & fermenting their own wash, which is sadly not a legal requirement for Australian single malt whisky like it is in Scotland. Some of the biggest names in our little industry do not ferment their own wash, often sourcing from local breweries instead. Whether this commercially brewed wash is made to their specifications or not, those distilleries are certainly losing the potential benefits of their site's microflora that could be helping with flavour differentiation & development during fermentation. If you ask me, this situation... no, let's call it what it is, it's another gaping loophole in the Australian whisky "regulations". This loophole is why many of our distilleries pay little-to-no attention to this crucial stage of the production process, and it's why many of them rely almost entirely on cask types and cask stories ("this 100-year old cask was used to finish our 2-year old whisky for a couple of months") to differentiate themselves in the rapidly expanding local market. Joadja has chosen not to take this shortcut by fermenting on site, which is great to see!

Like all of their bottlings, Old Master Spirits' first whisky release has been carefully chosen, hand-picked by Deni & David. This release is a single cask of Joadja single malt that has been aged in a 128-litre first-fill PX sherry quarter cask, cask number JW079. The spirit was distilled on the 2nd of April 2020 and bottled in December 2022, making it just over 2.5-years of age - two years being the legal minimum for Australian whisky. This quarter cask yielded 162 x 500ml bottles at a cask strength of 54.9% ABV - that means the angels had taken nearly 50-litres or nearly 40% of the volume from this cask in just 2.5-years! That amount of loss would send any Scottish distillery straight into voluntary administration, and just goes to show the power of the Australian climate, which is both a friend and an enemy, but often leans towards the latter! Old Master Spirits is releasing this single cask Joadja to their subscribers on the 14th of December, and pricing is very reasonable by Australian whisky standards at $149 AUD, while the general release is on the 15th of December with pricing set at $169 AUD. So it certainly pays to sign yourself up to their mailing list! 

Old Master Spirits Joadja Singe Malt, 54.9% ABV. NSW, Australia.

Distilled 2/4/2020, matured in a first-fill ex-Spanish PX sherry quarter cask, #JW079, bottled December 2022 at cask strength. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 162 x 500ml bottles. 

Colour: Dark bronze. 

Nose: Holy sweet sherry bomb, batman! Rich treacle, burnt golden syrup (bitter), raisins & currants macerated in syrup, eucalyptus resin. Surprisingly smoky, but we're far from peat smoke, this is an Australian bushfire (a.k.a. scrub fire / wildfire). Touch of dark chocolate, date syrup, and a fistful of blowtorched orange rind.  

Texture: Medium weight. Very, very sweet, rich, and syrupy. Dripping with sweet PX. No heat at all.

Taste: More raisins & currants macerated in sugar syrup. More rich treacle and burnt golden syrup. Surprisingly smoky again (bushfire, not peat smoke). Crystallised ginger coated in dark chocolate. Eucalyptus resin & blowtorched orange rind. Date syrup sweetness.  

Finish: Medium-long length. Burnt golden syrup sweetness, more raisins & currants in syrup, but poured over melting vanilla ice cream this time. That surprising bushfire smokiness running underneath, plus some coffee grounds and more burnt orange peel adding some (wanted & needed) bitterness. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. But that massive sweetness is pushing my boundaries!

Notes: Only sweet tooths & sherry bombers need apply! If you don't like PX sherry then you may struggle with this one. Personally I do like a good PX sherry on the odd occasion (i.e. Christmas), but this is one of the sweetest whiskies I've had in a long time, and I must admit a few of my teeth have lost some enamel. If you're trying to cut back on sugar before the festive season, one sip of this Joadja will have you falling off the wagon. It's certainly not an artificial sweetness though, and it stops just shy of being cloying, needing those smoky and bitter notes to counter that massive syrupy sweetness. What isn't there, thankfully, is a massive hit of oak. This is a PX-dominated whisky, but not an oak-dominated whisky; a hugely sweet sherry bomb yes, but a wood monster, no. Which I'd assume is due to the ex-bodega sherry cask that has been used for sherry maturation, as opposed to a new oak cask that was seasoned with wine for a short period. These ex-bodega sherry casks can be very old and have often been used for multiple sherry maturations, with the previous contents taking out much of the wood impact and the barrel staves becoming soaked with wine in the process. 

While the eucalyptus notes here can be found in many Australian whiskies, the smokiness in this dram is very surprising and completely unexpected. Since this was a wet-fill cask I can't see that being cask char, and it's more intense here than what I've experienced from freshly-charred casks. If memory serves this is actually my first taste of a Joadja, so I can't really comment on what could've caused this. It's a pleasant mystery though, trying to keep that sweetness in check. There's not really any spirit character or barley character to speak of here, but there's obviously a massive market for this "sherry bomb" style - see Glendronach, Macallan, Kavalan, Glenallachie, et al. This Old Master Spirits Joadja could actually pass for a young PX matured Glendronach single cask, perhaps one of the teenaged bottlings that were released a few years ago during the Billy Walker era. Which is rather high praise for a 2.5-year old Australian whisky!

But that's not all, folks. We're following this sweet dessert whisky with a sweet fortified dessert wine! This Spanish PX was aged in Jerez, Spain for 5-years, then was transferred to a small 64-litre ex-brandy cask before being shipped to Australia in barrel. It spent another two years in this brandy cask, resulting in the ABV climbing from 15% to 17% as it lost more water than ethanol - there's that Australian climate again! Funnily enough Joadja didn't realise that this cask was still full of fortified wine until the Old Master team stumbled across it while searching through their whisky casks, so this little number was meant to be! This PX fortified wine (technically neither sherry nor apera) is going to be released simultaneously with the whisky above on the 14th of December (pre-sale for subscribers), in a 500ml bottle at it's natural strength of 17% ABV, with 110 bottles available. The asking price for this PX is only $39 AUD, with Spanish sherries often going for $50 or more here, and often in a 375ml bottle. So that's quite a reasonable price again. I'd say sweet tooths will want one of these...

Firstly, this stuff is as black as a Kardashian's soul. Loch Dhu seems light grey in comparison. This is an extremely concentrated, intense, thick & viscous wine with plenty of raisin sweetness, but also with bitter orange peel and plenty of wood spices. Massive length on the palate, concentrated sultanas in syrup, with extra sultanas and extra syrup. Even as rich & sweet Pedro Ximinez goes, this is take-no-prisoners. I imagine it would be awesome poured over some ice cream. Just be ready to catch your teeth as they fall out afterwards!

As I knew from the start, this is far from a mere add-on or an up-sell. This PX is truly delicious in it's own right, I can see why Deni & David just had to bottle it. Massively rich & intense. It'll make for a brilliant Christmas Day tipple, particularly if it's chasing a dram of Old Master's first whisky release! Happy Hunting folks.

Thanks to Old Master Spirits' Deni Kay for the samples of these two delicious drinks, and congrats to the team on their first whisky release! Something tells me we'll be seeing more of them in the future...

Cheers!