Bakery Hill The Blunderbuss Whisky Review!

A unique limited release from one of Australian whisky's quiet achievers, Victoria's Bakery Hill Distillery. This is easily my favourite beer/ale/stout cask influenced whisky to date!

Despite being overshadowed by Melbourne stablemate Starward and the more glamorous Tasmanian brands, Bakery Hill Distillery has been around since the Australian whisky industry was in its infancy. In fact if I'm remembering the timeline correctly this was the first malt whisky distillery to open on the mainland of Australia since the 1980s, and it was only the fourth Australian malt whisky distillery (after Cradle Mountain, Lark, and Sullivan's Cove) to be established after Bill Lark's famous epiphany struck in 1993, kickstarting the Australian whisky industry as we know it. Founded in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs by chemistry teacher David Baker in 1999, Bakery Hill Distillery's first three expressions were released back in 2003, including the first peated Australian single malt, even attracting attention from a certain infamous hat-wearing whisky writer a couple of years later. Even in those early days Bakery Hill stood apart in our fledgling industry by favouring ex-bourbon casks for maturation, primarily from Jack Daniels (let's just call it bourbon), when the majority of our producers were focussing on ex-wine and ex-fortified wine casks that were much more plentiful on these shores. Just as important was Bakery Hill's use of larger-format and full-size casks, initially 50-litre and then 100-litre, 200-litre, and 225-litre (recoopered) capacity, at a time when our producers were leaning heavily on the 20-litre casks that unfortunately then became synonymous with Australian whisky - thankfully that trend is shifting now. I'd argue that Bakery Hill was ahead of that curve right from the start, and they've only been filling full-size casks for quite some time now, letting the spirit itself have more of a voice. 

Being made from charred American oak rather than French oak, and having previously matured a spirit rather than wine or fortified wine, means that the influence of both the wood and the previous contents on the spirit is more supportive rather than aggressive, and they allow for slower and steadier maturation than a smaller French oak ex-wine cask would. Obviously this is still an Australian whisky so the climate still has a large part to play in the maturation process, particularly in Melbourne where the weather swings from one extreme to the next, but opting for a less aggressive wood type in a relatively large format helps to balance out this effect rather than accelerate it. I'd argue that this more conservative approach to cask types and maturation has kept Bakery Hill out of the spotlight in comparison with some of the louder & larger players in the industry who lean almost entirely on cask types and wood influence for both their flavour profile and their marketing. That's another thing that has unfortunately become synonymous with Australian whisky, but thankfully it's another trend that is slowly changing! Despite a minor expansion and increase in production around 5-years ago, Bakery Hill is still a very small distillery, even by Australian standards. But David and his son Andrew are soon relocating to a new site close to the Melbourne CBD which will also feature a cellar door and tasting bar. It'll also allow for a proper increase in production giving them more scope for limited releases and also more capacity for export.

These days Bakery Hill's whisky is generally aged for 6-7 years in full-sized ex-bourbon casks, and those three initial releases; unpeated ex-bourbon cask Classic Malt, unpeated virgin French oak-finished Double Wood, and ex-bourbon cask Peated Malt, still form the distillery's core range. Interestingly Bakery Hill only bottles single casks, even in these core releases at 46% ABV, so no two batches will ever be exactly the same. There are also cask strength releases of both the Classic Malt and Peated Malt available on a regular basis, and there have been a number of limited releases in the last few years that have finally given this tiny distillery some well-deserved attention. The Bakery Hill release that we're looking at today was one of the first of these limited releases, hitting the market back in mid-2020. Bakery Hill 'The Blunderbuss' was a collaboration with Melbourne brewery Hop Nation, who acquired a freshly emptied ex-bourbon cask that had matured Bakery Hill's Peated Malt for over a decade, and promptly filled it with their 'Kalash' Imperial Stout. After ageing the beer for 3-4 months, the cask was emptied and sent back to Bakery Hill, where it was promptly filled with unpeated 6-year old ex-bourbon cask single malt which was left to mature for another 12-months. So an unpeated Bakery Hill whisky that was finished in an ex-stout cask which had previously matured a peated Bakery Hill whisky!

Stout cask finishes are becoming more popular in whisky production as are ale / beer casks in general, with some big "old world" names like Teeling, Jameson, Glenfiddich, and even Lagavulin dipping their toes in the water recently. Barrel-aged beers are usually filled into refill casks, typically ex-whisky or ex-whiskey, and only for relatively short periods of 1-2 years at most. The lower ABV of the liquid is gentler on the wood than a spirit would be, so in theory the barrels should have plenty of life left in them once the beer is emptied out. Not all stout beers/ales are barrel aged, but all are made from high percentages of heavily roasted barley, which provide the characteristic dark colour and dark / burnt caramel and coffee flavours that tend to come through in the resulting whisky. The term 'Imperial' only refers to a higher alcohol content, typically 9-10% ABV (roughly double that of a typical full strength beer), originally to slow spoilage and prevent freezing during shipping. Since we're talking about names, why "The Blunderbuss"? A Blunderbuss is basically an ancient shotgun with a short barrel and flared muzzle, but what an old gun has to do with this whisky I couldn't say - something to do with the flavour profile perhaps? Or like the guy printed on the label it could be linking back to the Hop Nation 'Kalash' stout which refers to Kalashnikov - as in AK47. There was a second Blunderbuss release from Bakery Hill in 2022 which spent two years in the ex-stout cask rather than one, and it was bottled at 58.0% rather than 52.0% like the first release that we're looking at today. I was lucky enough to nab this 2020 bottling at auction for a very reasonable price, below the original retail pricing in fact. So I had to crack it open!

Bakery Hill The Blunderbuss, NAS (see below), 52.0%. Melbourne, Australia.

7-year old single malt matured in ex-bourbon cask for 6-years, finished in ex-stout cask for 12-months. Stout cask had held beer for 3-4 months, after maturing peated Bakery Hill single malt for 10-years.

Colour: Full gold. 

Nose: Malty, fruity, and rich. A little nippy too. Thick burnt caramel, thick honey, touch of coffee grounds, and passionfruit curd a.k.a. passionfruit butter (sweet & tangy). Brown butter, vanilla cream, under-ripe tropical fruit (banana, guava, pineapple). Heavily roasted malt behind, and a tiny puff of earthy peat. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight. Rich, malty & creamy. Minor heat, warming. 

Taste: Thick roasted malt again, more coffee grounds and burnt caramel. Dark honey, same under-ripe tropical fruits again, and some mocha (coffee & chocolate) ice cream. 

Finish: Long length. Bitter dark chocolate, more roasted malt, and a touch of that passionfruit curd / passionfruit butter. Touch of spicy wood smoke comes out with the vanilla cream, honey, and coffee grounds. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. Only just over the line, though.

Notes: Still my favourite stout / ale cask finished whisky to date. It's a little boozy and rough around the edges at times, but the sheer volume of flavour more than makes up for it, as does the balance between the stout cask, the original ex-bourbon cask, and the lovely citrusy & malty unpeated spirit. Worth remembering that this is only a 7-year old whisky too, and it's been matured in large format casks which is not the norm in Australian whisky. While I'm yet to taste the second Blunderbuss release I can guess why they've given it that extra year in cask, although that could mean that it's too heavy on the stout influence, whereas the level of cask influence in this original release is bang-on for my tastes. That mix of bitter chocolate, roasted malt, and burnt caramel from the stout cask, the honey and vanilla from the original cask, and the hint of peat from the original contents of the ex-stout cask, and then the tangy citrus and creamy maltiness from the unpeated whisky all add up to one very flavoursome Bakery Hill! 

Stout drinkers should love this one, including the one-time stout drinkers like myself who can't stomach the stuff anymore! It's a different style of whisky than anything I've tasted before from these shores, which is certainly a breath of fresh air. No more fortified or red wine cask single malts here please, let's cash-in on our massive craft beer industry and put those beer casks to work!

Cheers!