Bakery Hill Blunderbuss 2022 & Metamorphosis Whisky Reviews!

Two recent additions from Melbourne's quiet achievers, Bakery Hill! We have the second release of Blunderbuss, their stout cask finish, and Metamorphosis, their first Muscat cask finish, which is peated!

Distillery founder David Baker & son Andrew.

Once largely unknown outside of their home state of Victoria, Melbourne's Bakery Hill is finally starting to make significant waves in the Australian whisky scene after more than 23-years of hard work. I've gone through more of the distillery's origins and points of difference in this recent review, but for many years David Baker and his team were focused on building a solid core range of regular expressions, of consistent quality, at a time when most of the Australian industry were only concerned with the latest limited edition or single cask. Bakery Hill only release single cask bottlings across their entire single malt portfolio, but somehow still manage to keep a level of consistent quality that many larger distilleries would envy! From day one they also focused on retaining the distillery character and spirit character in their whiskies, via the use of larger format ex-bourbon casks, at a time when most of the industry was only concerned with producing the darkest, sweetest - and often youngest - cask driven whisky that they could. Sadly that's still the case for many of our distilleries, where a combination of very clean new make spirits, very active and/or small format wine casks, and of course the Australian climate, deprive their whiskies of any spirit signature or distillery character in no time at all. Thankfully that approach is changing in the wider industry these days! 

Aside from these two important points of difference, this tiny operation has always offered reasonable pricing and solid value for money, despite their tiny production capacity. Even here in 2023 where many Australian & Tasmanian whiskies are selling for (or at least asking for) exorbitant prices, Bakery Hill's three core range whiskies - Classic Malt, Double Wood, and Peated Malt - sit at $170 AUD or less, while the two regular cask strength bottlings - Classic Malt and Peated Malt - are at $220 or less. That may sound like a high figure for those playing overseas, and yes they're 500ml bottes, but here in the great southern tax land that's firmly in the mid- to lower end range of the smaller producers. For comparison's sake, Lark's entry level 'Classic Cask' retails for $200 in a 500ml bottle at only 43%, jumping to $250 for their core range Cask Strength, and both are around 5-year olds of age from a much larger company - they're even listed on the Australian stock exchange. Even Bakery Hill's limited releases, which like the core range are all single cask bottlings, are kept at that $180-220 price level, including the two that we're looking at today. 

First cab off the rank in this two-for-one review is the second release of Bakery Hill Blunderbuss, which is a stout cask finish. I've reviewed the first Blunderbuss release here, which hit the shelves in mid-2020, and once again with the 2022 release there's more to this story than a simple beer cask finish. This unpeated single malt first spent six years in an ex-bourbon barrel - already practically middle-aged for an Australian whisky - before spending two further years in an ex-stout cask from Melbourne's Hop Nation brewery. That would be interesting enough on its own, but the stout cask in this case was an ex-bourbon barrel which had previously matured a batch of Bakery Hill's peated single malt - for over a decade! So this cask was an ex-bourbon barrel which then matured Bakery Hill peated single malt, then matured a batch of Hop Nation's 'Kalash' Imperial Stout, then went back to Bakery Hill where it was filled with six-year old unpeated single malt to give us Blunderbuss. Which brings us to the differences between 2020's first edition and this 2022 second release! While the first spent one year in the stout cask for a total age of seven years, this second iteration has seen that finishing period extended out to two years, giving it a total age of eight. The other difference here is in ABV, with the 2020 coming in at 52.0% and this 2022 weighing in at a hefty 58.0%. While the distillery has sold out of this release it can still be found in a couple of other Australian retailers, and both releases were priced at $220 - it's tough to find anything that hasn't jumped in price between 2020 and 2022, so that's commendable. I definitely enjoyed the 2020 edition, but this one promises to be more intense!

Bakery Hill Blunderbuss 2022 Edition, Stout Cask Finish, 58.0%. Melbourne, Australia.

8-year old unpeated single malt matured in an ex-bourbon barrel for 6-years, finished in an ex-Hop Nation stout cask for 2-years. Stout cask was previously an ex-bourbon barrel which had matured Bakery Hill's peated single malt for over a decade. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 250 bottles.

Colour: Amber. 

Nose: Malty, rich, toasty & "stouty". Rich burnt caramel, treacle, and fresh double cream. Fresh chocolate porter beer with foamy head. Touches of sweet tropical fruit & honey underneath. Lemon curd, passionfruit cream, and freshly roasted coffee beans. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich & warming, toasty & roasty. Slight heat but carries it well. 

Taste: More treacle, chocolate porter beer, and a lovely roasted maltiness. Fresh vanilla marshmallow, strong sweetened coffee with cream. Puffs of earthy peat smoke running underneath. 

Finish: Long length. Becoming fruitier with pineapple juice, passionfruit cream, and lemon curd. Dark chocolate mousse, some crystallised ginger, and coffee grounds. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Another big, rich, stouty, Blunderbuss of a whisky! There's definitely more stout influence here than in the first release from 2020, which is to be expected since it's spent twice as long in the stout cask. It hasn't gone too far though, there's still that sweet tropical fruit, citrus & honey from the spirit and from the original cask. The higher ABV doesn't seem to have done any damage either, carrying itself nicely at that significantly higher strength. I must admit though, while there's not much between them I have to give the win to the first release, and yes I did try them side-by-side just to be sure. The first release just feels a little rounder and more complete, but they're certainly very similar as far as flavour profile and character. Which is to say, they're both very tasty! Now on to part two...

Next up, the latest limited "seasonal" release from Bakery Hill, titled Metamorphosis. Quite the fancy title, but David was a chemistry teacher after all... The word essentially means "to change physical form or structure", e.g. from a caterpillar to a butterfly, in this case referring to the cask finish completely changing the profile of this whisky. Bakery Hill Metamorphosis is a peated single malt, distilled from heavily peated Scottish barley sourced from Baird's on the mainland. The vast majority of peated Australian whisky is made from imported peated malted barley, often mixed in with unpeated Australian malted barley to reduce the peat level, since our commercial maltsters won't entertain the small volumes required by our distillers and won't risk tainting any future batches of malt intended for their corporate brewery contracts. This Bakery Hill was distilled in 2014 and aged for 6-years in an ex-bourbon barrel before being finished in an ex-muscat fortified wine cask for 2-years, and was bottled in 2023 at 48% ABV without chill filtration or added colour. Muscat is a grape variety, but in Australia the term generally refers to a sweet fortified wine also known as a Liqueur Muscat or Rutherglen Muscat after the main producing region. It's broadly similar to a port or tawny in style, rich & sweet, often aged in French oak for a decade or more and typically bottled at 17-18% ABV. These muscat casks are becoming more commonly used in Australian whisky, with larger producers such as Lark, Starward, and Morris all releasing muscat cask whiskies recently. The cask used for Bakery Hill Metamorphosis was a single French oak muscat cask sourced from an unnamed winery in north-eastern Victoria. This release is still available from the distillery website and from a couple of Australian retailers, going for around $190 AUD. 

Bakery Hill Metamorphosis, Muscat Cask Finish, 48.0%. Melbourne, Australia.

8-year old peated single malt matured in an ex-bourbon barrel for 6-years and finished in a French oak ex-Muscat fortified wine cask for 2-years. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 290 bottles. 

Colour: Pale gold.

Nose: Big peat! Ashy, dry, bitter, earthy peat with touches of burnt fatty bacon and charcoal briquettes. Nicely acidic too, with lemon zest, white grapes, and a little green banana. Hint of creamy vanilla underneath. Sweet stone fruit coming through with more time. 

Texture: Medium weight. Surprisingly peaty, sweet & fruity. No heat. 

Taste: Big ashy, dry, earthy, bitter peat again. That burnt fatty bacon too, plus a pinch of black pepper now. Green banana and white grape again, but sweeter here with some fairy floss / cotton candy, candied lemon, and sweet dried orange. 

Finish: Medium length. Still peaty, but becomes more creamy, citrusy and fruity here. Touch of salt, and tart green apple around the edges. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Very tasty, and surprisingly peaty! It's been a while since I last tasted Bakery Hill's standard peated single malt, but I don't remember it being this peaty, even at cask strength compared to the 48% in this Metamorphosis release. The muscat cask is nicely integrated as well, not over-sweet & wine dominated like some of the other muscat cask Australian whiskies that I've tried. Instead this just adds some extra sweetness and fruitiness without overtaking the spirit or overdoing the sweetness. Not the most complex dram perhaps, but it's firing on all cylinders and will hit the spot for any lover of peated malts - which is not something I'd say about many peated Australian whiskies. Very well done. 

Overall Notes: More great work from this small team of quiet achievers. These two and the first Blunderbuss release are my first experiences of cask finished Bakery Hills, previously I'd only tried the Classic and Peated both at 46% and at cask strength, which are all straight ex-bourbon cask maturation. And I'm very, very impressed! The balance between the finishing cask influence, the original cask influence, and the spirit character is excellent. Which again is not something I'd say about many Australian whiskies where the cask often dominates completely. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone though, since Bakery Hill has always been about balance between cask and spirit, patient maturation in more supportive cask types rather than dominant ones, and in larger size formats as well. Which means allowing both aspects to shine, and creating a whisky that is greater than the sum of its parts. And that's the name of the game!

Thanks to the distillery's Andrew Baker for the samples for these reviews, and for all the hard work that he & his father David have put into their whisky over the years. There's a new larger distillery in the works at the moment that is much closer to Melbourne itself, which will certainly help Bakery Hill get more attention. Here's to more of their delicious whiskies in the years to come!

Cheers!

Glenallachie Future Edition 4-year Old Whisky Review!

4-year old Glenallachie? 60.2% ABV? The first release of a Glenallachie single malt that was distilled during Billy Walker's ownership? And the first-ever distillation of a peated spirit at Glenallachie. This'll very interesting!

Speyside's Glenallachie Distillery is looking like it'll be another Billy Walker success story, much like Benriach, Glendronach, and Glenglassaugh (to a lesser extent) that came before it. This legendary Master Distiller now has his own cult following, having rescued those three distilleries from their previous owners and then brought them out of the shadows, with the once largely-unknown Benriach and Glendronach now sitting comfortably among the most highly regarded distilleries in Scotland. The revival of these two distilleries under Walker & Co. was so successful that American corporation Brown Forman purchased them in a package deal along with third wheel Glenglassaugh, paying a whopping £285-million for the trio of distilleries back in 2016. Billy Walker didn't rest on his laurels for long, purchasing Glenallachie Distillery from Chivas Brothers (Pernod Ricard) in late 2017 with two business partners, and forming The Glenallachie Distillery Company. As you'd expect from Walker's past performance with rescuing neglected workhorse distilleries from corporate blended whisky machines, he did the same here. Glenallachie was largely unknown as a single malt outside of a couple of official bottlings and some scattered independent bottlings, with most of the 3-4 million litre annual production going into Pernod's blended whiskies like Chivas Regal and Clan Campbell. This is a relatively young distillery that was built in 1967, essentially designed to quickly & efficiently produce a light spirit destined to be used as blend filler. With only two pairs of stills that large production capacity was achieved by quick fermentation and quick & efficient distillation, all in the name of pumping out spirit that would be blended into oblivion and reduced to 40% ABV. One interesting point equipment-wise is that the condensers on the stills, which are the modern shell & tube type as you'd expect, are actually mounted horizontally, which is something I've never seen before. This was supposedly done since the distillery was designed to be gravity fed in the name of energy efficiency, and also to give more control over the condenser temperatures. 

Soon after Mr. Walker & Co purchased Glenallachie they extended the fermentation times out to 160 hours and drastically slowed distillation in search of a quality new make spirit. This cut that 3-4 million litre production capacity down to 800,000-litres, with actual production currently sitting at around 500,000. The GlenAllachie brand - note the change to a capital 'A', which is a hallmark of Billy Walker's rescued distilleries - was re-launched as a single malt in mid-2018, with the core range featuring 8-15 year old whiskies and beyond, mostly finished in a number of different cask types ranging from virgin oak to ex-rye whiskey casks and many, many more. As you'd expect from the owners Glenallachie whiskies are now bottled at 46% ABV and above, and are non-chill filtered and natural colour. There's also a range of single cask bottlings and small batch wood finished limited releases, which is another trademark of Billy's. In my experience so far Glenallachie is certainly quite heavy on cask influence, which is no surprise considering these releases were all distilled under the previous owners and probably needed a helping hand to get them up to par. That's often the case with these rescued / resuscitated distilleries. So far I've only tried the flagship 12-year old and a couple of different batches of the 10-year old Cask Strength, which in all honesty haven't exactly wowed me. I do hear that the 15-year old is the highlight of the core range, so I'll keep an open mind as always, but the 10-year old cask strength in particular was surprisingly rough and hot, even after adding water. That track record could be about to change though, since the Glenallachie that we're looking at here is the first release of spirit that was distilled under the current owners, so with the longer fermentation time and slower distillation put into practice. And it's also the first peated spirit ever released by the distillery! 

Glenallachie 'Future Edition' is a 4-year old single malt that was released to celebrate Billy Walker's 50th anniversary in the whisky industry. There was also a 'Present Edition' and a 'Past Edition' released at the same time, both aged for 16-years, with the 'Present' being finished in virgin Mizunara (Japanese oak) casks and the 'Past' being fully matured in sherry casks. This 'Future Edition' was distilled in 2017-2018 and bottled in August 2022 at 4-years of age, and at a cask strength of 60.2% ABV. 10,000 bottles were released, taken from a mix of ex-bourbon, ex-rye, and virgin oak casks that were matured separately and vatted together. Aside from the casks, the long fermentation, and the slower distillation, the obvious point of difference here is the peat. This is the first peated Glenallachie ever released, in this case using mainland peat from St. Fergus on the east coast of Scotland, with the malted barley apparently peated to 80 ppm. That's a surprisingly high figure, but I'm not sure if this release was entirely distilled from that peated barley or if there was some unpeated malt / unpeated spirit included in the vatting. For a 4-year old whisky this bottle was on the expensive side from day one, priced at £80 RRP in Great Britain, which would be the equivalent of around $220-250 AUD once landed here in Australia. But it's the first peated Glenallachie ever, it's taken from the first distillation runs under the new owners, and it's bottled at cask strength, so that's understandable. As you'd expect it sold out quite quickly, and it was never imported into Australia. Some local retailers have parallel imported small quantities, and their attempted pricing is frankly stupid. Circa $550 AUD stupid. Unsurprisingly that retailer still has stock available, and let's hope it stays that way. The sample for this review came from a fellow whisky nerd who imported a bottle straight from Europe, and generously sent me a sample to take a look at. Let's do it!

Glenallachie 'Future Edition' 4-year old, 60.2%. Speyside, Scotland.

First release distilled under Billy Walker ownership, first peated Glenallachie ever released. Mainland peat, 80 ppm but unsure of % of peated malt used. Distilled 2018, matured in ex-bourbon, ex-rye, and virgin oak, bottled August 2022. Non-chill filtered, natural colour, 10,000 bottles.

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Sweet, smoky & fruity. Quite sweet in fact. Brisket burnt ends, charcoal briquettes, chemical fire starters (hexamine / kerosene). Cold wood smoke, cinnamon sugar, fatty smoked bacon. Touch of rubber bandaids, fried banana drizzled with thin honey. Sweet nutty oak, red apples, and black pepper. 

Texture: Light-medium weight. Syrupy texture, sweet & smoky. Quite hot & sharp. 

Taste: Sharp & hot entry, with burnt bacon and hot ashy wood smoke. Cinnamon flavoured syrup, touch of strong milk coffee, black pepper, and over-roasted nuts. Sweet oak, baking spices, touch of juniper around the edges. 

Finish: Long length. More cinnamon flavoured syrup, over-roasted nuts, and a touch of fresh rye bread. Sweet red apple, maple syrup, black pepper, and burnt bacon. Flashes of those bandaids & charcoal briquettes to finish. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Well it certainly is very interesting. The nose is excellent, although certainly on the sweet side there's a nice balance with burnt BBQ meats and wood smoke. The palate and finish lean away from the BBQ notes a touch but become really very sweet, with those cinnamon flavoured syrup notes bordering on sickly for my palate. It's also rather hot, and even aggressive at times. I know this is only a 4-year old whisky, but I always find the Glenallachie 10-year old Cask Strength to be hot & aggressive so I can't help but draw parallels here. Granted this "Future Edition" is substantially younger but unlike the 10-year old it's substantially peated, which would usually help to calm / hide some rough edges in the spirit. I have no doubt that Billy Walker knows what he's doing with the longer fermentation and slower distillation, so the spirit probably just needs more age to round it off. Which will hopefully negate the perceived need for virgin oak involvement, which has to be responsible for most of that almost-artificial syrupy sweetness that isn't really floating my boat. I'm not being an ageist here though, I've had some brilliant whiskies around this age or even younger - e.g. some Kilchoman single casks, Kilkerran Heavily Peated, even some Octomores - that didn't need another day of maturation. 

This spirit is certainly one to watch though, at least with a few more years under its belt. But for the love of god, don't pay $500 AUD for this 4-year old whisky. It's not worth that in any way, shape or form. Frankly I'm not sure if I'd buy it at the 85 GBP recommended retail either, which would probably equate to $220 AUD or so once it landed here in Australia. I know Billy Walker has his devout following in the whisky enthusiast world, and rightly so given what he pulled off with Benriach and Glendronach. Glenglassaugh too, to a lesser extent. But this 4-year old Glenallachie is really only a progress report, and it should be treated as such - a core range based on this spirit with some decent age should be excellent. Let's see what the future holds!

Cheers!