Hellyers Road Richly Peated 9 Year Old Whisky Review!

A new heavily peated ex-bourbon cask release from Tasmania's Hellyers Road Distillery! Might as well take a quick look at the specifics of peated whisky in Australia, and peated Australian whisky, while we're at it...

Peated Australian whiskies aren't as easy to come by as you might think. We whisky fans do love a 'smoky" single malt in this country, but the overwhelming majority of that "smoky" single malt consumed here is Scotch whisky - probably lead by Lagavulin 16, and then following by Laphroaig 10. But that dominance of peated Scotch doesn't mean we don't make peated single malt in this country, far from it. There are peated malts made in every whisky-producing state in the country, from Highwayman in NSW, to Limeburners in WA, Fleurieu in SA, and Bakery Hill in VIC. But they're surprisingly scarce down in Tasmania, the island state that is almost synonymous with Australian single malt. There are now something like thirty-five whisky distilleries on this island state, but the majority of those don't produce peated whisky. Why? Mainly because none of the distilleries are really set up for floor malting, and the commercial malted barley suppliers on the island - and also those on the mainland - mainly supply their product to breweries, from large commercial operations to small craft brewers, and they don't want smoky grain. In the early days the biggest names in modern Tasmanian whisky, Bill & Lyn Lark, found a workaround for this roadblock, even obtaining a mining license which enabled them to dig up Tasmanian peat from their lease in the Highlands. But they weren't able to malt their own barley, and Lark still don't today, so their workaround was & is to buy malted barley from the aforementioned commercial maltsters, then "re-wet" it with a hose, then smoke it over a peat fire to dry it again. This is known as the "Lark method" and has been copied by plenty other producers around the country. It's also known as "post-malt smoking", and is nowhere near as effective as smoking the barley over peat during the malting process. In most cases the end result is far too subtle - even undetectable in some cases - to tick the box for most peated whisky drinkers, particularly those accustomed to the Islay style & level of peat influence. There is another workaround though, which is more effective and more common, although arguably a little less Australian: importing peated malted barley from overseas. The vast majority of peated Australian malt whisky is distilled from imported peated Scottish barley, and if you discount the distillers using the "Lark method" outlined above of "re-wetting" and smoking barley that has already been malted, as far as I'm aware there is only one exception in the entire country. That would be Tasmania's Belgrove Distillery, who malts his own grain in a converted industrial clothes dryer. Belgrove primarily produces rye whisky, some of which is also peated, but has dabbled in peated malt whisky a few times, sourcing peat from private land on the northern coast of the island. All of the other malt whisky distilleries in Australia, again as far as I'm aware, are either using the "post-malt" or "re-wetting" Lark method, or are importing peated malted barley from overseas. 

There's nothing wrong with this in my book, the Scots in particular have been peating malted barley for centuries, so they know what they're doing. The commercial maltsters over there - primarily Bairds, but also Crisp, and Simpsons - are happy to ship their peated malted barley down under, and to export to other countries for that matter, while between them also supplying most of the whisky distilleries within Scotland. The major exceptions is where the distillery is owned by Diageo and/or is considered important enough to be supplied by their Port Ellen Maltings on Islay, or if the distillery is floor malting their own barley for some or all of their single malt releases. That only only leaves Springbank, and also Kilchoman - albeit only in their 100% Islay products - but not even Springbank uses local peat in their kiln, the peat itself is sourced from the Scottish mainland and is transported to the distillery in Campbeltown. Before anyone thinks I've forgotten about Bruichladdich's Islay Barley ranges here, the raw barley used in those releases is shipped to Bairds in Inverness for malting, peated using mainland Scottish peat, and then shipped back to Islay for production. Both of Beam Suntory's Islay distilleries, Laphroaig and Bowmore, do have their own floor-maltings, but they can't produce enough and that in-house malted barley only constitutes around 20-25% of their total barley requirements, with the rest sourced externally from commercial malting companies. Surprisingly though both distilleries have released single malts that were produced entirely from their own floor-malted barley, distilled separately to their regular production runs, but so far those have only been one-off releases bottled for the Feis Ile Islay Festival. Laphroaig's 200th Anniversary Cairdeas bottling was the first way back in 2015, and there have been three distillery exclusive single cask releases from Bowmore: a 7-year old hand-filled virgin oak cask from 2023, an 8-year old oloroso sherry cask for Feis Ile 2025, and a 9-year old PX sherry cask for Feis Ile 2026. Bowmore, I think I speak for all whisky nerds here: if you're going to finally give us these 100% floor-malted single malts, please put them in ex-bourbon casks or refill ex-bourbon casks so we actually have a chance of tasting the differences in the barley, don't hide it behind virgin oak or ex-sherry casks! End rant, back on topic!

Northern Tasmania's Hellyers Road Distillery has been producing properly peated single malts for a long time now, and has used peated Scottish malted barley since roughly 2004 - which would make them one of the first Australian single malt distilleries to do so. In those early days and indeed until relatively recently you would've only had Lark, Bakery Hill, and Hellyers Road to choose from when it came to peated Australian single malts - and as mentioned above, Lark tends to have very low or even undetectable peat levels in the finished product, so you really only had two to choose from. Hellyers Road has always operated a little differently to the rest of the Tasmanian distilleries, being a larger operation with more financial backing, so they were able to produce more, and let it age longer, and even export it overseas - particularly in the duty free / travel retail market. There were a couple of core range peated expressions in the early days, mainly a lightly peated expression and a peated expression, until the distillery went through a rebirth (more info here) and added a 7-year old Peated expression, plus the odd special release including a recent 19-year old peated single cask, which is the oldest peated Australian single malt to date. The new 9-year old "Richly Peated" release that we're looking at here is a small batch that was distilled from 100% heavily peated malted barley sourced from Bairds in Inverness and was peated to 45-55 ppm. It was fully matured in first-fill ex-bourbon barrels - just what you want for more spirit / distillery character to show through - from Heaven Hill Distillery in the US, and has been bottled at 48.3% ABV without chill filtration or added colouring. The 9-Year Old Richly Peated retails for just $190 AUD in a 700ml bottle, which is good value in the modern Australian whisky world, and even in comparison to some Scottish single malts - while obviously older, Diageo's venerable Lagavulin 16 Year Old currently retails at around $160 AUD and is only bottled at 43%, is chill filtered and artificially coloured. So this is quite the competitor for an Australian product produced on a far smaller scale and in much lower volume. It's also important to remember that a 9-year old whisky matured here in Australia, even one matured in the relatively cool climate of northern Tasmania, will pick up more cask influence than a similarly aged whisky in Scotland. Thanks to David and the Hellyers team for the sample for this review. Let's see how it goes!

Hellyers Road 9 Year Old Richly Peated, 48.3%. Tasmania, Australia.

Distilled from Scottish barley peated to 45-55 ppm at Bairds in Inverness, fully matured in first-fill Heaven Hill ex-bourbon casks, non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Salty, smoky, citrus, meaty. Meaty BBQ smoke, lightly ashy, sweet plum BBQ sauce, and burnt ends. Fresh lemon zest, salted limes. Touches of roasted salted nuts around the edges. Vanilla syrup, black pepper, touches of powdered ginger and dark chocolate. 

Texture: Medium weight. Creamy, oily & lightly fatty, ashy smoke. No heat at all. 

Taste: Definitely smokier here! Thick, meaty, ashy smoke, lightly drying. White pepper, vanilla syrup, more lemon zest & salted limes. Powdered ginger and creamy milk chocolate in the background. Touch of honey around the edges. 

Finish: Medium length. Ashy and meaty smoke carries through, with more BBQ burnt ends and salted roasted nuts. More white pepper too. Salted limes, creamy milk chocolate, and fatty & creamy macadamia oil. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Nice easy-drinking peated single malt with a great meaty, ashy, drying style of smoke that isn't often found in Australian whiskies. Also has the trademark citrus, salt, and vanilla, notes that go so well with this style of smoke, which are more commonly found in peated whiskies made on the other side of the planet. That creamy & fatty macadamia oil note that I find in many of the contemporary - i.e., since the reinvention / relaunch of the distillery - Hellyers Road whiskies is here as well, along with a nice oily weight on the palate. Considering that this is "only" a 9-year old whisky there's a good complexity and balance between spirit and smoke, and cask influence - but again it's important to remember that 9-years is still practically middle-aged in Australian whisky terms!

As mentioned above, $190 AUD is a decent price for a 9-year old Australian single malt, particularly one bottled at 48.3% ABV and in a 700ml bottle! If you do the maths that actually makes this Hellyers Road considerably cheaper than some of its competitors, and that's a good thing in the current economic climate - a well timed launch! 

Cheers!