Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 1 Whisky Review!

The anticipation for this whisky was huge during it's initial release in Europe, but all went quiet before it landed in Australia - sort of! This is an official bottling of Highland Park that is aimed at the enthusiast, and it's great to see.

There was a lot of excitement about this whisky when it was first released. It is one of the few current official bottlings of Orkney's Highland Park that is bottled at cask strength, and also one of the few that is actually declared on the packaging to be non-chill filtered. As is always the case, particularly over the last 18-months or so, this whisky took a long time to first appear in Australia, to the point where it was basically forgotten about. And as is sometimes the case, the first appearance was by way of parallel importation by an independent bottle shop, rather than the official importer & distributor. While only a small amount of this whisky was parallel imported by Melbourne's Nicks Wine Merchants, the demand down under was enough for them to sell out extremely quickly to eager fans of the distillery. Apparently there is official stock arriving in the coming months from the official importers, but that stock is going to be exclusive to one of Australia's whisky subscription services, where subscribers are automatically sent a bottle or sample/s of a particular whisky every month that is charged to their credit cards via direct debit, unless they manually "opt out" before a set cut-off date. Personally I've never liked this sort of system for any product or service, having to manually decline a purchase before you are automatically charged for it, rather than researching, finding and purchasing a product on your own accord. But I certainly seem to be in the minority there since these whisky subscription companies have become very popular in a relatively short period of time, and they now have the buying power to rival or override some of the largest drinks retailers, not to mention the combined smaller retailers and whisky specialists, here in Australia. 

Outside of the myriad of independent bottlings of Highland Park, these days more commonly named as the anonymous but obvious "An Orkney Distillery", cask strength official versions of Highland Park are very difficult to come by. Even the likes of the 25, 30, 40 and 50-year old official bottlings are not bottled at cask strength, and if memory serves the last appearance of a cask strength HP was the "Dark" and "Light" pair of 17-year old bottlings from a few years ago (although they weren't officially declared as being cask strength), with the exception of the Australian exclusive that was named after & bottled for the Mjolner restaurants/bars in Sydney & Melbourne (previously reviewed here). Those were limited releases though, whereas this new non-age statement cask strength whisky is the first to be part of the core range. Yes, this is not a limited release, but a core range bottling, due to be released in annual batches that we can safely assume are fairly large. The first batch that we're looking at today was bottled at a hefty 63.3% ABV, while the second batch has already been announced and is soon to be released in Europe at 63.9% ABV. Both batches have been "predominantly" matured in sherry seasoned American oak casks, so I'd assume the remainder of the mix were refill casks. I'm also assuming they've used the distillery's standard 80/20 ratio of commercially sourced unpeated malt to the in-house floor-malted and lightly peated barley that uses Orkney's local floral, heathery peat. Obviously given those massive bottling strengths these casks are not being filled at what was once the Scotch whisky industry standard filling strength of 63.5%, and they're also going to be relatively young whiskies, but that's fine - we enthusiasts want the distillery character and spirit character to show through in this sort of single malt, and I'm thinking that's precisely what we're going to get here. As mentioned above this is also one of the few Highland Park official bottlings that is clearly stated to be non-chill filtered, which is printed right there on the packaging and is great to see. 

For years now, fans of Highland Park have been crying out for the distillery to give them higher strength, non-chill filtration and natural colour - although they don't add e150 caramel colouring to any of their whiskies. Those three requirements are the whisky enthusiast trifecta, and for a long time there have been very, very few Highland Park official bottlings that ticked all three boxes, let alone a reasonably affordable one that is part of the core range. Another point that fans of the distillery have been crying out for was for the Viking-heavy marketing themes (such as the Viking Legends series, reviewed here) to be dialled back. We get that the distillery is proud of it's Orkney location and the history of the islands, but the Norse-themed marketing was getting very thick, very cheesy and downright off-putting, particularly when it came to the names of certain whiskies and the huge range of releases where very little (if any) factual information was provided about the liquid itself in exchange for paragraphs about some legend or that myth that had no connection to the whisky in the bottle. So it's fantastic to see the distillery listening to their fans and reacting to the market demand by releasing a cask strength, non-chill filtered and more simply-packaged & presented whisky that is aimed squarely at the enthusiasts. Heavier on the whisky, lighter on the Vikings. Excellent! It may have taken them a while to get there, but this is certainly a step in the right direction. You could even say that with this new addition the distillery owners are finally taking on some of the independent bottlers of their own whisky at their own game. At such a whopping ABV this Cask Strength Highland Park is likely to be quite intense without water, but I don't typically add water for these reviews so the whiskies are on an even playing field, and I'll be doing the same here. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who grabbed a bottle from the parallel importer. Interestingly I'm yet to see any Australian social media posts or whisky chatter about it, despite that initial release happening months ago, which is unusual. Let's see how it goes!

Highland Park Cask Strength Batch 1, NAS, 63.3%. Orkney, Scotland.

"Predominantly" matured in sherry seasoned American oak casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Mid-amber. 

Nose: The ABV is there, but it settles down quickly. Waxy & floral with dried fruit, roasted nuts and pot purri (perfumed dried flowers) that is heavy on the greenery - or, if you prefer, dried heather! Chestnuts, warm thin toffee sauce and a touch of dry, grassy smoke. Burnt orange peel, dried apricots and a touch of heather honey further on. 

Texture: Medium weight. Big & brash, a touch aggressive and very warming, but not harsh. Definitely smokier than your average Highland Park. 

Taste: More roasted chestnut, orange peel and apricot with that dry herbal/grassy smoke and runny toffee sauce. The raw alcohol is there again but the other notes arrive first, rather than the spirit-y heat being front & centre, so it works well. 

Finish: Medium length. A touch raw and very warming, with the alcohol still attacking the tongue. Behind that is a bit of tobacco and leather, burnt orange peel and the dried fruit. Floral, waxy notes are trying to break through but it's raw alcohol and grassy smoke that dominate the finish.  

Score: 2.5 out of 5. 

Notes: The nose is the highlight here, without a doubt. Everywhere else it's quite aggressive and a bit hot, and I definitely get the impression it's not designed for neat consumption. I've had many, many higher ABV young whiskies that were far more tame without water, but then I've also had a couple that were hotter despite being lower in strength and also (presumably) older. Provided you're used to cask strength whiskies this Highland Park will work for you, but if I was drinking it rather than reviewing it I'd certainly be adding water - in fact I did, post-review, for reference. As you'd expect a few drops of water calms it down and lengthens the finish, and it also releases more sweetness and vanilla, plus adding some creaminess to the texture. But it's still aggressive & a touch raw, and it still attacks the roof of the mouth, particularly through the finish. If I was to review this whisky with water added it would probably gain half a point, but that wouldn't be fair, so I haven't. 

The Highland Park distillery character is still here, as is the sherry cask influence but in a relatively subtle & balanced way - do not go looking for one of those "sherry bombs" here, that's not what Highland Park do, and it's no bad thing either. Personally, I would've preferred that they reduced this to 55% or even 50% and bottled it as a "Batch Strength" rather than release it at it's full fury. Tamdhu, Glen Grant and others have done that and seems to work fine. I have to wonder what ABV Highland Park are filling these casks at, surely it would have to be over 70%. Purely an opinion, but maybe that's why we haven't seen a young cask strength official bottling from the distillery before, possibly because they don't lose enough ABV or volatiles to the angels or the wood at these younger ages. Although countless independent bottlers don't seem to have any issue with that and release cask strength Highland Parks - or rather "Orkneys" - all the time. Still, this is a good step and it's great to see the distillery listening to, and appeasing, it's thirsty fans. 

Cheers!

Laphroaig 20 Year Old Murray McDavid Whisky Review!

20-year old cask strength Laphroaig. Can't really go wrong there! Laphroaig needs no introduction of course, but Murray McWho?

Murray McDavid are an independent bottler that we very rarely see in Australia. In fact they're very rarely seen outside of Europe. But this small and obscure bottler is not exactly short on major milestones, despite having only been around for twenty-five years. The company was established in 1994, and the names of the founders will sound familiar to us whisky geeks: Mark Reynier, Simon Coughlin and Gordon Wright. The former two names are more widely known, but the latter was formerly a director at Springbank Distillery, and as you might guess from that surname, shared with J&A Mitchell's current chairman, he is in fact a descendant of the distillery's founder, Archibald Mitchell. Reynier now owns Ireland's Waterford Distillery, while Coughlin is still based at Bruichladdich but is now CEO of parent company Remy Cointreau's international single malt division. This trio went on purchase Bruichladdich Distillery in 2000, and I think it's safe to say that they basically rescued that now-wonderful distillery and turned its fate around. With a little help from a few others, of course! While the company utilised Bruichladdich's warehouses and bottling hall during their tenure, after the Islay distillery was sold to Remy Cointreau in 2012 Murray McDavid was purchased by whisky brokerage Aceo, and the stock went with it. Aceo also owns what remains of the Coleburn Distillery south of Elgin in Speyside, so that became the home of Murray McDavid and the company's other products, and while the distillery itself closed in 1985 Coleburn's dunnage warehouses and offices have been put to good use. The company also happens to own what remains of Parkmore Distillery in Dufftown, which closed in 1931 but is still in good condition. Oh, and Murray McDavid's logo (pictured above) is a great one: a picture of a dog with the Gaelic words "Clachan-a-Choin", which translates to "The Dog's Bollocks"!!! That cheeky slogan can even be found on early-2000s bottlings of Bruichladdich! 

Well-aged independent bottlings of Laphroaig are far easier to find these days compared to only a few years ago. Well, named independent bottlings of Laphroaig at least! There has been a steady stream of anonymous or subtly-hinted at bottlings, such as Williamson or LeapFrog, that do the absolute minimum to hide their distinctive origins without just coming out & saying it. Thankfully most of these independent bottlings are bottled at cask strength, without chill filtration or artificial colour, and this 20-year old Murray McDavid iteration is no different. Laphroaig at these ages takes on a different character to the younger spirits that we're all familiar with, taking on a softer and more balanced & integrated style, but not yet to the extent of the 25-year old and beyond which tend to become floral as the peat continues to dissipate over those long years spent in cask. There are always exceptions though, such as the mighty 32-year old official bottling from 2015 which had retained more of it's peatiness than I'd expected, and at the other end of the scale the 15-year old official bottling from the same era which was very soft and refined & citrus-y in comparison. But most of those official bottlings are relatively large vattings rather than single casks, so cask selection and blending plays a huge role in determining their final character, allowing the blender to steer the whisky towards the desired character. No such luxuries with single cask bottlings though! Likewise those older official bottlings tend to include some second-fill or refill casks, whereas this independent bottling has been fully matured in a first-fill cask, so there'll be more cask influence. Unlike that of some other Islay distilleries, Laphroaig's spirit tends to handle strong cask influence very well without losing it's character, so I don't doubt that this one has been carefully watched over those two decades of maturation. 

This is quite an old bottling, being distilled in 1988 and bottled at Bruichladdich's bottling hall back in 2008 after 20-years in a single ex-bourbon barrel. It yielded 235 bottles at 52.0% ABV, and is part of Murray McDavid's 'Mission Gold' series, which is their top-shelf brand for the more limited releases. As you could guess from Mark Reynier and comapny, wine casks feature heavily in this range, particularly in cask finishes or additional cask enhancements, as do rum, sherry & madeira casks. And many of these casks we managed and selected by none other than Jim McEwan back in the day! I've only had the chance to try a couple of Murray McDavid bottlings, since this tiny producer is another independent bottler that does not have an Australian importer or distributor, but have been impressed with both examples - although they've been quite heavy on the cask influence, as is their preferred style thanks to the extensive use of cask finishing. This one is a little different though, since it's been fully matured in a bourbon barrel rather than finished in some exotic type of cask. The sample for this review came from a generous fellow whisky nerd who found this bottle at auction for quite a reasonable price considering its age. Let's get to it!

Laphroaig 20-Year Old, Murray McDavid, 52.0%. Islay, Scotland.

Distilled 1988, aged in a single ex-bourbon cask, bottled 2008 at Bruichladdich's bottling hall. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 236 bottles. 

Colour: Full gold. 

Nose: Rich, sweet & fruity. Salted butter, charred fresh wood and aniseed. Lanolin (sheep's wool oil), vanilla syrup, coke bottle sweets/lollies and ripe melon. Hint of sour green apple & ashy peat smoke. Sweetened lime juice and touch of oiled leather. 

Texture: Medium weight. Rich, oily, & syrupy. No heat at all. 

Taste: Gentle sweet & fruity entry with floral sweet vanilla and sour green apple. Then thick, charred peat with warm ashy smoke & charred lemon. Melted salted butter and a touch of that aniseed again. Peat builds & dries things out into the finish. 

Finish: Long length. Dried grapefruit, dry spicy peat carried through, with more sour green apple and a touch of red chilli flakes. Charred lemon again with that salted butter & vanilla sugar syrup. Grapefruit comes back through further on. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: A very tasty old Laphroaig, with plenty of cask influence - which certainly seems to be the Murray McDavid style. But since it's "only" a bourbon barrel (and also because it's a Laphroaig!) the distillery character still shows through, albeit a little quieter than some even older Laphroaigs. This bottling shows a buttery, fruity & sweet side to the Islay giant, but there's still plenty of peat and that lovely citrus that in my experience the good older (e.g. 15+ years) ex-bourbon cask Laphroaigs tend to show. This single cask is not as floral as the older bottlings like the 25-year old official bottling, although that's from a few different cask types and is purposely vatted for that different character. There's also not a huge amount of coastal influence in this independent bottling, which could be down to the more assertive cask influence. The bulk of Laphroaig is matured on the mainland, of course, but the distillery keeps all of the special stuff on the island. 

That said, this Murray McDavid bottling doesn't feel like it's missing anything, it's just a different style to what you might expect. And that's exactly what independent bottlings are meant to do!

Cheers!

Masam (Samaroli) No Age Blended Malt Whisky Review!

A cask strength blended malt from the legendary Italian independent bottler Silvano Samaroli, although this was actually bottled by his wife under the 'Masam' brand, and you won't find the Samaroli name anywhere on the bottle. It's a little complicated...

Samaroli whiskies are basically the independent bottling equivalent of old Macallans. A "sexy" brand that is very expensive to start with and subsequently very overpriced on the secondary market, but generally quite highly regarded and extremely collectable amongst both the aficionados and the speculating collectors. Silvano Samaroli started the company in Rome in the late-1960s, initially as an importer and then morphing into an independent bottler towards the early 1980s - becoming the first independent bottler of Scotch whisky outside of Britain. Most bottlings were cask strength single casks, with a few small vattings thrown in, and bottlings of old whisky from legendary distilleries such as Springbank, Laphroaig and Macallan helping to cement the small operation's reputation. Silvano sold the company and the rights to the Samaroli brand back in 2008, although he was still consulting for the company that bore his name up until his death in 2017. The Samaroli company continues to bottle Scotch whisky, adding half a dozen blended malts and also a few rums to the line-up, but they're still a very expensive proposition. I'm not sure how the following prices are reflected in Europe, but for a couple of examples, the official Australian importer retails their NAS Samaroli 'Islay' blended malt, bottled at 43% ABV, for a whopping $350 AUD. How about a single cask of 10-11 year old Caol Ila bottled at 49%? That will be $810 AUD. Ah, I think I'll pass thanks! Samaroli's wife Maryse has kept Silvano's legacy going following his death, separately from the namesake company, by bottling his private stock under the 'Masam' (as in Maryse Samaroli) and 'Silvano's Collection' monikers. 

This Masam Silvano's Collection bottling is simply titled "No Age", as in no age statement, and Samaroli had no misgivings about that practice. This is also a blended malt (a.k.a. vatted malt) - also no misgivings there, and rightly so. There were a number of different batches released, some at 43% and 45% ABV, but only two have been bottled at cask strength. This is the 2020 Cask Strength bottling, vatted together in 2016 and bottled at 52.9% ABV in 2020, and it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. Unlike many blended malts, this Masam bottling has no problem telling you which distilleries' whiskies are in the blend. But in this case, it is really one hell of a list! The youngest whisky in the vatting was distilled in 2004, and the oldest was distilled in 1957! There are close to 40 different component whiskies so I won't list them all, but the "wow factor" components include some 1957 Mortlach, 1959, 1962 & 1965 Springbanks, 1967 & 1970 Laphroaigs, 1974 & 1976 Ardbegs, 1981 Port Ellen, 1964 Bruichladdich, plus a couple of vintages of Longrow & Talisker, among many others. Now obviously with only 310 x 700ml bottles in the release there won't be a large amount of most of the those components in this blend, but some of those names & vintages are true bucket list whiskies, so they warrant a mention regardless of the actual volumes. This would have to be one of the rarest & most expensive blend "recipes" ever created! These whiskies were blended and vatted together under Silvano's watch only a year before his death, and they were left to marry together for approximately four years before bottling. Naturally this bottle of whisky wasn't exactly cheap, but it was quite reasonably priced considering the rarity. 

The sample for this review came from a fellow whisky nerd who was lucky to nab one of the few bottles that was directly imported into Australia by Melbourne's brilliant whisky bar Whisky & Alement, who have put together a very good online store since COVID started ravaging the hospitality industry well over 18 months ago now. They're getting their hands on a lot of rare stuff both for their store and also their online tastings where samples are sent out by mail. They've also launched their own importing arm under the label Indie Whisky Co, focussing on small independent bottling brands like Hidden Spirits, Hart Brothers, James Eadie and of course Masam, which had previously not had decent representation in Australia. Right, let's see how this Masam 'No Age' blended malt goes!

Masam Silvano's (Samaroli) Collection 'No Age' Blended Malt, NAS, 52.9%. Scotland. 

Cask strength blended malt, youngest whisky from 2004, oldest whisky from 1957. From Silvano Samaroli's private stocks. Vatted together in 2016 and bottled in 2020. 310 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Gold. 

Nose: Very complex and very "old school" - minimal cask influence. Menthol, old leather & dusty old libraries. Slight mineral salinity and dry pepper spice, some rich malt with crisp red apple behind. A little musty, earthy dunnage "funk", also a bit of alcoholic nip on the nostrils. 

Texture: Medium weight, spirit-led but also has a very mature "feel". Touch of heat, though. 

Taste: A lot of complexity here, very old school again and no overt cask influence. Rich malt, soft leather & black pepper which turns into a drying smoked green chilli spice. Touch of petrol. Salt flakes, and red apple again but it's more powdery here rather than crisp. 

Finish: Medium-long length. Slight salinity and softer pepperiness, malty again but it's drier here, more husky & grassy. Warming spice and that earthy, musty dunnage again - not quite Springbank-level, but it's there. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: Lovely complex and engaging "old school" whisky. It's a bit of a chameleon too, changing from austere, spicy & salty to rich & malty, and there's a definite Campbeltown & Skye feel to it, plus a good dash of old Highland. Plenty of depth and plenty of layers to pick through, and a clear lack of any overt cask influence. Which is no surprise given the provenance of the components in this blend, no need for casks to get involved! At least as far as "additive" maturation goes. If you'd told me this blend was an old Talisker or Campbeltown (Glen Scotia rather than Springbank?) I wouldn't argue, although there's a touch of spirit-y heat to it which is a little surprising. That doesn't take away from the character of this blend though. And as discussed above, it's simple economics & mathematics that the percentages of those old, legendary, bucket list malts in this blend couldn't be too high. But even if there's only a teaspoon of 1960s Springbank & Laphroaig, 1970s Ardbeg etc. in here, I'm not objecting!

Since this is my first in-depth look at a Samaroli / Masam whisky I can't personally testify to how this fits in with their "house style", but from what I've read it's almost exactly what I had expected. Plenty of complexity and 'subtractive' maturity, subtle or minimal cask influence with a very healthy dose of spirit/distillery character. And that's pretty much exactly what we mean when we talk about an "old school" malt whisky. 

Cheers!

Bruichladdich 10 Year Old Old Bottling Whisky Review - Plus A Bonus!

There's nothing like a bit of liquid whisky nostalgia. Particularly when it harks back to a different era of Islay's modern history and one of it's more... Progressive distilleries. But this is a two-for-one. We're  looking at two opposite ends of the Bruichladdich spectrum here!

First off is a 10-year old unpeated Bruichladdich single malt. There have been a couple of iterations since, but this was the first edition of the 10-year old that was released under the distillery's new (at the time) owners that had rescued it from a 7-year period of neglect, including a 5-year period of outright closure. Back in 2000-2001 the consortium headed by Mark Reynier and the legendary Jim McEwan had a tough road ahead, including rebuilding a lot of neglected equipment and making use of of existing whisky stocks that were filled into cask prior to the distillery's closure in 1995. A myriad of cask finishes and limited releases left the gates on the shores of Loch Indaal in those early years, but I'd argue that it was the 10-year old unpeated core range bottling that held a special significance and really put the distillery back on the map. When I say core range bottling, though, it didn't last forever. There was this first expression that I'm looking at today which lasted until around 2010, then a revamped version distilled under the new owners circa 2001 which saw the name shortened to "The Laddie Ten", along with the pale blue tin that has since become an icon. That was then followed by the fleeting appearance of a second edition of Laddie Ten that was released in 2016, but with a wildly different cask recipe. None of them turned out to be permanent, and since then we're yet to see a core range / permanent expression of a 10-year old Bruichladdich hit the shelves. Instead the distillery has focussed on the non-age statement Laddie Classic, and a wide range of younger vintage releases including the Organic, Islay Barley and Bere Barley series of bottlings, while printed age statements don't come into it until you hit the higher price ranges. Meanwhile the distillery's heavily peated Port Charlotte brand has seen a 10-year old become a permanent / core range expression, after a couple of short-lived iterations were released in the previous decade. 

Will we see another permanent Bruichladdich 10-year old in future? There would have to be a decent amount of similarly aged casks sitting in the 'laddie warehouses on Islay, but I'm not so sure. When a distillery's younger whiskies are of such consistently good quality I don't think there's any need for an older age statement bottling in the core range. Neighbouring Islay distillery Kilchoman is in a similar situation, where their core range whiskies are the ideal balance between cask & spirit. Both distilleries want their fresh, fruity & sweet spirit to show itself, and when excellent quality spirit is combined with excellent quality casks there's no need for longer ageing periods. Age and maturity are often two separate things, and the all-important distillery character is kept intact by bottling at younger ages while keeping quality levels high. That seems to have become even more important for Bruichladdich under Adam Hannett's reign as Head Distiller, and also under Remy Cointreau ownership. The fancy & exotic cask types and more cask-forward bottlings are reserved for limited releases like the Micro Provenance single casks (spoiler alert - see below!) and older bottlings like the Black Art & Rare Casks series and the older travel exclusive bottlings. That's not the case with Port Charlotte though where we see more exotic cask finishes and more cask strength bottlings, while on the other hand Octomore does seem to have calmed down when it comes to casks - and also peating level - in the last couple of batches. Does that mean the unpeated Bruichladdich offerings are taking a back seat these days? Certainly not, I think it's more of a combination of the unpeated bottlings being more spirit-led and using more refill casks, and the Port Charlotte 'brand' having recently gone through a complete refresh from the range of expressions & cask types, plus the packaging and even the bottle itself.

This particular Bruichladdich 10-year old that we're looking at here was bottled circa 2007/2008, and at 46% ABV - the distillery didn't adopt it's current 50% ABV policy until the mid-2010s. What's interesting here though is that the distillery was closed from early 1995 to late 2000 under Whyte & Mackay ownership until it was resuscitated by the then-new owners in early 2001. Which means that a whisky bottled in 2007-2008 with an age statement of (a minimum of) 10 years can't actually be ten years old, and would have to contain some older whisky. There's no information on cask types for this older bottling, but we can safely assume that it was a combination of refill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry, plus possibly some finishing casks in there as well. Naturally it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured, which has been the distillery's policy since it re-opened twenty years ago. But that's not all folks... This review is a two-for-one deal! We're looking at two polar opposites from the same distillery, even without peat entering the equation, albeit from different stops on the distillery's timeline. The second subject of this review is a Micro Provenance single cask bottling, a.k.a. "Cask Evolution Exploration" - which is basically Bruichladdich's single cask program, not including the distillery exclusive Valinch bottlings. This particular single cask was exclusive to German bottle shop Weinquelle - which translates to "Wine Source" in English. This is an 11-year old unpeated Bruichladdich that has been fully-matured in a "Premium French Sweet Wine" cask, distilled in 2007 and bottled in 2019 at a cask strength of 60% ABV. I'm no wine expert, but "Premium French Sweet Wine" is interestingly generic, because the term immediately makes me think of the famous Sauternes sweet wines. But Bruichladdich bottle a large amount of Sauternes casks and to my knowledge always label them as such, and that's also the case with Vin Doux Naturel / VDN and Rivesaltes, which would've been my second and third guesses. One possibility is that it was a similar style to one of those famous labels but it was made outside of the geographically protected areas that those names can legally apply to. Regardless, we don't know exactly what type of wine this cask previously held, other than it being sweet and French, but for our purposes that's plenty. These two whiskies are basically snapshots from opposite ends of the Bruichladdich spectrum, and this is going to be an interesting comparison! 

Bruichladdich 10-year old (old bottling), 46%. Islay, Scotland.

Bottled circa 2007-2008, distilled under Whyte & Mackay. Unknown cask types but presumed refill ex-bourbon and ex-sherry possibly with some first-fill finishing casks in the mix. Non-chill filtered and natural colour.

Colour: Pale gold. 

Nose: Fresh & crisp, but certainly not as bright or as tropical as the modern younger 'laddies. Icing sugar, sweetened lemon, red apples and fresh flowers. Cooked spent grains / draff, and some orange zest, and a definite touch of sea salt. 

Texture: Medium weight. Lightly oily, fresh & warming. No heat at all. 

Taste: More cooked grains / draff, and a gentler sweetness than the nose suggested, more dried flowers and coffee crystals / demerara sugar here rather than the fresh flowers and icing sugar on the nose. Still a touch of salt and an added touch of dry wood spices.  

Finish: Short length. More citrus, lemon & lime in particular but I'd say they're both dried rather than fresh. Touch of that dry malty cereal grain as well. Sea salt, more dried flowers and a slight touch of vanilla.  

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: I'm guessing the spirit cuts were a little longer / wider back in those Whyte & Mackay days compared to the "new" regime. Coupled with more conventional casks than Bruichladdich tends to go for these days, plus I suspect some older casks in the mix, that would allow for much of the differences between this older bottling of the 10-year old and the contemporary younger equivalents from the laddie crew. There are still parallels though, which isn't surprising since they're mostly using the same equipment and they still have a similar ethos to that of the earlier days of the distillery's latest chance at life - and long may it continue. This is still a sweet, floral summer's day whisky with hints of the of the coastal Hebridean environment that it came from. It's very interesting to try a younger more spirit-driven Bruichladdich from this era instead of the older whiskies that were bottled around the same time, and it's easy to see why this whisky put the distillery back on the map for many. 

Bruichladdich Micro Provenance 11-year old, French Sweet wine cask, 60%. Islay, Scotland.

Single cask #1275, distilled 2007, bottled 2019. Fully matured in unspecified "Premium French Sweet Wine" cask, bottled for German bottle shop Weinquelle. 204 bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Brass. 

Nose: Bigger & richer of course, but also much funkier and a little "dirty" & lactic. The sweet wine cask influence is obvious, with sweet stone fruit in syrup, and a touch of sweet almond pastry. But there's also a salty, cheesy lactic "funk"- think well-aged sharp cheddar cheese that has turned a little salty. 

Texture: Medium weight. Big & powerful, sweet and lightly astringent. Touch of heat, but it's a young whisky served up at 60% ABV so that comes with the territory.  

Taste: Syrupy sweet stone fruit - apricot & nectarine in syrup, plus botrytis-like sweet grapes. That's balanced by an earthiness and a little dunnage warehouse mustiness, plus some drying wood spice. Honey roasted nuts and that salty, sharp mature cheddar again. 

Finish: Long length. Spiced pears, more sweet almond pastry, and a little crumbly blue cheese adding a salty & funky edge. More sweet grape syrup and baked stone fruit. 

Score: 4 out of 5. 

Notes: If a sweet Bruichladdich & a salty cheesy funky Kilkerran had a baby... And it works very nicely! This single cask has actually calmed down nicely since the initial opening. It was hot & uptight to begin with, then very sweet, then very funky & spicy. But now all of that has levelled out and the bigger picture is quite well balanced. Although it's still quite a sweet whisky as you'd expect. That earthiness is delicious, and combined with the saltiness and that cheesy lactic character it makes this quite the complex little number! I can't say I've had another Bruichladdich that is quite like this, in fact the Sauternes-finished Octomore 10.2 (reviewed here) probably comes closest, albeit with the added depth of light (yes, only light in that particular case) peatiness and without that dunnage funky-ness.

Overall Notes: Totally different, as expected. But this isn't a comparison, it's only a quick look at two opposite ends of the unpeated Bruichladdich spectrum. One young, spirit-driven old bottling, and one sweet, cask-driven but earthy & funky modern single cask. Both great. Oh, the sacrifices I have to make for these reviews... 

Cheers!

Port Charlotte Valinch MAC01 Whisky Review!

A distillery-exclusive, hand-filled Port Charlotte at cask strength. But what is an MAC, you may ask? Well that would be a Madeira cask, and a full maturation single cask no less!

Thanks to the continuing global pandemic, many of the special bottlings that were previously exclusive to distillery visitors have been made available to a wider audience. Bruichladdich were one of the first to do this when they began selling some of their hand-filled Valinch bottlings on their website - but only by ballot, which is really the only fair way to do it when these are often less than 300-400 bottle releases. Larger distilleries have started doing the same with their Feis Ile bottlings - Lagavulin and Caol Ila, for example - but they're open to everyone to purchase, provided you or at least your shipping address is located in Great Britain. I noticed too that Bowmore Distillery's Feis Ile bottle being sold online in 2021 is still labelled as a 2020 bottling, which is fair, and just goes to show how unpredictable the world has been over the last 18 months or so. But I also hope that once things are closer to normal the distilleries and their owners will also return to keeping these special bottlings as distillery exclusives. Having these Feis Ile and distillery exclusive bottlings more widely accessible only makes it easier for the dreaded & inevitable flippers and scalpers that were already trying to hunt them into extinction. It's only fair that visitors to these often remote and sometimes rugged places are rewarded for their efforts in making the pilgrimage, particularly when they've come from further afield - like, say, Australia, for a completely random example - and normally have an almost zero chance of accessing bottles like these. They're often the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the sundae, when you've made the pilgrimage to your favourite distillery/distilleries and can buy yourself a souvenir to take home. 

The Valinch bottling that I'm looking at here pre-dates these issues. It's from a time when travel was unrestricted, and holidays, vacations and whisky pilgrimages were still being planned, anticipated and enjoyed. Although that's difficult to imagine at the moment! As with all of Bruichladdich's Valinch bottlings, both in unpeated Bruichladdich form and heavily peated (40 ppm) Port Charlotte form, these are 500ml bottles of cask strength, hand-filled single cask whisky that are specifically selected to be sold from the distillery shop. There are plenty of people who baulk at the idea of a 500ml bottle of whisky, particularly here in Australia where it's a very common thing, but they're often missing the point - 500ml bottles mean the price is generally a little lower than it would be at 700ml, and more importantly it means that there is an extra 30-40% more bottles available than would have been otherwise. So it helps to "share the love" a little more - helping to lower the likelihood of experiencing the crushing disappointment that comes from visiting your favourite distillery and finding that they've sold out of their distillery exclusive or limited release bottling. For that reason alone I wish more distilleries would move to 500ml bottles with single cask bottlings, although I suppose that's the advantage Bruichladdich enjoy by having their own bottling line, they have more flexibility than the larger distilleries who need to ship their whisky to the Scottish mainland for bottling. There are only two bottling lines on Islay, remember, one at Bruichladdich and one at Kilchoman, while almost everyone else sends the vast majority of their whisky to their parent company's bottling plant/s on the mainland. 

This hand-filled Port Charlotte Valinch has been fully-matured in a single Madeira cask, cask #3836, yielding 411 x 500ml bottles - so that cask was probably a 225-250 litre hogshead. MAC:01 was distilled in December 2008 and bottled in mid-late 2019 at a hefty cask strength of 62.6%. Naturally it's non-chill filtered and naturally coloured. There have only been a handful of Madeira cask-matured Bruichladdich/Port Charlotte/Octomore whiskies to date, and most were single cask releases or independent bottlings that are few & far between - but with one exception. The legendary, brilliant cask strength PC6, bottled way back in 2007, was partly-matured in Madeira casks, with bourbon casks making up the rest of the vatting. I reviewed PC6 here along with the equally-legendary PC5, but in summary PC6 is still my favourite Port Charlotte to date. So this fully-matured single cask, despite being bottled 12 years later when the distillery's styles have evolved, and when it has a different Head Distiller and a different owner under Remy Cointreau, was impossible to resist. Madeira is a fortified wine produced on the island of Madeira off the coast of Portugal, although it's actually closer to Morocco. Traditionally the wine was matured in oak casks that were cooked or baked by the heat of the sun, known as the Canteiro method, which is still in use today, albeit only for the higher quality wines. Cheaper wines are heated in stainless steel or concrete tanks to mimic the process and generally don't spend any time in wooden casks. The heating of the wine causes it to oxidise, and also stabilise, giving it a different flavour profile and also a longer shelf life than most other fortified wines. Much like sherry there is a wide variety of different styles of Madeira, from dry to sweet with a few stops in between, although the acidity that is found in all Madeira wines prevents the sweeter varieties from becoming overly sweet or cloying. We don't know which type of Madeira this cask held previously, but I would assume it was headed towards the richer & sweeter variety - known as Malmsey. Whatever it was, it's certainly worked! 

Port Charlotte Valinch MAC01, 10-year old, 62.6%. Islay, Scotland.

Distillery exclusive hand-filled single cask. Distilled 12/2008, fully matured in a single madeira cask, bottled mid-late 2019. 411 x 500ml bottles, cask #3836. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Bright copper. 

Nose: Sweet, fruity, smoky, and lightly acidic. touch of 'laddie lactic "funk" - think creamy & sour natural yoghurt. Port Charlotte's trademark BBQ smoke and sweetness. In other words, brilliant. Char-grilled & caramelised stone fruit, buttery date sauce, salty burnt bacon with a lemon wedge, and a tin of old boot polish. Touch of balsamic vinegar and dry, spicy wood smoke. Roasted salted nuts and chunky, earthy peat further on. What a nose!

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, rich, syrupy and lightly acidic. Touch of heat but it fades very quickly - and this is a 10-year old whisky at 62.6%, remember!

Taste: Powerful & gentle at the same time. Very well balanced and layered between floral & fruity sweetness, warming peat smoke, and light acidity. Touch of under-ripe strawberry, fresh lemon wedges, and more caramelised stone fruit. Date syrup and a touch of warm ginger. 

Finish: Long length. Dry, ashy smoke and a touch of astringency to start with, then that grilled sweet stone fruit & fresh lemon, and a flash of the balsamic vinegar and burnt salty bacon again. Chunky, earthy, muddy peat with warm spicy BBQ smoke, lactic & citrus-y acidity and bright sweet fruitiness. 

Score: 4.5 out of 5. 

Notes: What a whisky! And in particular, what a nose! There's so much depth, so many layers, and it's constantly shifting and changing with each pass. Certainly one of those whiskies that I'd be happy to nose for hours on end before tasting. On the palate it's beautifully rich & balanced, with sweetness, smokiness and acidity all getting along beautifully. It's not as peaty or dirty or farmyard-y, nor as overtly coastal as the earlier Port Charlottes, but they were all younger as well, and this 10-year old isn't as aggressive as they tended to be - despite being higher in strength. It's also from a different era of Bruichladdich distillation, of course. I'd argue there's more consistency these days, although the 'laddie character is still here in spades. That beautiful sweet, smoky Port Charlotte spirit is still showing itself, and the balance between the fresh, bright youthfulness and carefully monitored cask influence is spot on. The peat & smoke influence itself does seem slightly more subdued - only slightly, though - in comparison to most of the younger cask strength bottlings of Port Charlotte, but after ten years of maturation in a first-fill madeira cask this Valinch MAC01 is on a different playing field. And it's winning!

Each & every one of these Bruichladdich & Port Charlotte Valinch bottlings is very special, since they're single casks that are hand-picked as a special souvenir for distillery visitors - and they're a great reward to those who have made the pilgrimage. But as with all single cask whiskies, some are more special than others. If the stars aligned and you got yourself an MAC01, you're well ahead of the curve. In fact, I hope you bought two!!

Cheers!

Sheep Dip 1990 Old Hebridean Whisky Review!

A legendary old blend, or rather blended / vatted malt, bottled over a decade ago. And it's quite the special whisky!

Sheep Dip is a brand of blended Scotch whisky that was formerly owned and produced by the Spencerfield Spirits Company, a whisky blender & gin producer that was based in Inverkeithing, Fife. The company purchased both the Sheep Dip blended malt whisky brand and the Pig's Nose blended whisky brand from Jura & Dalmore owners Whyte & Mackay circa 2005, but the Spencerfield company itself was purchased by Ian McLeod Distillers, owners of Glengoyne, Tamdhu and the resurrection-in-progress Rosebank, in 2016. Despite the ownership changes by all reports the whisky itself continues to be overseen by Whyte & Mackay's larger than life Master Distiller, the venerable Richard Paterson, a.k.a. 'The Nose'. How this activity blends (see what I did there?) with his work with the company's other brands and his infamous antics - most famously throwing whisky on the floor during a tasting - I can't say, but I'd assume that he is only responsible for selecting the blend's original recipe. In the agricultural world, sheep sip is the liquid containing concentrated pesticide and fungicide that sheep are regularly dunked in to protect them from fungal infections and pest infestations - I can't imagine that liquid smells or tastes particularly pleasant, and it doesn't invoke the most romantic image of a flavoursome Scotch whisky! Apparently the naming choice harks back to the illicit distilling / bootlegging days in England when distillers & bottlers would label their casks as sheep dip for transport - all to avoid closer inspection by the exciseman, naturally! 

Sheep Dip blended malt is still around today, and is a lower-priced NAS whisky that sits roughly at the level as Monkey Shoulder or Naked Grouse, albeit with far less popularity & presence. And by all reports there is a reason for that lack of popularity & presence! But there have been a couple of different iterations of Sheep Dip over the years, with the shining star being the blended malt that we're looking at today: 1990 Old Hebridean. This bottling actually pre-dates the term blended malt, and also didn't carry the previous term 'vatted malt'; it was simply labelled as a "Vatting of Aged Highland & Island Single Malt Whiskies". Both 'blended malt' and 'vatted malt' signify the same thing: a blended whisky made from different malt whiskies, with no grain whisky involved. For a hypothetic example, if you were to blend a Lagavulin single malt with a Bruichladdich single malt, you'd be creating a blended malt. Most blended malts contain more than two component whiskies of course, but the same term applies regardless of how many distilleries have contributed to the blend. It is however quite rare for these blended malts to name the regions that their component whiskies came from, and even rarer for them to name the distilleries themselves - particularly where one or some of those distilleries is not owned by the producer of said blended malt whisky. Which is where Sheep Dip 1990 Old Hebridean becomes very interesting - this is a blend of three different single malt whiskies, sourced from Fettercairn Distillery, located south of Aberdeen in the Highlands, and Dalmore Distillery, located north of Inverness across the Moray and Cromarty Firths. Now both of those distilleries make sense, because they are owned by Whyte & Mackay. But the third component malt whisky in this blend is quite the surprise - it's none other than one of Islay's most famous peaty powerhouses, Ardbeg! Didn't see that coming, did you? Particularly in a blend with two widely unloved - for good reason - Highland distilleries. 

While we don't know the ages of each whisky, the Ardbeg inclusion makes more sense if we assume it was distilled in 1990, since Ardbeg was owned by Allied Distillers at the time who were very keen to sell off casks of Ardbeg to both independent bottlers and blenders for cash flow reasons, so it would make sense that the Ardbeg component of this blend was distilled in 1990 (see here and here for more information on that era in Ardbeg's history). That 1990 vintage obviously refers to the youngest component of this blend, and it was bottled circa 2009, so this is effectively an 18-year old whisky. As for the name 'Old Hebridean', we'll have to allow the producers some artistic license there - obviously the Ardbeg component is the only Hebridean whisky in the blend! Another interesting point here, the label also states that these three component single malts were allowed to 'marry' in first-fill casks for "at least ten years" prior to bottling. Marrying refers to letting whiskies sit in casks or vats for a period of time to allow the flavours to marry together, and in general this practice does seem to give a cohesive and balanced whisky. So, a blended malt whisky consisting of well-aged malt whiskies from Ardbeg, Dalmore and Fettercairn, with the youngest component distilled in 1990, and bottled in 2009. Only 12,000 bottles were produced, and it was bottled at 40% ABV. Yes, that's the minimum alcoholic strength for a Scotch whisky, but this is a blended whisky that also consists of substantially aged malts, and it was bottled back in 2009 when such things weren't as unpopular as they - thankfully - are now. so we'll have to forgive them! As for chill filtration and added artificial colouring, I can't say definitively since neither are mentioned on the packaging or labelling, but again this is a blended whisky from over a decade ago, and both practices are mainstays of the Whyte & Mackay portfolio, so I would assume that both have taken place here. The sample for this review came from a very generous fellow-whisky nerd who recently pulled this whisky from the depths of his personal archive and cracked it open. Personally I was extremely excited to see it, because this whisky just happened to feature in the first Ralfy whisky review that I ever watched, quite a few years ago now. Let's see how it goes!

Sheep Dip 1990 Old Hebridean, Blended Malt, NAS. 40%, Highlands & Islay, Scotland.

A blend of single malts from Ardbeg, Dalmore and Fettercairn, with the youngest component distilled in 1990. All were married together "for at least ten years" in first-fill casks prior to bottling. Bottled 2009. Unknown chill filtration or artificial colouring but most likely both. 

Colour: Amber. I would say it's E150 boosted, but that's only a guess. 

Nose: A little muted, with toffee, leather and fresh stone fruit. Opens up with a little lemon juice and a touch of rubber. Soft earthy, chunky peat and a little cigar ash & warm smoke. Caramel, a hint of tar, dark chocolate and orange peel with more time, but it still feels (or smells) a little flat. 

Texture: Light weight, but well-balanced and quite "clean" in feel. No heat whatsoever. 

Taste: Very gentle, and verging on thin. But the earthy peat & ashy warm smoke come to the fore and save the day. Leather and dried stone fruit follow behind. Slight drying saltiness and tarriness with some black pepper and more orange. 

Finish: Short length. Peat to the fore again, but it's a little more assertive here. Once the peat and coastal influences fade the whole show does fall over a bit and becomes a little flat again, with some caramel, leather and dried stone fruit. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: It's an interesting old blend, no question, and the sherry influence is quite overt - that would be those first-fill "marrying" casks showing themselves. But it's the Ardbeg component of this blend that saves the day and makes this dram much, much more than it would have been otherwise. The subtle coastal influence, tar and ashy smoke all point towards the legendary Islay distillery, and while there probably wasn't a large amount of Ardbeg in the mix, whatever amount there was certainly carries the entire dram on its shoulders. In fact I'd say that the reputation that this Sheep Dip Old Hebridean has rests entirely with the Hebridean part of the recipe. They did well naming it "Old Hebridean" as well, since neither Dalmore nor Fettercairn are particularly appealing, or eye-catching, or Hebridean! 

This is certainly an "old school" whisky, and it's extremely easy-drinking. I don't doubt that the malts involved were quite well aged. Naturally it would have been all the more enjoyable at a higher ABV and without the chill filtration and added colouring, but that's not really how things were done back then. Especially with blended whiskies. At the original pricing it was an absolute bargain, of course, and it's a great time capsule of a whisky which harkens back to a very different time in the whisky world. 

Cheers!

Black Gate Apera Vatting Whisky Review!

A recent bottling from one of mainland Australia's smallest distilleries, Black Gate. Don't let their small stature fool you though, this tiny operation is a force to be reckoned with. 

Black Gate Apera Vatting. Not the most romantic name for a whisky release, perhaps, although it still tells us everything we need to know! This is a vatting of three different 100-litre Apera (Australian sherry-style fortified wine) casks. This single malt whisky is not to be confused with the defunct term 'vatted malt', now known as a blended malt, or a blend of malt whiskies from multiple distilleries. The three casks in this vatting were all distilled at Black Gate Distillery, so this is a single malt, as is proudly stated on the label. The casks were sourced from South Australia's McWilliams Winery, and were then re-coopered down to 100-litres capacity, which is becoming a more common cask size in Australia - thankfully many distilleries are moving away from the tiny 20-litre casks that have been a fixture in our nation's whisky for many years. Those tiny casks tend to give too much wood and cask influence in a very short period of time, and that generally happens before the whisky is actually mature. To give some perspective they're smaller than what the Scotch whisky industry calls a "blood tub", which are 30-40 litres, that are hardly ever used for that exact reason - and that's without the added aggression of Australia's more temperate and wildly variable climate. Another factor is the Australian whisky industry's propensity for first-fill fortified wine casks, typically Tawny (Australian port-style wine), meaning that a small cask that is thoroughly soaked with wine and is then filled "wet" without re-charring can easily result in a 'whisky' that is really just a mix of fortified wine and immature malted barley spirit. That's not always the case of course, there are exceptions, but it can and does happen on a regular basis. So a 100-litre cask is a much more balanced proposition that lets the spirit age for longer than the two-year minimum age for Australian whisky without becoming too wood-heavy, so it can actually mature while still receiving a large dose of cask influence compared to a full-size barrel (200L) or hogshead (225-250L) for example. 

Black Gate Distillery is a tiny husband & wife operation, owned & run by Brian & Genise Hollingworth, two of the nicest and most modest people in the Australian whisky industry. Founded in 2009, the distillery is located in the regional town of Mendooran, roughly four hour's drive north-west of Newcastle in central New South Wales. We're talking about massive temperature variances here, both between seasons - from over 40 degrees C in summer to below zero in winter, and also from day to night. Now you may have noticed that I've used the word "tiny" a couple of times here - and this really is a tiny operation. Black Gate has a capacity of around 4,000 litres of spirit per year, and that includes a 75/25 split of both malt whisky and aged rum. To put that capacity into perspective, if they were to use full-size 200-litre ex-bourbon casks, that would mean they were filling just 20 casks per year. For some more perspective, let's look at Islay's largest distillery, Diageo's Caol Ila - which is not actually all that large in comparison with some mainland distilleries - that has a capacity of around 6,000,000 litres of spirit per year. If we average that capacity out that's around 16,500 litres per day - meaning they could produce Black Gate's annual production in less than six hours! Even the smallest distillery in Scotland, Strathearn in Perthshire, produces around 10,000 litres per year. And that operation is often referred to as a micro-distillery. So at less than half of that amount, Black Gate definitely qualifies as one of those! I realise that I'm harping on about this one point, but there's one more fact to consider: the bottling that I'm reviewing today is the largest release that Black Gate have ever bottled. How large? A total of 634 bottles, and they're 500ml bottles to boot. I think you've gotten the point by now, so let's move on!

Another point about Black Gate that doesn't get enough attention is the fact that they use direct-fired stills. There are now two copper pot stills at the distillery, although the second is a more recent addition and its product hasn't hit the market yet, and both are heated by gas flame from directly underneath. To my knowledge there are only two Australian whisky brands available today that were distilled in direct-fired stills, being Black Gate and Tasmania's Belgrove Distillery. There are only a handful of direct-fired whisky distilleries in the world, and even in Scotland there are now only four distilleries left using direct-fire stills; Glenfarclas, Glenfiddich, Macallan and Springbank. Although in the latter two cases only the wash stills are direct-fired, with the spirit stills being heated by internal steam coils. Direct-firing necessitates a thicker base of the still to withstand the flame and also the much higher temperatures that can reach over 600 degrees Celsius. The belief is that direct heating produces a more flavoursome new make spirit, and the theory is that this is due to those higher temperatures and direct flame heating toasting or even lightly burning particles in the wash, giving a different flavour. If you ask me it's great to see some Australian distillers doing things differently to the norm (which is still the same basic distillery plan as set out by Bill & Lyn Lark decades ago), and major production differences like this need to be encouraged and embraced!

So, as mentioned, Black Gate Apera Vatting is a vatting or mix of three 100-litre apera casks, that were distilled between December 2015 and April 2016, cask numbers BG040, BG048 and BG049 which were then vatted together and allowed to marry before being bottled in August 2020. That puts it at a minimum age of four years, which is practically teenaged in Australian whisky terms. The three casks yielded a total of 634 x 500ml bottles, which is a little odd - 3 x 100-litre casks should yield a maximum of 600 x 500ml bottles without even a drop of evaporation or angel's share, so there must have been a serious amount of water added to bring it down to bottling strength from the cask strength. It was reduced to a bottling strength of 47% ABV and is non-chill filtered without any added colouring. The sample for this review came from Brisbane bottle shop Malt Traders, who featured this whisky in a recent Australian whisky tasting hosted by yours truly, so I couldn't resist asking for a take-home sample to review myself. This single malt is still available in Australia at the time of writing, both from Malt Traders and from Black Gate's own website, and it's quite reasonably priced to boot, even with the 500ml bottle taken into account. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

Black Gate Distillery Apera Vatting, 4-years old, 47% ABV. Mendooran, NSW, Australia.

Vatting of 3 x 100-litre Apera (Australian sherry) casks, filled between 12/2015 and 4/2016, bottled 8/2020. 634 x 500ml bottles. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 

Colour: Copper. 

Nose: Buttery dark caramel, demerara sugar & rich, ripe stone fruit. Apricot, peach, plum and rum-soaked raisins. Verging on fruit jam in fact but it's not overly sweet or cloying. Some soft wood spice and a touch of unflavoured / natural bubble gum. 

Texture: Medium-heavy weight, oily & buttery. Balanced sweetness. No heat at all. 

Taste: Buttered burnt toast, with stone fruit jam and black pepper. Warm stewed stone fruit with a touch of burnt oats - probably the direct-fired still showing itself - and demerara sugar. Slight burnt coffee ground bitterness with a touch of black pepper. 

Finish: Medium length. More dark caramel and stewed stone fruit, melted butter and black pepper. Slightly astringent with rum-soaked raisins, roasted nuts and buttered burnt (lightly bitter) toast. 

Score: 3.5 out of 5. 

Notes: Very nice! This is a little lighter in character than most of the other Black Gate single malts that I've tasted, and that works in this whisky's favour without sacrificing any flavour. This Apera Vatting is almost middle-aged for an Australian whisky - although thankfully that situation is slowly changing - and the extra maturity shows in comparison with most of the competition. The combination of relatively large (for an Australian whisky) 100-litre casks, plus the longer ageing and a lower bottling strength than some - and it's perfectly chosen in this case - combined with Black Gate's assertive maturation thanks to the local climate have given us an excellent, flavoursome but easy drinking single malt. And unlike many hotter-climate whiskies this does not need water or extended breathing time to relax and show itself. But this Black Gate also doesn't suffer from the lack of texture & weight and/or lesser volume of flavour that often applies to most of the lighter Australian whiskies - i.e. those bottled at young ages and at 40-43% ABV. That burnt grain & buttered toast note from the direct-firing, plus the subtle rum-like influence (which could be suggestive, I suppose!) certainly add to that weight, and also give extra complexity by keeping the sweetness and wood influence in check. 

It's also good to see Apera casks getting a workout rather than the more commonly used Tawny (Port) casks that tend to be more dry and tannic, and also more aggressive and hard to manage. It had been a while since I last tasted a current release from Black Gate, and this whisky only shows that I need to do so more often. Well done to Brian & Genise, you guys are kicking plenty of goals and it's great to see!

Cheers!