82 – Douglas Laing’s Old Particular Ben Nevis 18
Fruit tingles, fake vanilla, marshmallows, jersey caramel. Green grass, slight smoke(this is probably because a tasting is going on and they are burning something), caramel, mango, grilled pineapple, bitter orange zest.
83 – The Odd Whisky Coy Southern Coast 2011 American Oak
Wooden, chocolate milk, turps, salt, cloves, malted vanilla milkshake. Malted chocolate milk, salty, milky and malty (repeats), slight tropical fruit.
51 – Limeburners Port Cask
Candy apples, apple sours, brandy snaps. Creamy, peaches, vanilla, soft on the palate, loads of toasted coconut, green gooseberries, white peaches.
52 – Friends of Oak Bunnahabhain 6 Years 2014
Honey, sea salt, sea weed, slight charcoal. Green, smoky and sweet, slight creamy notes, cordial like.
53 – Signatory Ben Nevis 1991 24 Years
Plastic, pencils, grilled eggplant, buttered toast, preserved lemons, lime zest. Dusty, marmalade, chocolate, cream, coffee trifle.
45 – Tasmanian Independent Bottlers (HH0177) Sullivan’s Cove 1999
Yeasty bread dough, chicos, apricots, apricot bars, creamy (it’s Sullivan’s Cove). Very elegant, well structured and light, creaminess, spiced shortbread biscuits, some flintiness. Probably too light for me at 46%, cask strength has ruined me.
46 – Hellyers Road Port Cask
Stone fruit, passionfruit, lemon zest, modeling glue, hand cream and maple syrup. Passionfruit vine, pear juice, cream, sticks, charcoal, stones, chocolate, banana bread.
43 – Heartwood Release the Beast (Lark)
Marshmallow, sugar cane, cloves, sarsaparilla, flat Coke, strawberry jam. Woody, cloves, so thick and heavy, cinnamon, mint leaves (lolly), yoghurt, cream and brown sugar, quince paste, banana bread.
44 – Lark Port Cask 2015 Barrel 479
Apricot jam, bitter chocolate, buttered popcorn, hazel nuts, pine resin, glue. Apricot jam, brown sugar, cloves, toasted almond, flat coke, sticky date pudding with cream, marshmallow, golden syrup.
35 – Black Gate 007 cask #7
Almond paste, flap jacks, crumpets, honey, yeasty dough. Pretty weak on the palate – just nothing. Something has gone wrong here in bottling, surely?
36 – Overeem Port Cask #92
Cedar, sap, chicos, maple syrup, brown butter, banana muffins, brown sugar. Burnt wood, maple syrup, vanilla, rose petals, white pepper, clover, bitter salty herbs.
28 – Mackey Distillery Cask 4 (Port Barrel 6 years)
Chocolate, turps, pine, maple, marshmallow, cucumber skin, apricots, white pepper, cloves, vanilla cream, cinnamon. Apricots, Christmas spices, barley, oily, raspberry, raisins, sarsaparilla.
29 – Signatory Clynelish 1996 18 Years
Charcoal, honey, leather, sulphury, dried apricots, maple syrup. Spices, orange zest, rubber, slightly creamy, dried fruit finish.
30 – Signatory Blair Athol 1989 23 Years
Hazelnuts, underripe white peaches, dark chocolate, marzipan, roses. Passionfruit, passionfruit vine, creamy, salted fudge, toasted hazelnuts, snickers bars.
31 – Wilson & Morgan Ben Nevis 1995 18 Year
Chicos, chocolate tart, vanilla essence, salty. Green herbs, garden thyme, stone fruit, lpg, lemon zest.
32 – La Maison du Whiskey Artist #4 – Batch 2 – Bunnahabhain 10
Cream, stone fruit, pavlova, dried pineapple, maple syrup, passionfruit, crushed ants. Honey, dried fruit, salt, pepper, dried pineapple, cloves, cream, milk chocolate.
24 – Smith’s Angaston 15
Maple syrup, sultanas, wood polish, musk sticks, golden syrup, hot melting butter with cake spices. Roses, maple syrup, pain au raisin, sugar cane, spice cake.
Some cask strength Australian whisky here.
21 – Heartwood DREGS #1
Pine resin, retsina, Sherry soaked sultanas, buttery pastries, rose petals. Syrupy, amazing floaty caramel, whipped cream, dry cake spices, dried green herbs, marzipan, rose water.
22 – Heartwood Spiritual Journey
Wood polish, maple syrup, sultanas, ham, cola, cloves. Tobacco, cured meats, maple syrup, warm cola, loads of sultans.
23 – Black Gate 520s
Leather, wood, crushed ants, smells really like Australian bush kangaroo poo and eucalyptus (but in a good way). Bitter chocolate, cloves, loads of vanilla and a super creamy finish with a hint of red gum smoked ham.
They also had this bottle of Corio Whisky at Bad Frankie, but it wasn’t for sale! Out of the bottle it had a lovely Xmas pudding nose.
Annoyingly my post on these two got deleted – I actually wrote something detailed for a change.
Anyway the upshot was these drams from “Wheaty Whisky” are their independent bottlings of Southern Coast Distilleries. This is seriously rare stuff from South Australia. As far as I am aware these drams are only available at The Wheatsheaf in Adelaide.
You can read the sad tale of Southern Coast here.
7 – Wheaty Whisky Cask #23 Port Cask bottle 5/60 (distilled by Southern Coast)
Huge maple syrup, really woody and leathery, musk. Woody, cream, butter, really long, slightly toasty and creamy – a really late brandy butter, coffee and rock melon note is surprising.
8 – Wheaty Whisky Cask Strength PX (distilled by Southern Coast)
Pine resin, maple syrup, French toast with blueberries, coffee, banana. Cream, wood, slight pipe tobacco note, slight milk chocolate, sarsaparilla and cola – quite light on the palate given the huge resiny nose.
I’ll probably have a few more drams this year but these have been my favourites for 2015.
49 – SMWS 124.4 (Miyagikyo) Full of Secret Pleasures
Muscat, port, Sherry fino, rubber, dry warmth, oil soaked rags, spices cloves and anise, maple. German spice biscuits, a rubber fire, cocoa, liquorice, toasted bran, so much going on. Jeezus!
70 – Heartwood Beagle 3
Pine resin, the sweet end of turps, marijuana, chocolate, crushed ants, tomato vine. Tobacco, leather, pepper, beef jerky, super powerful vanilla – it’s really chewy and salty. With time pina colada on the nose and beautiful rich thick caramel. Wow! Really impressed. One of the best for 2015.
121 – Ichiro’s Malt 2015 Tokyo International Bar Show Cask 2360
Wow just wow – favourite for the year!! Banana, ice cream, malty bread with butter, tomato paste, fruit tingles, slight vino cotto, CHICOS. Yeast, brown bread, vanilla, banana bread, prunes, plums, grapes.
143 – Whisky Base Ben Nevis
So much honey, aspirin, maple syrup, butter on crumpets. Melted salted butter, cloves and vanilla cream – it’s such a beautifully structured whisky nothing is offensive or is aggressive, pipe tobacco, tiny bit of pineapple and mango.
164 – Cadenhead Glenrothes-Glenlivet 24
Sulphur, gas, maple syrup, wood, chicos, brown tea and hay. Salt, wood, rubber, maple, dried strawberries or maybe strawberry jam, brown sugar, rum, brandy butter, caramel, chocolate and LPG. So damn complex.
grey whisky 