Tastes

Re-taste and my WHISKY OF THE YEAR for 2020 Nose: Orchard fruits (red apple, pears), red berries, pale malt extract, cereal compote, white grape juice, baked banana. There is depth and good structure and with time in the glass the nose gains body, with a little caramel and syrup emerging. There is a restrained and elegant cask influence in evidence with a whiff of sandalwood. The nose displays an overall excellent, satisfying balance. Palate: Semi-sweet cereal arrival with just a hint of warm spices and pepper at the edges. The wine-cask influence comes through in the development with subtle grape and berry tones but the light malt character balances this. Fruit (plum, apple, dates, nectarine) is apparent on the later palate together with some fudge and nutty flavours. The texture is very good – rich and comforting but not heavy. Finish: Medium. The palate progresses seamlessly into a mildly spiced (cinnamon, mint and white pepper) finish with a flourish of malt and red wine berries in the aftertaste. The profile is an interesting combination of influences. It has an aroma that is not unlike a fruity Speyside single malt, the texture of a velvety-soft Irish blend, and a palate that is a combination of both with the addition of full-bodied wheated-bourbon notes. Even though this is a blend it has a profile similarity to older Bushmills, but in the end it is 100% Aussie. This whisky is pleasant to sip as a session dram, swims well with water and is fine as a mixer. It’s in good supply, well-distributed and affordable, and represents great value for money. This is easily the most improved whisky I’ve tasted for some time and it is very pleasing that an Australian distillery has brought such an affordable quality product to market. Highest Recommendation. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars) -------------------------------------- BACKGROUND I first reviewed Starward Two-Fold here two years ago (that review now appears below), and at the time I considered it average at best. That was based on a tasting of the very first batch, which at the time was a marriage of New World Distillers' own pot-still malt with column-still wheat spirit sourced from the Manildra Group in New South Wales. The two components were then aged in ex-wine casks at the distillery's Melbourne warehouse. While the blend recipe is the same (as far as I can tell) the distillery has improved this whisky considerably over the last two years. The current batch has the same overall character as the original bottling but it is now a more relaxed, mature and refined product. I believe this is due in no small part to changes in maturation and cask management that are similar to what is happening throughout the local industry. This is the first time I’ve declared a Whisky of the Year. I’ve resisted doing so in the past as given the diversity and quality to be found I could easily list 10 whiskies and any one could qualify as number one, depending on the chosen criteria. However in this case I believe the title is merited. This is far from being the “best” whisky in the world, or even in Australia, but it is a good one that ticks just about every box, and it deserves more publicity. Almost every Australian whisky I've tasted for the last 20 years has been a "cottage-industry" expression that seemed to try too hard, miss the target, or be far too expensive. Sometimes all three. This is different - it is a quality mass-market product like Johnnie Walker Black, and I will be buying it more regularly in future as a standard blend for the bar. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Review originally posted November 18, 2018: Nose: A Fragrant grain aroma leads into light fruitiness backed by quite a bit of fresh, vigorous oak. A dash of vanilla and a little minty spice add interest. It's crisp with a juicy background and there's a whiff of apple Danish and lemon juice. Palate: A nicely balanced arrival - a little sweet but with some developing spice. Mainly malty cereal to begin with, but as it develops some rather young and "hard" cereal emerges, which is the wheat spirit contribution. Just as you think it's over, a soft flourish of faintly fruity wine emerges to add sweetness and some mid-palate depth. Finish: Medium. The predominant cereal flavours gently subside. There is a tannic and slightly bitter/sour cereal nip at the end that is coming from the casks and the grain whisky. A dash of water improves the palate and finish a lot by bringing out some more sweetness to add balance. This whisky comprises 40% pot-still malted barley spirit produced by Starward, blended with 60% continuous still wheat-grain whisky produced by the Manildra Group at their distillery in Bomaderry in NSW. The two components are aged in ex-red wine barrels at Starward distillery. The nose is pleasant but lacks a bit of depth and authority, the palate is well constructed, if a little simple, and the finish is OK up until the end. If it was a touch softer on the aftertaste this would be a fine blended whisky. It is just acceptable for sipping over ice, but works best as a mixer - in fact it works very well with cola. Overall it is very reminiscent of mid-range blended Irish whiskey. Starward has created this whisky to capture a slice of the bar-trade and the upper-tier blend / lower-tier malt market. Their media releases specifically talk about it in these terms and it is priced at AUS$65 (US$47), which is uncommonly low for an Australian whisky. This is the first major product to come to market from Starward since they moved to the new Port Melbourne premises two years ago, and was made possible thanks to substantial investment from a venture capital business backed by Diageo. The distillery says it is aiming to produce 500,000 litres of alcohol a year from 2019 onwards, with half going into this whisky. It will be available in the US and Europe from January 2019. Although it is labelled as "Australian whisky" this product is what most people would call a blend, however "blended whisky" is not a legally required or recognized term in Australia. For example, a distillery can say on the label that their whisky is "a blend of malt and grain whiskies" (as this is) but they are under no obligation to do so. It's great to see a local distillery achieve this volume of production and create what is (I think) our first home-grown mass-market blended whisky. However it's a pity that the wording on the label is so coy. I wish they had just come out and said plainly and proudly that it's a blend. I can understand why they were timid about doing this, but together with the inference that it is entirely made in Melbourne (when in fact more than half the contents comes from 800km away in a different state) it all starts to smell of marketing spin, and that's a taint far worse than any off-note in the whisky itself. "Average" : 77/100 (2.5 stars)

Nose: Oatmeal, sour cream, pine-resin, sweet but reserved peaty notes. There’s an almost mescal-like vegetal aroma, a sharp flinty mineral quality, a dot of vanilla and just a hint of plastic. This smells very young and somehow dilute. There is an alcohol prickle that can be tamed by adding a dash of water. This broadens the nose slightly, but don’t add too much as it can suddenly drown and lose all presence. Palate: Briny arrival with salted lemons, ash and some sweet-and-sour cereal notes. The mouthfeel is oily but thin, and offset by the astringency of a high alcohol presence. Cabbage-water, iodine and a little pepper. It’s not a very complex palate but adding a dash of water helps here as well by bringing out quite a lot of sweetness to balance the otherwise salty profile. Finish: Medium/short. The vegetal notes tail off into a mild preserved lemon aftertaste with a little sour peat. This whisky has the sort of nose that could easily be objectionable. There are rubbery, feinty aromas but it is saved by the grace of being reserved, dry and austere. It reminds you at every juncture that it is very young. The palate likewise is narrow and the cask influence is minimal. For a whisky that is advertised as “heavily peated” the subjective peat level on this is surprisingly low, but to be fair it is also labelled “Peat in Progress” and should be tasted with those words in mind. This is not really a finished product. It’s a progress report ; a memo from the developers ; a dispatch from the front lines. Like the other Kilkerran Heavily Peated batches this is a glimpse of what will come with time, just as the “Work in Progress” expressions gave us a window onto what would eventually become Kilkerran 12. I would be very surprised if this whisky is even 5 years old, but the brilliance of a fine-cut gem is there already and I’m sure when the descendant of this whisky is released with an 8, 10 or 12 year age statement it will be very good. It’s interesting but I would not recommend this to a novice or even to an experienced but casual single-malt drinker. This expression is mostly of interest to the whisky-nerd, particularly Springbank/Glengyle geeks. “Above Average” : 81/100 (3 stars) [but one day this will be a 4 star whisky for sure]