Tastes
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Retasted, 19 May 2019. Bottle recently opened, now about 3/4 full. Nose: A light cereal aroma with green apple notes, hints of English mustard, a little leathery honey and the merest hint of smoke (but I wouldn't characterize this as a "smoky" whisky at all). There's a vanilla presence but it's not a dense flowery vanilla - something more cereal, like the smell of freshly baked vanilla sponge cake. With water the nose becomes more fragrant. Palate: A sweet malty arrival that develops some pleasant ginger and Dijon mustard spice notes together with a very light maritime hint in the later palate. Dry sherry, walnut oil, and the same savory-vanilla presence as on the nose. Water brings out a little extra sweetness, and is recommended. Finish: Medium/long. Sweet cereal that turns to a dry briny/malty aftertaste that lingers more than you might at first suspect. A clean, well-balanced profile that does not disappoint. Oban 14 is one of those perfectly acceptable whiskies that you enjoy but for some reason always reach past on the shelf in order to grab something else. It is a slow malt to open so give it a good rest in the glass before tasting and I'd recommend a few drops of water. This opens everything, but particularly improves the finish. One thing I did notice from this retaste is the apple note, which is almost like cider vinegar on both the nose and palate. Not that it's a fault at all - it adds to the spicy part of the profile and gives the whisky a light and sprightly character. It also teams well with the unique mustardy-maritime note, which is reminiscent of salt marshes or estuarine low-tides. The last time I tasted this was at the distillery where it made an OK but hardly memorable impression, however it's possible that as the starter of a flight of whiskies it simply stood out as the least impressive dram. I'm increasing my previous rating slightly. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars) -------------------------------------------------------------------- Original review, September 20, 2017 Scotland, September 2017. Whisky #8, distillery tasting. Nose: Citrus peel, malted milk, a slight peaty hint. Palate: Fruit, honey, a little salt and some spicy notes. Finish: Medium. Sweet initially but fading out dry with a hint of salt. Straightforward light bodied sweet whisky. It's nice but overpriced for what it is. Water spoils it - it's too delicate to take dilution. Best enjoyed neat. There's nothing bad about it but neither was there much of outstanding character. Of the 4 expressions I tasted at the distillery this was the least interesting, but it is undeniably well made and generally enjoyable. "Above Average" : 82/100 (3.25 stars)90.0 AUD per Bottle
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Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #6 Nose: Immense hogo - esters literally pouring out of the glass - you can almost visualize the aromas. Diesel oil, cardboard, burning tyres, plasticine, putty, acetone, machine oil, rotting fruit, rainforest humus, turpentine, cockroaches, sweaty funk, leather, old running shoes. I'm not kidding, and it's wonderful. Palate: Sweet and vegetal with an over-ripe citrus and banana note. As it develops honey, lemon juice, cider vinegar, gherkin juice, dolmades (!), chutney and briny olives emerge. These are balanced by a sweet, aromatic, spicy, musty, nutty hogo. Pastrami on rye with sweet fruit relish, avocado and a mushy mango. There's even a faint smoky note! I promise I'm not making this up. Finish: Loooooooooong. The extraordinary palate slowly diminishes in intensity - over a few hours. We tasted a powerful spiced rum after this but an hour later the aftertaste I had was still of this epic expression. This is the most Jamaican-like non-Jamaican rum I've ever tasted. It doesn't just have hogo, it's like an exercise in painting using nothing but esters. It's neither sweet nor dry - it jumps right past descriptors like that into a space where shades of mineral and vegetal are all that matter. The most remarkable thing is that it's *delicious*, as long as you like this sort of thing. Out of a roomful of people only 3 thought this the outstanding expression of the evening. It wasn't my favourite but I enjoyed it a great deal - enough to buy a bottle. If you like sweet, sugary rums then steer well clear of this - it would be like drinking neat Worcestershire sauce when you're expecting orange juice. However if you love your hogo and are up for a roller-coaster ride I can thoroughly recommend it. "Very Good" : 85/100 (4 stars)120.0 AUD per Bottle
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Plantation Trinidad 2002 15 Year Single Cask (Burrow Bar & Saint Paul)
Aged Rum — Trinidad
Reviewed May 9, 2019 (edited July 17, 2022)Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #5 Nose: Orange peel, hazelnut, honeycomb, brown sugar, wintergreen, treacle, ash, frangipani, vanilla blossom, sultanas, mango, and a very slight hogo (just enough to make it interesting)! A quite perfect and marvellously complete nose. Palate: Sweet dark fruits on the arrival - plums, red berries, figs. The fruity profile expands in complexity as it develops with a wide range of fresh and dried fruits appearing - pear, apple, banana, guava, pineapple, mango, papaya. No astringent or young flavours, everything is measured, mature and sweet but never veering into syrupy or simple sugary notes - in fact it is remarkably dry and elegant. A mild citrus and peppermint note lurks around the periphery, along with menthol and butterscotch. Quite fascinating. Finish: Long. Subtle and demi-sec, the enormous palate slowly rumbles away like thunder rolling over distant hills. This is a particularly fine rum that would be a formidable aperitif. Its origin was a small batch of exceptional ex-bourbon casks containing Trinidad pot and column still spirit that were filled in 2002. The casks spent 10 years resting in Trinidad before being transferred to France and dumped to Pierre Ferrand ex-cognac casks. The spirit then received a final 12 months finishing in red pineau casks. This tasting was from bottle 42, drawn from cask 4. As this rum is exclusively available from 2 outlets in Sydney (The Oak Barrel and the Burrow Bar) it is unlikely that most will be able to obtain a bottle, however the good news is that I have tasted other Plantation Trinidad bottlings from the early 2000s that have received similar maturation and all have been of this standard, or very close, and many are still available. If you see one, don't hesitate. "Very Good" : 87/100 (4.25 stars)229.0 AUD per Bottle -
Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #4 Nose: Sweet, lifted dark fruit notes. Very heady and encompassing. A note of varnish (not nail varnish, more like shellac) and some raisins and dates. A dark syrup aroma, some vanilla and banana notes give it a profile not unlike bourbon. Apple cobbler, tobacco, pencil shavings. Excellent! Palate: Surprisingly astringent and dry on the arrival (the casks are more evident than on the nose) with spicy (ginger, sweet chilli, preserved lemon) notes. The development proceeds with the dry theme rather than gathering sweetness and brings forth brown sugar, tropical fruit, grilled bananas, licorice and some cane juice, but there is no sign whatsoever of added sweetening. Finish: Medium/long. The cane-juice character fades into a vanilla aftertaste. The palate is drier than the nose would lead you to imagine, but there is a very rich and full character to this rum. I was not surprised to hear that it was aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and sherry casks for 10 years in an active environment. It has a complexity and depth of body but it is not cloying or syrupy by any means. A dash of water released more ginger spice and grilled banana on both the nose and palate. A very good rum indeed, one of my favourites of the evening, and reasonable value. "Very Good" : 87/100 (4.25 stars)120.0 AUD per Bottle
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Black Gate Dark Rum Cask BG023
Dark Rum — New South Wales, Australia
Reviewed May 9, 2019 (edited July 17, 2022)Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #3 Nose: Machine oil, diesel fuel, golden syrup, fenugreek, old sandalwood sawdust, over-cooked dark fruitcake. Palate: A dryish but fairly neutral arrival with fruity hints. Very clean and crisp. The palate is much more austere and controlled than the nose might lead you to think, but it's in no way thin or disappointing, having some excellent coffee, toffee and caramel notes. There is a clean almost gin-like aspect to the palate and the texture is well balanced. Finish: Medium. The palate slowly rolls off into a slightly sweetish aftertaste. I reviewed the 50%abv Black Gate rum here a while ago but I was not much taken with it at the time. Happily, this lower strength expression is much more impressive. The nose is quite bold and interesting, not exactly estery but with an excellent complexity and more than a passing resemblance to whisky (nose this and think real hard about Bruichladdich and you'll see what I mean). There is a faintly fragrant but "oily" profile that is very agreeable. The palate is drier than I'd expected from the nose - delightfully so - it's just as interesting and enjoyable. I also noticed after some time that there is a sooty, almost smoky note to the palate and it remained in the dry glass for some time. I was not surprised to learn that this rum is produced in miniscule batches in a small hand-made direct-fired pot still. The rum is matured for 2.5 years in ex-port casks, has no colour added, and no after-distillation sweetening. This is a single-cask product, with cask BG023 having produced 205 bottles. Delightful, and very good value at the price. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)79.0 AUD per Bottle -
Archie Rose Virgin Cane Spirit
Rhum Agricole Blanc — New South Wales, Australia
Reviewed May 9, 2019 (edited August 2, 2022)Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #2 Nose: Very herbaceous and composed almost exclusively of grassy chlorophyll aromas. Floral notes, sucrose and ethanol, slightly earthy and oily. Very reminiscent of rye white dog. Palate: A prickly herbal and ginger arrival. Sugar cane, gherkin juice. It’s so similar to rye or wheat moonshine it's hard to believe there is no cereal in this spirit. Finish: Medium. Drying, slightly bitter. The gherkin juice note tails off into a sweet/sour, grassy aftetaste. A few years ago Archie Rose produced a limited run of 2,200 bottles of this unaged white cane spirit. There is no legal classification for unaged rum in Australia, so this can’t be called “white rhum agricole”, but that’s basically what it is. The sugar cane was grown on the New South Wales mid-north coast, cut and pressed within a few hours of harvesting, yeast added, and the fermentation process happened in the tanker during its overnight trip to Sydney! On arrival the wash was pot-still distilled three times and immediately bottled. This is my third tasting of this spirit over the last two years (twice at the distillery itself and now at a formal tasting). Every experience has left me with the same feeling – that it is a commendable but ultimately failed experiment. I wish I could be more positive about it, but it just does not convince me. It smells and tastes like a cross between white dog, vodka and rhum agricole, and it is just not enjoyable enough to be a sipping drink. Water made no change to the profile. I did try it with fruit juice and if you add enough strong supporting flavours it makes an acceptable alcoholic base for a tiki drink, but that’s damning with pretty faint praise. In comparison to similarly priced rhums agricole and white rums it is simply an inferior choice. If it was a quarter the price it would be a viable substitute for bottom-shelf white rum or vodka, but at the expensive asking price it just can't be recommended. "Inferior" : 65/100 (1.5 stars)100.0 AUD per Bottle -
Rum tasting at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 9th 2019: Rum #1 Nose: Light and slightly floral fragrance (vanilla blossom mostly). A cereal note, almost like white flour or white bread. A fruity spun-sugar aroma and a grassy, woody fragrance, reminiscent of bamboo. Palate: Soft, a little vanilla and generic fruitiness. Hardly any development - what is there at the start is what you get. You could almost believe this is a slightly creamy and well-structured vodka with subtle vanilla flavouring. There are some plain white sugar notes, but the texture is good. Finish: Short. White sugar and vanilla suggestions that tail off quickly. A faint metallic hint in the aftertaste. I've tasted better white rum, but I've tasted a whole lot worse as well. In comparison to my yardstick Plantation 3-star this is a little simple and plain, but hey - we're not talking about a premium sipping spirit. This stuff is meant for mixing and in that context it would work just fine. Made by Rum Co. of Fiji (who also make Ratu spiced rum) this is filtered through coconut husk charcoal, which means nothing in particular other than that it's had the colour and heavy esters filtered out to produce a standard-style white rum (with a very light yellow haze). There is no coconut aroma or flavour in the profile. "Bati" means "warrior" in Fijian, and I guess after drinking enough of this I'd probably feel like a warrior too - but I'd regret it later. "Average" : 75/100 (2.5 stars)50.0 AUD per Bottle
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Nose: Full-bodied with warm spicy aromas. This is the antithesis of bright juniper-forward gins. Coriander, cumin, allspice, tumeric, anise, juniper, dusky citrus - but it's melded together into a single mellow aromatic presence. Very complete. Palate: A sweet and somewhat oily arrival that completely disguises the 55% abv strength. The palate is mellow (maybe that's the saffron?) and it's clean but not crisp, being more creamy in texture and there's a fruity complexity. Over time spices emerge but it remains well balanced. Finish: Long. Dusky spices and sweet lemon fade away slowly. This gin is bold but not aggressive. The palate is well balanced and tasting it neat is a little like tasting a cask-strength single malt. In fact this gin is quite enjoyable with just a dash of plain water. Although it's called a dry gin, on the palate it is more mellow than many - even slightly sweet. It's in mixed drinks where this really shines and once the botanical oils are released by dilution, and in the presence of quinine, it develops a freshness and sparkle and you can appreciate how much complexity it has. The warm spices never retreat, however, and it can take a lot of dilution before being overpowered. It doesn't like citrus that much and adding lemon or lime brings out a hard metallic edge on the finish. Good in all respects, but don't be surprised if your first taste seems underwhelming. You need to spend time getting to know this one and in the end it's a personal decision as to whether the fairly high price is warranted. "Very Good" : 85/100 (4 stars)100.0 AUD per Bottle
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Glenfarclas 10 Year
Single Malt — Highlands, Scotland
Reviewed May 2, 2019 (edited January 12, 2021)Nose: A nicely balanced combination of malt, sherry, good quality oak, dark fruits and restrained smokiness. There are also lemongrass and stone-fruit notes that shine against the darker aromas and these amplify as it rests in the glass. Palate: The arrival is firm, semi-sweet and malty-cereal in nature, with bitter orange marmalade at the sides. It develops very well with dark honey and subtle menthol and eucalyptus notes emerging together with a little tannic spice. It's full and oily at the beginning but the tight tannins quickly bring a sense of dryness. A raisin note appears towards the finish, and there's a nutty (Brazil nut? walnut?) presence throughout. Finish: Medium. Fruity (figs and dates) and semi-sweet sherry with a black coffee tang to the aftertaste. Like all big whiskies this benefits from resting in the glass - give it at least 10 minutes before tasting but nose it all the while - you can't miss how the nose changes and opens over time, becoming distinctly fruitier. Both the nose and palate have the overarching dark (almost burnt) fruitcake character that is common to all Glenfarclas. It's likely a result of the direct-fired stills and is a signature note. It's amusingly odd that the 8-12 year old Glenfarclas expressions are so often dismissed or overlooked. I think it's partly because the distillery produces a lot of reasonably priced older bottlings and there is an assumption that the less matured ones are somehow poor in comparison. I couldn't disagree more. Also quite a few critics and commentators have remarked on the boldness of the Glenfarclas new-make and how it can take long maturation, but "can take" is not the same as "needs". The 10 year old Glenfarclas is an assured and dignified malt that probably appeals more to a palate that is familiar with whisky than to the novice. You need to know what to look for, otherwise the character can be elusive or may even seem generic. If your last taste of a "young" Glenfarclas was a while ago at the start of your whisky journey then I'd encourage you to try one again. The only time I ever feel that this whisky is lacking is when it is directly compared with older Glenfarclas expressions in a formal tasting, and they show it up. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)65.0 AUD per Bottle -
Blind gin tasting, Sydney, April 20, 2019. Nose: Crisp, clean juniper. Pine needles, white pepper, citrus (grapefruit, lemon, lime), lavender, rose, coriander, fennel, rosemary and sage. It’s a bright, clean nose with complexity. Palate: Juniper, lemon, blood orange, grapefruit, cinnamon, powdered ginger, licorice, coriander, orris root, pepper, sage, peppermint. The palate is very fresh and crisp with great presence and an excellent balance between sweet and spicy flavours. The texture is creamy and silken but it also has a dry character. Finish: Long. Juniper, citrus and spice notes. Gin #6 on the tasting card. This was voted best gin of the day by nearly everyone. It was tasted immediately after Monkey 47 (as we later discovered) and outscored that gin, and when the price was revealed it was unanimously declared the best-buy for quality of all the gins tasted, and the outright #1 gin of the day. The nose was different to every other gin that we sampled, due to its almost uncanny crispness. The palate is full and commanding, but not overly spicy, and the finish has very good length and is warming, with a stylish salt licorice note. It's a good sipping gin neat over ice but it also goes very well with tonic water. It's non-chillfiltered and produces a charmingly light, almost opalescent white louche when diluted. "Outstanding" : 90/100 (5 stars)75.0 AUD per Bottle
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