Tastes

Last night I tried a new whisky from New Zealand, it was exceedingly average to less than. Sitting on my shelf for a couple of months now has been a bottle of a new New Zealand distilleries liquid, and an exclusive bottling at that. The mighty @cascode recently reviewed the same stuff. My turn. What is this stuff then? Apparently, ‘local barley, purest crystal-clear spring water from the volcanic hills that surround the distillery… this American oak double cask creation from heavily toasted ex-bourbon white oak barrels’. This particular release is from ~half of the first release stock at Pokeno and bottled at 46% for Australia’s Whisky Club exclusive versus the rest of the worlds 43% version. Having had an intro through @cascode notes I left this for 20 minutes before approaching. N: Bright, refreshing and summery. White fruits, vanilla and white chocolate, a little fresh wood and gentlest honey. No hint of young alcohol burn and there is, given time a good maltiness. Simple, clean, crisp. P: Oh snap. @cascode was on the money, this is like a seltzer. First impression is just carbonated fizz. White chocolate is very apparent to me, as are melon and pear. The fizz is hard to get past. Malt comes in the form of buttered brioche or milk biscuits. A decent bit of aggressive heat builds up, but it’s manageable. F: Medium-short. Tannic with plenty of malt and honey. Barrel spice has built up appreciably by this point. This is odd stuff. The nose is the strong point here, its light, summery, and easy but delicately enjoyable. Happy there. Then it just gets weird, whisky is not fizzy sherbet, its not a carbonated seltzer. What the heck is going on here, I’m sure the palate would be perfectly acceptable if it wasn’t for that. Over time the building wood presence and tannic spice reveals a likely young spirit with some slightly harsh alcohol in the back. Overall, its fine. It probably sits amongst the crowded Glenfiddich 12 profile. So, Monkey Shoulder kicks its ass for character and price point. Am I annoyed I bought two, a bit. Maybe a collector will want to buy the second at auction one day; I’m sure as heck not going to open it. Distiller whisky taste #179 Pictured here with a beautiful greenschist from just outside Queens Town on New Zealand’s South Island. This rock comes from the Haast Schist Group a Jurassic-Cretaceous stretch of metamorphic rocks that extend from Central Otago all the way along to the Cook Strait, a distance of ~600 km. These rocks were once marine sediments that were metamorphosed at low to medium temperatures and pressures during New Zealand’s Alpine Orogeny. These rocks are also the source of New Zealand’s famous Pounamu Jades.

Dan Murphys international whisky tasting night. Another blind tasting… N: Deliciously light, gentle honey, fresh lush grass, peaches, yoghurt sourness, fudgey depth and some metallic-minerallty. For such a light and bright nose this has wonderful unravelling depth. P: Beautiful malt turning oily with soft stone fruit sweetness. Barley sugar, sultanas; plump and morish. There are subtler notes of spices and citrus and a delicate salt presence. Fresh wood binds everything together without being overbearing or the main player. F: Medium. Orange, dates, and toffee. Lightly maritime and salty with a touch of drying oak. I think I will need to buy a bottle and come back to this. Really interesting, excellently made and with plenty of character to delve into, yet perfectly approachable enough to quaff. I think I need to go back to Ledaig 10 as well. Distiller whisky taste #178 Ledaig 10: 3.75/5 Tobermory 12: 4/5

Dan Murphys international whisky tasting night. N: Thick artificial and rubbery. Lots of synthetic core syrup sweetness and liquid smoke flavour, vague lanolin and lightly fragrant herbs. This has been sat for maybe 30 minutes in the glass. Yet, was still an olfactory assault. P: Corn sweetness and lots of candy (hairbo lollies!), sticky BBQ sauce and prominent wood ash. There is a pleasant toffee apple and cinnamon underneath but there is too much cloying corn sweetness to enjoy it. F: Short-medium. Yet more candy sweetness and some building ethanol heat. Aggressively artificial. No clear character or purpose for me just a powerfully synthetic mash of woodsmoke and sweetness. Wood smoke is hard to do well, and I haven’t found myself to be a huge fan, but this just came across like a home distilled garage experiment and is not something I would seek out. Distiller whisky taste #177

Dan Murphys international whisky tasting night. The third limited release of single malt whisky from Scapegrace, in New Zealand. Revenant is made using laureate barley that has been smoked with Manuka wood, and aged for three years in virgin French oak. Non-chill filtered and with natural colour. N: An instantly tarry and ashy smoke with undertones of burnt espresso and a honey laden herbal vegetal mulch. Interesting and somewhat conflicting. P: Thick with tannins, bitter coffee, and dark toffee. Cloves and spice. Florals and dark chocolate. Nutty-citrus. Undeniably a lot going on but is it too erratic and unbalanced, I fear so. F: Medium. Grainy-ash. Barrel toast and spice. Very heavy wood presence, an aggressive an unrestrained use of French oak. I am always sad when beautiful wood is used poorly and without refinement. The tannins build to an uncomfortable unpleasantness. The real shame is that there are excellent ashy notes, but, they fight and conflict with the lighter delicate florals. A curious Kiwi that is not anywhere close to being worth the price tag. Distiller whisky taste #176

Dan Murphy’s International Whisky tasting night. Previously I had tasted the Gospel Solera Rye (distiller whisky taste #70 3.5/5) at another Dan Murphys tasting night. As is standard for my local store, tastings are blind. The nose on this instantly revealed itself to me as a gospel rye, I remembered this profile well from eight months ago. N: Thick, leathery rye and stewed plum that turns oily. Hints of mintyness, and slightly tannic with brown sugar. P: Very spice forward with a pepper heavy profile. Oily, and with a biscuity vanilla. Dark and caramelly. A little boring perhaps, which is surprising for so much rye spice. F: Short-medium. Minty-menthol freshness. Rye spice is a little cloying. Final orange spritz. Nose, very similar to the solera rye but leaning towards a oily and minty nose in the straight versus a more toffee and oozy solar. The palate is less inviting and enveloping here in the straight versus the solera and doesn’t grip me quite so well. The finish is less complex and less fragrant than the solera. Overall the straight and the solera are very similar, but if memory and my notes serve, the solera has more character and more to discover. This surprises me as the straight is notably more expensive than the solera (AUD 94.99 vs 79.99). In anywise, want Australian rye? Stick to Archie Rose Malted Rye. Distiller whisky taste #175 The Gospel Solera Rye: 3.5/5 The Gospel Straight Rye: 3.25/5

Let’s not muck about, Laphroaig is serious whisky. Tonight a limited edition expression released in mid-2021, matured for 16 years in American oak casks. Just my third Laphroaig I am excited coming off the heels of my worst scored distiller whisky tasting. N: Oh boy (the same words I opened Lore with)! Rich and captivating I am instantly pulled into the glass. Soft yet powerful the peat grabs hold with dark meatiness, slightly plastic iodine, and a handful of freshly torn herbs. Theres so much more to this though, a gentle sweetness of pastry and orchard fruit. Still more unfolds with an earthy petrichor and aged leathery oak. P: Oily and ashy texture laden with brine. Chilli and pepper beautifully compliment soft peat smoke, light malt and charred BBQ meat ends. A juicy mid profile delivers balancing fruit with chocolate creaminess filling the edges. The spirit lifts with a zesty, bright and borderline floral freshness. The maritime presence continues with a mineralic to metallic flutter. F: Medium-long. Stony minerals, brine, ashy embers and smoky black tea. There may even be a little honey or sugary flourish too. Wonderful. My faith in whisky was shook by my last entry, faith restored. This is undeniably good, does it have faults, perhaps. Does it lean slightly bitter and spicy, maybe. Am I qualified to judge them, I strongly suspect not. Less ‘raw’ than the standard 10 but slightly less refined than Lore, this comfortably sits as a slowly developing powerhouse of depth, subtlety, and richness. The smoky, meaty, and heavy sounding flavours somehow perform a masterstroke of remaining bright and vivid with an uplifting warmth. This is everything whisky should be, engaging and thought provoking. Textures, aromas, and flavours all combine to deliver a lovely treat on a chilly autumn evening. Distiller whisky taste #174 [Pictured here with a Eurypterid. This critter, also known as a sea scorpion, is from the Silurian (~440-420 Ma) Bertie Formation in New York. Eurypterids are an extinct group of organisms related to modern horseshoe crabs and include the largest known arthropods to have ever lived at up to 2.5 m long. Formidable predators of the shallow, warm, seas they called home they also possessed a dual respiratory system and may have been the planets first animals to crawl out of the oceans and onto the land. ] Laphroaig running scores: Laphroaig 10: 4/5 Laphroaig Lore: 4.5/5 Laphroaig 16: 4.25/5

Hyde number six. And for the most part I am pleased to be done with series. Average at best less than acceptable at worst. The final offering, 8 year old cask strength single grain, matured in an ex-Bourbon cask and bottled at 59%. N: Ooph, bad start. Acetone. Lots of acetone. The high proof here combined with what I am surmising as inferior grain spirit have conspired to produce something offensive. I’ll leave this for 10 minutes and try again. Some acetone has dissipated, but its still bad. Vague oaky vanilla in there somewhere and maybe a clove laden spice. P: Oily and spirit heavy. Malt barley, tannic fresh oak all the black pepper (all of it). If you can get through the pepper there is slight toffee-butterscotch and milk chocolate but you are going to have to work to get at it. F: Short. Pepper, grainy and slightly gristy. Maybe some vanilla. Just bad. I read a few reviews that call this ‘moreish’ and ‘lipsmacking’. Not for me. This feels like putting ‘cask strength’ on the label to sell crap. Aggressive, unrestrained, harsh and lacking character, flavour, or any redeeming qualities really. At AUD$130 a bottle this is atrocious. At discounted AUD$99, this is still atrocious. Congratulations Hyde you now own my lowest rated whisky on Distiller (other than the orange rye low and slow, which is fireball category pisswater). The only question I have after six of these things is who the heck is producing your spirit Hyde? Hyde? Run and hide. Distiller whisky taste #173 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite, this one is from Greenbushes in the South West of Western Australia. Here we have a cluster of metallic purple lepidolite with white feldspar. Lepidolite is an important secondary lithium ore for many pegmatite systems.] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5 No. 4 Rum Cask Finish: 1.75/5 No. 6 Presidents Reserve: 2.75/5 No. 7 Sherry Matured 1893: 3/5 No. 8 Heritage Stout Cask Finish: 3.5/5 8 year old cask strength single grain: 1.25/5

Hyde number five in what fees like a bit of a slog. Tonights dram, Hyde No. 8 Heritage Cask Stout Cask Finish Irish Whisky. A curious mix of 75% grain whiskey from first-fill ex-Bourbon casks and 25% single malt from first-fill Oloroso sherry casks, married in a stout barrel from Cotton Ball Brewing Co. for a further six months. To be honest, sounds like a good way to mask inferior spirit with bold cask flavour. Let’s find out. N: Light and with a little raw spirit. Malty with a soft vanilla cream soda and mild coffee cake presence. Given enough time there is a red berry to be found. P: Rounded and full body. Surprisingly juicy there is custard cream biscuit, nutmeg and clove spice, plump raisin, and chocolatey coffee. F: Short. Toasty butterscotch, stewed fruit, dark chocolate bitterness. Colour me surprised. This is surprisingly tasty with a good range of feinty, cereal, sweet, and woody flavours. The grain heavy component is not as noticeable as I was expecting, the sherry cask and stout seem to integrate and balance pretty well. Everything would benefit from something a little bright and citrusy perhaps to lift the overall deep dark profile, but this is eminently enjoyable and for the price point is hard to argue with. The obvious comparison to draw is with Jameson Cask Mates Stout addition which I scored as 2.75/5 (distiller whisky taste #80). This Hyde stout delivers a little more oomph than the Jameson and a slightly darker character that I think does set it apart. Distiller whisky taste #172 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite, this one is from the world renowned Greenbushes mine in the southwest of Western Australia. Glassy coarsely crystalline quartz is here hosting blue apatite and dark black-green elbaite tourmaline. This pegmatite was formed over three subsequent mineralisation periods at 2.53 Ga, 2.43 Ga, and 1.1 Ga. The pegmatite is huge at up to 2.5 km long and up to 250 m wide and hosts half the worlds known Tantalum resource] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5 No. 4 Rum Cask Finish: 1.75/5 No. 6 Presidents Reserve: 2.75/5 No. 7 Sherry Matured 1893: 3/5 No. 8 Heritage Stout Cask Finish: 3.5/5

Hyde number four in my series is No. 7. Following from yesterdays lacklustre No. 6 Presidents reserve, which was an olorosso sherry finished blend of 18 year old malt and 8 year old grain, I now have in front of me a pour of the fully Oloroso sherry hogsheads matured No. 7 ‘1893 Presidents Cask’. No age statement here (apparently six years) but Hyde does declare this liquid to be a Irish single malt and non chill filtered. N: A flat, but welcoming, nose with a chocolate softness and malty presence. Honey, apple and peaches and a hint of nutmeg. With a little time in the glass everything wakes up and becomes, well; less flat. There may even be a bit of orange peel here. The sherry cask is working hard thats for sure. P: Somewhere in-between oily and creamy, a thick mouth coating texture delivers plenty of malt forward character, orange peel, plain chocolate, lots of plum character, and cinnamon spice. Subsequent sips adds some leatheriness. A prominent spirit heat stays high and forward throughout. F: Short-medium. Toffee and oaky-vanilla with a peppery heat. OK. This is the best of the bunch so far. Although that isn’t really a compliment when you look at the playing field. There is a lot going on in here, the nose is a slow starter but has plenty of notes to tease out from an initially flat open. The palate is awash with rich sherry cask flavours and the finish adds some depth of character with vanillin and toffee laden wood. But, there in lies the problem. There is so little of the spirit character other than as an intrusive heat presence and a generic malt forward flavour. The sherry casking isn’t so good as to work on its own. So, whilst the best Hyde yet in my books, it is the cask that wins and seems to be masking an average or worse spirit rather than complimenting or developing it in its own right. Distiller whisky taste #171 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite, this time from Spargoville near the Kalgoorlie Goldfields. This giant hunk of rock features mostly coarsely crystalline quartz, but also perfect tabular crystals of white microcline with albite dissolution seams and a perfect pale green beryl. The pegmatite its from is ~330 m and up to 45 m wide dipping down at 30-50 degrees. A long history of mining of this pegmatite for gem quality mineral specimens drew to a close in 2012 when the open pit and mine shaft were filled in.] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5 No. 4 Rum Cask Finish: 1.75/5 No. 6 Presidents Reserve: 2.75/5 No. 7 Sherry Matured 1893: 3/5