Tastes

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

Number three in my Hyde exploration series is No. 6, the Presidents Reserve Irish Malt Whisky. In this pour we have a blend, a mix of 18 year old single malt and 8 year old grain whisky married together and finished in an Olorosso Sherry cask. Hyde seem to rest heavily on their awards and accolades, a quick visit to their home page shows this. I am always wary these days of distilleries that chase awards as if that will mask poor substance. With this reserve there is an award of ‘winner’ for the 2018 World Whisky Awards Irish blend category. Given the performance of No. 3 and No. 4 I am not holding my breath… N: A little thin with an immediate malt forward profile that is undercut by a slightly intrusive spirit presence that I am certain will be the grain contribution. Shy, some light vanilla and biscuit character and maybe some fresh blossoms melded with some chocolate that suggests the age of the malt component. A little caramel does develop after about 10 minutes of gentle swirling but more spirit also comes out and I struggle to find the direct fruit character of sherry. P: Good texture with a creamy-milk chocolate feel. Sweetness from the grain component is not overwhelming and whilst very sugar forward there is a deeper red fruit, stewed apple, and cinnamon-clove presence to stop it running rampant. The age becomes evident here in the tannic oak presence which is a little aggressive, not for being too big, but rather from seeming to exist separately from the other flavour profiles. Occasionally there is a floral touch or perfumed quality which lifts the palate nicely. F: Medium. Tannic, plump raisin, milk chocolate. Maybe I’m already biased by a somewhat negative response to No. 3 and No. 4, but this does not seem like a world beating whisky to me. There are some interesting flavours in here. A floral lift on the palate and a quite pleasant and rich soft finish are enjoyable, yes. But, there is not enough going on to excuse the lack of nose and the distinctly unbalanced palate. Rather than a world beater, this seems like a poorly conceived way to stretch some dwindling aged stock out and I am left wondering what this could have been if it was just the 18 year old malt on its own. Or perhaps this really was the best Irish blend around in 2018, which seems like a damning indictment to me. Distiller whisky taste #170 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite. These little pegmatite slices are from Mt Ida in the Western Australian goldfields and are comprised primarily of white spodumene and pink lepidolite, both important lithium minerals. This now emergent lithium deposit was found by an exploration company whilst reviewing historical drill core from a ceased gold mine; and set to me to define and characterise.] 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

Last night was a weak start to a six strong series of Irish Whiskeys from Hyde. Tonight we have a liquid that after maturation in ex-bourbon barrels was transferred into first fill ex-rum casks to mature. Importantly we move from a grain whisky in No. 3 to a single malt with this, No. 4. N: Very light and shy. A vaguely juicy fruit salad mixes with a gingery spice and a little toffee. I’m really reaching though, there is almost nothing here. The more I work at this the less I get. P: Plenty of prickle to an otherwise soft and crisp mouthfeel. Apple, lime (interesting), brown sugar (very much a dark rum molasses sugar), is there a malty biscuit crunch here? Maybe, I’m struggling battling a very sharp and building prickle as if I’m biting on raw root ginger. F: Short-medium. Surprising richness of brown sugar, buttery vanilla, and more ginger burn. I do not care for this. This is a conflicted malt, an all but absent nose leads to more ginger burn than I hope to experience ever again whilst never getting much past a brown sugar richness. Sure some of the juicy fruit notes are fine but it fails to get going, just an over bearing sugar presence presumably from the rum cask. The limey citrus note in the palate, thats super interesting but way to fleeting to redeem this lacklustre poorly conceived and delivered dram. Distiller whisky taste #169 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite, apparently thats the theme for the Hyde series. This pegmatite is from Ravensthorpe in the south of WA and has some rather lovely big green spodumene crystals with white albite and quartz and silvery books of muscovite. Spodumene is the dominant ore mineral for Lithium outside of salt lakes and brines] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5 No. 4 Rum Cask Finish 1.75

I tend to steer away from Irish whiskey, I’m not sure why. Even after a visit to the Whisky Museum in Dublin early into my first year of whisky nothing really took me. The opportunity to try six different offerings from a single distillery though seemed like a good opportunity to explore what was possible with a more mature palate and outlook. Enter Hyde. Triple distilled via a traditional ‘Coffey Still’ from pure corn and barley followed by maturation for over 6 years in charred, first fill ex-bourbon casks from Kentucky in the USA. N: Wow, initially I am smacked in the face by a wall of sickly candy sweetness followed by a stiff acetone. This is sitting out for ten minutes before I put it anywhere near my face again. Now the acetone has dissipated the sweet candy corn has also subsided to reveal a sweet vanilla, lightly toasty biscuit, rum and raisin ice cream, and a soft woodiness. Call me crazy but I am convinced I smell roast parsnip too. According to the Hyde website and other reviews there are ‘middle easter spices’ and ‘cinnamon’; I disagree, not a single hint of spice here for me. P: Slightly cloying stickiness with a mouth filling peppercorn vibrancy. Sweetness is main characteristic here, vanilla heavy fructose syrup laden caramel; the kind you would add a squirt to in a caramel latte. Maybe a slight confectioners custard type quality here also. But, honestly, I get nothing else. F: Shot-medium. Slightly malty, but the combination of pepper and sticky sweetness carry over from the palate to mask any kind of finish development. Oh dear. What a disappointing start. Overwhelmingly sweet with no character, progression, or really any redeeming qualities other than the fact it isn’t outright offensive. Grain whisky, done right, I think is great (Nikka Coffeey Grain; hello!). This may as well have been a measure of corn syrup with vanilla extract in it. I don’t actually know how to accurately score this, but it’s definitely not for me. Distiller whisky taste #168 [Wasting one of my favourite rocks on this measure: a fantastic LCT-Pegmatite. This chonky-boi is an igneous rock formed from highly evolved magmas rich in volatiles, fluids and incompatible elements and is a major source of Lithium (the L in LCT). This particular pegmatite features bluish clevlandite, white albite, red tourmaline, dark purple lepidolite, light purple cookite and glassy pollucite. Pollucite is the main ore mineral of caesium (the C in LCT). There is no T (tantalum) in this example. Rock comes from Sinclair in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5

My final mooched malt from the great @cascode. Thanks again good Sir, a varied and interesting batch this time around. Amber Lane is based in the Yarramalong Valley on NSW's Central Coast. Founded in 2017 by two amateur astronomers and friends, Rod Berry and Phil Townsend. Liquid Amber is one of Amber Lane's sherried expressions that features whisky matured in ex-Fernando de Castilla sherry casks; one of only two distilleries on Earth who are granted access to do so. I wonder if that is actually important though? They took their time with maturation, waiting four years for bottling rather than the minimum two years which is common for the Australian market. N: rich and dark, there is an earthy and leathery quality thats age beyond the four years. Thick with dark jam and vanilla extract. A big bold and rich nose. But thats it, thats all I get, time in glass has let me find a little oatmeal gristiness. P: Full bodied and with a velvety thickness. There is an immediately apparent chocolate and candied ginger tingle. Packed with dark rich sugar flavours of golden syrup and caramel there is maybe a zesty apple carrier but its not pronounced. As for the nose this is a bold arrival that seems to just stop. F: Medium-short. The juicy apple fruit note that was hidden in the palate seems to come forward in the finish, the ginger subsides to a more bakery spice sensation. Amber Lane claim to be simple, down to earth and focused on flavour. I can agree with them, that they have achieved that here. Liquid Amber is a simple, bold and punchy young spirit that delivers few flavours very well. They have a pot still designed to maximise copper contact in order to produce a more complex flavour chain. I must disagree there. The local barely is all but lost to the powerful choice of casking and relatively long contact time with the wood. Whilst enjoyable, I would have liked more from the underlying spirit rather than hiding behind a wall of sherry cask. Distiller whisky taste #167 [Pictured here with, unfortunately, not a lump of amber. I don’t have any and I am mad. Instead, this is bismuth, also referred to as unicorn poo. This is man made but shows a very cool crystal growth habit called ‘hoppers’. Molten bismuth cools down and crystal start nucleating, growing so fast only the edges build and the faces get abandoned. Oxidation provides the wonderful colours You can buy bismuth cheap online and make these in a saucepan. Fun stuff.]