Tastes

I used to frequent a whiskey bar in another city when I was down there for work. I asked if they had any Port Ellen or Brora and he said he stopped buying it as the stuff that was vaguely affordable i.e. sub $700USD a bottle wasn't that great, didn't last and he pulled the last bottle off the shelf after 2 weeks open as he just in good conscience couldn't sell it. A couple of years later I got my hands on a sample of a $1000usd+ bottle for a reasonable $50USD and yeah nice dram but to be honest I preferred what Johnnie Walker did in their Blue Label blend. However it's nice sitting in the sun drinking a piece of history and it is a lovely dram just not mindblowing. Sweet vanilla, fennel, cooked cabbage and petrol, very light and well balanced and nicer than the taste descriptors make it sound. You are definitely drinking it and judging it on what it's a memory of rather than for the taste experience. RIP Port Ellen I await your rebirth. Hmm I see I'm up to the number of the beast in tastes.. not sure if that's an unlucky thing or not so I better keep tasting!

Yup 1 day exactly in the 50 litre barrel. Apparently if you leave it more than 4 hours more it's overdone. Now that screams cheap crap to me but trying it (admittedly after 2 vineyard and 1 brewery tasting in Margaret River) I was impressed. You really get the cream sherry coming through and a nice base spirit to accompany it which goes to show not all good things take time. And yes I bought another bottle. Post this large session I woke up the next day and realised I had far to much alcohol to bring back through customs. 8 bottles of spirits 25 samples and 10 bottles of wine. We drank as much as wine as we could at the in-laws in Melbourne a week later and gave 2 bottles of spirits as presents, cancelled 1 bottle of duty free and still had to leave 1 bottle behind... next time I'll have to staple a note to my forehead... don't let me buy any more bottles I'm over limit! Update: Having opened the bottle in the cold light of day it smells and tastes more like what it is....a 1 day aged based spirit briefly dunked in a cream sherry barrel. The smell is a bit like baby sick (although not that bad) and the taste more one dimensional. Note to self if you are to drunk judgement is impaired! Update 2: After giving away samples I then gave away the whole bottle as I couldn't bare too drink it. Score revised!

No. 4 on the tasting flight. It was interesting to taste the progression from the Moonshine (new make) through the 6 week aging through to this effort which was 5ish years old apparently. Caramel and toffee came through with the vanilla. Nice balance and flavour.

No. 3 on the Whipper snapper tasting flight. Slightly older than lower strength sibling it was stronger on the wood tanins and nutmeg characteristics. There was something else there as well I couldn't pick. Water opened it up and softened the tanins. Another good effort. I ended up picking up a bottle of this and opened up later with the brother in law in Melbourne. I enjoyed it even more by itself. Very good example of the style

This was the moonshine aged in virgin American white oak. Interestingly not ex bourbon casks but virgin oak like bourbon. Again with corn it's almost like a bourbon product in the base inputs but not output i.e. taste. They did say they distilled 20 times up to 90%. Again interesting as I thought 3 to 4 times was the limit for whiskey. It's almost vodka like in this aspect. I got vanilla coming through. It was nice but I think weirdly I preferred the Moonshine spirit.

We ended up on a family holiday to Perth, Australia a) Because I'd never been there and b) I wanted to visit the famed Margaret River vineyard region. As usual happens the main course of wine got followed up with dessert of whiskey. I popped into this distillery on the way back from Swann Valley vineyards and was the only person in there at the time which was great as I could have a good chat to the person there. I asked why they used predominantly corn and the answer was that in WWII there was and American and Aussie aviators who flew together and in their spare time brewed Moonshine with corn. The owner of the distiller became good friends with the Aussie WWII vet and helped him write his memoirs, in return he was shown the recipe and how to distill the stuff. Several years later they have been distilling away and producing a range of stuff. Interestingly they avoided the gin, vodka route and plumbed for moonshine to show the progression of the spirit over time. Start as you want to finish I say. This was a really interesting drop. Essentially it's their new make and it's very well done. Funky sweetness and more. Zero harshness, very very easy to drink. The best moonshine I've had. I asked why their produce aren't stupidly priced like other distilleries. Apparently they deliberately wanted to price fairly and again start how they wanted to finish a solid value proposition. I ended up buying a bottle of both this and their Uphot whiskey.

I've refined my tasting approach to pour, wait a bit, smell, taste neat spit out (if the first dram of the session to acclimatise my palate to the alcohol), wait for a bit, smell, taste neat and consume, add a few drops of water (dependent on the whiskey) repeat, wait consume more often with food. I find the method seems to really get the most out of what the whiskey has to offer. It paid off in spades with this one. I'm a BIG fan of the Midleton distillery. With the demise of Glendronach and to a certain degree Laphroaig it's moved to the top spot in my preferred distillery list. The diversity of offerings from the Spot, the Redbreast, Powers and now Method and Madness ranges (plus more) each quite different from the other.. it's almost like a few distilleries rolled into one which given it's history I guess it is. Anyhow the nose on this one was beautiful. Cacao (I paired with chocolate cake leftovers from the cake we were making for my 5 yr old sons birthday), ginger, sherry, chestnut, caramel and more. On the first couple of tastings I was disappointed but over time it opened up the spicy oakey caramel chestnut flavors coming to the fore. Now this is not a perfect whiskey by a long margin. Even with time and attention it's young and slightly harsh on the aftertaste but it has one unique quality... it's unique and interesting. I took a punt and grabbed a bottle and although I don't regret it for the $70USD price I wouldn't grab another. Definitely worth a try, maybe a buy.