Archie Rose Double Malt

Nose: Marshmallow, banana, bubblegum, freshly-sawn timber, stone-fruits, oatmeal, vanilla custard, caramel. As it opens in the glass a little rye spice and Vegemite (!) comes through. Palate: Sweet and soft on the arrival, with an oily texture. The development is slow and limited but shows stewed fruits, cappuccino and a little malted milk. There is a vague reminiscence of bourbon about this. The texture is oily and creamy. Finish: Medium/short. Sweet, fruity, inoffensive but a bit fast. With repeated sips it turns a little sour in the aftertaste. This whisky is fairly new to the Australian market and is the first major product from Archie Rose’s new distillery at Banksmeadow in Sydney. It is now one of the largest whisky distilleries in Australia and their production philosophy rivals that of Waterford in complexity. Six different malts (different strains, toasting, fermentation, etc) are separately distilled before being matured in an array of different casks. The final result is blended and solera-married to create the product. Their two “core” products before now were their “single malt” and “hybrid malted rye” whiskies, both of which are very good – particularly the hybrid malted rye. These are still being produced but this new whisky is a blending of some parts of what constitutes each of the two other malts It is essentially a "lite" blend of malted barley spirit and malted rye spirit targeted at bartenders and home bars. It was launched together with a dry gin and a vodka and the three products form what the distillery is calling its “Fundamental Spirits” range. Put bluntly, this is a marketing exercise by Archie Rose to capture part of the market that is currently dominated by imported spirits. In that context, and at the price, it is a good product that fulfills its mission objective but when compared to any Scottish single malt or blended malt it is decidedly ordinary. However, remember that this is designed as a “cocktail” whisky for mixing, and consider it as such. It is better than I expected and will certainly work well as a mixer, but I doubt I’ll be taking it as a neat dram or buying it again – it’s just not interesting enough. Oh, and the label is one of the worst I have ever seen on a bottle of booze. Honestly, what idiot approved such a banal label? It looks like the packaging you would find on a bottle of bottom-shelf cooking oil. “Above Average” : 82/100 (3.25 stars)