Archie Rose Single Malt Whisky (Batch 1)

Nose: Malt extract, golden syrup, fig biscuits, dried stone-fruit. There are spicy notes more usually associated with rye whisky and an aroma like yeast extract (oh no, Vegemite whisky!). A drop of water mutes the nose a bit and lets more subtle floral notes through but it remains self-consciously "big". It's busy, but not complex. Palate: Sweet malty arrival with a touch of light ashy smoke. The development has a big malted cereal presence and flavours reminiscent of ale, stout and porter. There are chocolate, mocha and light fruit notes together with a syrupy treacle or golden syrup quality, but malt extract dominates everything else. Finish: Medium/short: Chocolate, malt and dates. This was a much anticipated release, being the first single-malt produced in Sydney for well over a century, and the first single-malt ever from Archie Rose. The distillery was founded 6 years ago and the spirit for this whisky probably ran 2-3 years ago. I thought this was a successful first whisky for the distillery but it did give me the impression of being young and gauche. The nose is rich but the palate seemed a bit one-note and both are dominated by malt. It certainly doesn’t taste like just another Speyside clone and is very much it’s own thing, which is good, but it's only a competent whisky. They used an almost ridiculously complex mash formula with six different strains of malt that were kilned to different intensities ranging from lightly-kilned pale La Trobe malt through to chocolate-roasted Westminster and peated Chariot. Fermentation was with both distiller's and brewer's yeasts and the fermentation time was a whopping 156 hours (the wash must have tasted like a fruity stout!). Distillation was in their old (now retired) small pot stills equipped with tube condensers. The distillate was matured in ex-apera barrels, mostly heavily charred, and ranging from 100-300 litres in size. Maturation took place in their Sydney warehouse with temperature fluctuations that would have exercised those casks quite a bit. Batch 1 was highly desirable among local enthusiasts and collectors so a lottery was held for a chance to buy some bottles (1 per customer) back in October this year. I missed out on that but the distillery then put the rest of the batch up for online sale two weeks later. They sold out in 9 minutes, but that time I managed to get a bottle. In summary, an OK but far from outstanding whisky which is nonetheless a laudable achievement. The main criticisms I have are that it is obviously too young and simultaneously over-complex to the point it is almost a caricature. It smells and tastes like they threw everything except the kitchen sink into it to make the profile as big and spectacular as possible. It would be nice if in future the distillery turned down the volume of, well, just about everything. There is a potentially great whisky here that is being smothered by over-engineered intensity. “Above Average” : 80/100 (3 stars)