Bakery Hill Peated Malt

Personally I really have to be in the mood for peaty whisky so struggled a little to begin with. On the nose it reminded me of something from the highlands so I was interested! It was easy to drink, though I found I lost a lot of the complexity behind the smoke. Add a dash of water and see the whole drink take on a new persona! Like Clark Kent taking off his glasses a whole new drink is in town, toffee sweetness still keeping the lingering smoke and warmth. So incredibly interesting to see something like this come from less than 20km down the road!

Nose: Pears, apples, mild peat smoke with a heathery floral quality. It's fresh and "windswept" in character with almost a briny note, which is bizarre considering the distillery's location is in outer metropolitan Melbourne 40km from the coast. Adding water contributes a soft musky tone to the fruity and floral aromas. Palate: Impressively soft and sweet on the arrival with exceptionally well-balanced cereal flavours. Smoke is not immediately apparent but shows up after a moment as the palate starts to develop, however it is certainly not a peat monster. Lightly sweetened orchard fruits on the developed palate with a pleasant hint of leather and tobacco. The texture is creamy and silken with just a soupçon of caramel and vanilla. Finish: Short. The fundamental pleasant cereal quality fades quite quickly with a little puff of smoke on the aftertaste and a miniscule briny note. Another relaxed Sunday afternoon, another relaxed Aussie whisky. This is the second peated expression I've had from Bakery Hill (the other being their more pungent "Sovereign Smoke") but this is much more laid-back and cosy in style. I gather that this is precisely what the distillery was aiming to achieve, and they did it in spades. Bravo. The nose seemed at once familiar and it didn't take long to identify it with Kilchoman Machir Bay. There is the same fresh, breezy quality but this whisky has more sweetness to the nose. Machir bay is also more complex whereas this has a simpler profile but is very friendly and approachable. The palate is focused on crisp, sweet cereal flavours rather than rich maltiness. This is a "breakfast" palate, not one for dessert. I did note with great pleasure the complete absence of any rubbery, plastic, sour or sulphurous notes. The distillate is whistle-clean, and in my humble opinion Bakery Hill could teach several Scottish distilleries a lesson in how to run a still. This is a very gentle style of whisky and it certainly does not require any water to make it approachable. One common characteristic I notice in every Australian whisky (and also in American single malts) is a lack of harshness and alcohol heat. This expression is 46% abv but the ethanol is hardly noticed. Adding water softens the profile to the point that it becomes dangerously easy to drink, but I preferred it neat. The only criticisms I can make of this whisky are that it is a trifle too simple and demure, but it would be a wonderful whisky to give a novice. It does lack the depth required of a really interesting whisky and the finish, while pleasant, is quite short. If it was just a little broader in all respects I'd happily rate this at 4 stars. It is certainly a very good whisky and easily the best of the core-range 46% Bakery Hill expressions. It's interesting that instead of using local Australian barley this is produced with 100% peated Scottish malt (I believe it's imported from Bairds in Inverness, but I don't know the barley variety). There is also, as with all Australian whisky, the very high price to take into consideration. At AUS$160 for a 500ml bottle of NAS whisky this simply cannot compete against imported peated whiskies, most of the 10 or 12 year old Scottish expressions being literally half the cost. Tasted from a 50ml distillery-bottled sample. "Good, almost Very Good" : 3.75 stars

Wasn't expecting much peat from an Australian distillery where peat is non-existent and needs to be imported. The most slight of peat/smoke on the nose and palate. Tasted like a very mellowed subdued version of Laphroiag...

Strong up front, with peat, but sweet syrup smell and taste comes through.

This one is really interesting. I should dislike this whiskey given its a lighter sweeter not full bodied dram. It had a really different profile though to a scots whiskey - very light but really carried flavour well. The alcohol was well balanced