Battery Point Peated New Make

Battery Point Distillery tasting, Hobart, Monday August 10th 2024, Whisky #6 Nose: When neat all I could sense was rubbery peat smoke that obscured everything more subtle. Once it was reduced it was less pungent but smoke was still the outstanding aroma. Palate: Very alcoholic when neat but with surprisingly little burn, just an intense “prickle”. Like the nose, the palate was overflowing with rubber and bitumenous phenols when neat but once reduced almost 1:1 with water (so around 40%) it had a pleasingly ashen smoke flavor, the rubber taste almost disappeared and you could just taste some malt. The texture was unbelievably oily. Finish: Medium. It seemed as if it would be long but then just stopped dead. The length is entirely due to intense smoke. I always enjoy the opportunity to taste a distillery’s new make and the tour guide was very happy to oblige when I asked about this, but the only sample he had to hand was from a peated run (this distillery seldom makes peated spirit). It was somewhat quirky and an experiment, but still nice to try. What made the experience more interesting was that he also provided a sample of the low-wines run for this new-make. It was at 40.3% abv and nosed pretty well, somewhere halfway between very high alcohol ale and whisky, which is what you would expect. It was a great experience but hard to rate as the low-wines was a half-formed product and the new-make was screaming out for reduction to filling strength and several years in an active cask. 10/10 and 5 stars for experimentation and quality of production but I’m just guessing that once matured it will be at least … “Above Average” : 80/100 (3 stars)