Battery Point Triple Cask (Batch #3)

Battery Point Distillery tasting, Hobart, Monday August 10th 2024, Whisky #1 Nose: Dominating sweet aromas of golden syrup, caramel, fortified wine and vanilla. Some nutty aromas are noticed after a while, and particularly after reduction. Palate: Soft, sweet, winey arrival showing bushels of fruity flavours (cranberry, raspberry, grape juice, raisins). As it developed I got walnut skins, pistachios (!) and morello cherries. There is a strong fortified wine presence throughout and although it’s certainly not objectionable it does flood the malt and cereal notes. The texture is creamy. Finish: Medium/Short. Wine and stewed fruits but turning a little metallic in the aftertaste. This is a dessert style of whisky. Sweet, Christmas cake fruity and rich. It was matured in a combination of ex-bourbon (70%), ex-sherry (20%) and ex-port (10%) casks but I forgot to ask whether the wine casks were real sherry and port casks, or apera and tawny which are the Australian versions of these fortified wines. However given the small size of the casks we saw at the distillery I think it’s safe to assume they were local and probably 1st fill, given the intensity of the wine presence. We tasted Bottle #38 from Batch #3 of this whisky. At the moment the batches vary from 45-50% abv (the one we tasted was 46.62%) but Battery Point intends Triple Cask to be a core range expression and they are very much aiming for consistency. I don’t expect the profile will drift much over time, and the abv may eventually be set at a standard strength. The wash, made using Punnet barley from Tasmania, was created for Battery Point by Last Rites brewery. It’s a palatable whisky with nice complexity and reasonable balance, but I did feel that the casks dominate the profile and it could benefit from longer maturation in larger, more subtle casks. This is a whisky, and a distillery, to watch. If they can take this expression to the next level it has the potential to be something quite special. “Good” : 83/100 (3.5 stars)