Belgrove Rye Whiskey

Bright and Crisp, with a sense of candy on the nose. Smooth finish

Nose: Bright, crisp and spicy with pickle water, spearmint, peppermint and sourdough bread the first aromas to be noticed. These are balanced by softer buttery and herbal notes. There is a sweet background hint of candy cane and a slight whiff of tobacco. Palate: The arrival is light and delicate with a character very like the initial nose – crisp spice, mint, dill and caraway seed but also a sweet note of honey. The development brings out more intense spices including walnut oil, white pepper and oak tannin. The texture is silky soft to begin with but it becomes drier and more tannic over time with over-brewed black tea astringency appearing, however it also manages to retain an oily character. Finish: Medium. Oily/dry and mildly tannic but it eventually segues into a warm, soft aftertaste. This is a very good rye whisky but different to any other I have tasted. It has a lightness of character that is almost disarming and a fresh, crisp quality that is very different to the big, dark rye monsters produced by some distilleries. It is elegant and poised but also full of flavour and complexity. You need to put aside preconceptions about rye when tasting this and judge it on its own merits. In many ways it is more like mezcal than whisky. Belgrove distillery is located just north of Kempton in Tasmania, about 50km north of central Hobart. It is owned and operated by Peter Bignell who is one of the founding fathers of modern Australian whisky. The distillery is so artisan it makes Springbank and Daftmill look like Macallan in comparison Every part of the production cycle is undertaken personally by Peter. His farm produces the grain, and the production and process water is collected from rainfall. He malts, mashes, ferments and distills entirely in equipment he built himself. This includes the stills which were made from recycled copper and are direct fired using waste cooking oil from a food shop in the nearby town. All power for the distillery is from bio-fuel. He coopers and chars his own casks, bottles the whisky and hand-writes the labels. I would strongly recommend doing a search on Youtube for “Belgrove Distillery” - it has to be seen to be believed. All of this would, of course, amount to little more than a curiosity for passing tourists but for one thing – Peter’s whisky is good. Belgrove’s production runs are small and true batch production. The Distiller listing for this expression states that it is 46% but this varies from batch to batch, as does the exact profile. The batch I tasted was 45% and bottled on 19 March 2020. It is always 100% rye in content with no added enzymes and is fermented using the old-school sourmash technique of the 1800s. It can be difficult to obtain Belgrove whiskies, even locally, as they disappear quickly when released. The distillery has a fanatical cult following among hard-core Australian whisky enthusiasts and I doubt that you will ever see any in overseas markets, but if you are visiting Australia at any time you should try to taste some if possible. Peter was presenting what is more-or-less his core range at the 2021 Sydney Whisky Show, and I’m concluding my tasting notes from the show with a review of 5 expressions. This was my tasting #20 at the event. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)