McHenry 10 Year American Oak

Nose: Resinous wood (pine), light aromatic wood (cigar box), vanilla icing, caramel flan. Palate: Mild arrival of vanilla cake, thinned honey and date slice. There is not a lot of development but the date slice morphs into apple pie as it rests on the palate. The texture is unusually delicate and verges on insubstantial. This whisky displays no legs at all. Finish: Short. Lightweight oak and oatmeal biscuits with a slice of apple. I only had a small taste of this at a pop-up store in Hobart during the August whisky festival. It was served in a tiny plastic shot glass which is the kiss of death for any serious tasting (when will the people presenting these events learn?). McHenry has produced half a dozen 5 and 6 year old “work-in-progress” and experimental malts whilst finding their house style and this 10 year old is the culmination. I believe it is intended to be the core-range flagship going forward. Sadly, it’s hard to recommend given the price, which is a shame as I really enjoy the other products that I have tried from the distillery, particularly their Federation Gin. I hope to come back to this whisky in the future for more serious evaluation as I believe it may fare better when tasted properly in a better context, but at the moment the best I can say is that it is on the positive side of average. “Average” : 79/100 (2.75 stars)