Nant Port Wood Single Cask Single Malt

Off the heels of six relatively new Tassies, as I finish my road to 200 Distiller whisky tastes I have another Tasmanian Port Cask. Nant has something of a sordid history, and is worth reading about. Corruption and intrigue abound. None the less, I am increasingly enjoying Tasmanian liquids, and a port cask is always a favourite for me. After six months sat on my shelf I finally decided to open and imbibe. N: Rich and luscious. Mulled wine, dark dense Christmas cake, brown sugar, a warming ginger and cinnamon spiced coffee, a hint of savoury pastry and I just about think the lightest of florals. How florals re coming through from the weight of the port is quite impressive. P: Soft, velvety and warming. Rich dark chocolate and coffee, honeyed barley sugar, slightly sweet ginger. Lip smacking stuff here. Malt develops further as banana and butter, red fruits push back on top. F: Surprisingly short. Juicy and fresh, red fruits and warm spices. A dash of water awakens a bouquet of florals on the nose. Wow, that’s a huge development. The shift from deep and dark to light and airy is marvellous. The down side; that same transformative water on the nose has decimated the palate and the finish is now non existent. That nose though! The difficulty of choice: drink or dash and sniff?! I like port casks, I really do. Last nights Tawny cask I gave a 4.5/5. This one, I think I enjoy more, there’s more to discover, but it’s not as good if I’m objective. The finish is a bit pants, and the best part of the nose needs a dash of water that kills the development of the palate. Even sadder, in my notes I had this down as AUD$122.50… it’s now AUD$174.99. It’s 500 ml too. Distiller whisky taste #197 [Pictured here with a 200 million year old “New Red Sandstone”. The NRS is a major rock unit comprised of sandstones, mudstones and evaporite beds deposited from the Permian (280 Ma) to the end Triassic (200 Ma) in a hot, arid environment like a desert or sabkha (a hot, evaporitic mud flat) that extended across what is now Scotland through to the southwest of England. This example of NRS is ~200 Ma from Penrith, Cumbria in the English Lake District]

On the nose: mint, sweet, honey, fruity Palate: dry, sweet Finish: It started with herbal, malty, second sip found some bitter notes. The finish is long lasting and with a sweet note, love that a lot. Comparing to sherry cask, the finish is a little shorter than sherry cask but i find it sweeter.

Re-tasted 14 November 2023 from a sample gifted by @DrRHCMadden I tasted this and made notes without looking at my old review, but it turned out my thoughts were almost identical to three years ago. This bottling is perhaps slightly drier on the palate, and I think I noticed more coconut and vanilla, but to all intents and purposes this is the same stuff. No change of rating. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nose: Fortified wine, dark malt, dried fruits, preserved cherries, plum pudding and Christmas cake. There is a similarity to the Nant Sherry Wood expression but this is deeper and has red-berry aromas. Like the sherry expression, it also bears a resemblance to cognac and armagnac, but the similarity is less pronounced. The addition of a little water develops a pleasant musky, floral aroma like some sort of tropical flower. This also shows up in the dry-glass, but it is overpowered there by a strong aroma of brown sugar. Palate: Soft honeyed-malt arrival with raisins, sultanas and cranberries. A gentle sweet cinnamon and ginger syrup note emerges in the development, together with a little banana bread, butter pastry and coconut. The texture is creamy and soothing. Like the sherry expression, the palate here is not particularly long or complex, but this one is more satisfying. Finish: Short. Butterscotch, red fruits and oak notes fade away fairly quickly into a sweet honeyed aftertaste. The third of four Nant samples I'm tasting, and the last of the standard 43% expressions. Like the Sherry Wood whisky it is 4 years old but this time matured in selected single port casks of 100 litre capacity (around quarter-cask size). The nose is big and comfortable and leads to a rich, creamy palate that is very easy to drink, but a little lacking in complexity and length. This is the only one of the core-range 43% Nant expressions that I think takes water well. It adds a definite floral aroma that is very charming, sweetens (almost over-sweetens?) the palate and expands it with rich caramel and butterscotch-pudding flavours whilst adding length. I definitely preferred this to the sherry expression, but the bourbon wood expression remains the best of the 43% bottlings. Tasted from a 30ml sampler. "Good" : 83/100 (3.5 stars)

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