Roborel de Climens 2017 Finition Sauvignon du Clos Floridène

Nose: Huge white fruit aromas (white grapes, nectarine, gooseberry, lichee), hints of lemon, green apple. Highly reminiscent of a crisp young white muscat. Palate: Fruity and sweet arrival with a balancing acidic note. The fruit flavours build through the development with white grape, pear, peach, sweet red apple and apricot appearing. The texture is soft. A cereal note is apparent after repeated sips, but it is young in character and gristy rather than malty. Finish: Short. Fruity, soft and slightly floral. Roborel de Climens is a recently formed company based in Bordeaux. The owner, Aymeric Roborel de Climens, is an experienced winemaker who has turned his attention to whisky production. The company is not a distillery but rather an independent producer that sources new-make spirit and matures it in selected, top quality French oak casks. The maturation process involves two phases. First, new-make spirit (sourced from Distillerie Artisanale HEPP in Uberach, Alsace) is matured in a combination of new and refill French oak casks (about 80% are refill casks and also come from the HEPP distillery). This phase lasts 3-4 years and provides structure and body to the whisky. The whisky is then finished for 6-12 months in ex-wine casks, each expression being matured in a specific type of cask. In this case the finishing was in ex-sauvignon casks sourced from Clos Floridène in Bordeaux. Sometimes too much emphasis is placed on age in relation to whisky. Maturity can be a good thing and venerable old scotch whisky is a delight to taste, however it is a mistake to assume there is any sort of minimum or “sweet spot” age that applies to all whisky. Young whisky like this can also be a delight, just as young sparkling wine can be delightful in the right context. That said, I did feel that this expression was particularly juvenile and I think it would have been improved by another year in the initial casks. It is a charming, vivacious whisky with an almost astonishingly fresh and clean profile, but it lacks complexity and is unbalanced and overburdened by the fruity aromas and flavours from the wine cask. It is also a shame that it was bottled at only 40% abv. Tasted at the Sydney Whisky Show, 15 May 2021, my tasting #16 from bottle 181/750. This was the first of four Roborel de Climens expressions I tasted on the day. Reviews of the other three are incoming. "Average" : 78/100 (2.75 stars)