Spring Bay French Oak Cask Whisky Lovers Australia Limited Edition

N: Huge, and with a definite alcohol burn creeping in at the end. Bold, and very forward with a blend of dark chocolate bitterness, tobacco leaf, musty wooden boxes, and a sweet malt. Dark cherry, and leathery heavily tannic spice. P: Not as alcohol burn laden as the nose would suggest. An astringent and slightly bitter approach filled with more dark chocolate, dark cherry, raisin, cinnamon and a whack of peppery heat. The oak here is a little overwhelming, astringent, tannic, and spiced to what should be an illegal level. I am hoping water calms and opens this. Something good wants to escape. F: Medium-long. Tannic and drying, espresso crema and a little sticky dark caramel. More pepper. A hefty dash of water and a cloudy and turbid transformation starts to unravel. A dry, warm, more tobacco laden malt unfolds and gently subdues the raw spirit burn. Tannins calm and a deep dark fruit body moves into their place. This is the depths of a Hans Christen Anderson fairy tale forrest now. The palate follows suit, softer mouthfeel accompanies a dark fruit cake with deeply browned edges. Dark toffee, sweeter cherry, mocha, no pepper but plenty of bakery spice and warmth. The finish moves towards an oily bitter chocolate and slightly nutty cherry. This has been a very protracted run. Disappointingly my memory of the progression through my Spring Bay samples is limited at best. This means I am unable to really say that there has been a common flavour theme running through them. Rather the palates have been somewhat forgettable. I think in large part, the generic quality of these drams has been heavily impacted by very powerful oak influence to the detriment of the underlying spirit which I believe might be quite good. In tonights pour, the abs is high enough to allow an exploration with dilution that finds something of a diamond in the rough. Perhaps one to watch for later years but for now, they just need to calm down, stick to the bourbon casks perhaps and focus on getting the ageing and wood contact correct. Oh, for those that care, this pour was from 100 bottles only, a 3.5 year raging in ex-Sullivans Cove refill casks that I believe had a sherry influence at some point in time. Distiller whisky taste #237 [Pictured here with an intraformational conglomerate. 20 km outside of Marrakesh, Morocco is the Lower Carboniferous (346-323 million years old) Jebilet Inlier. An inlier is an old rock formation isolated amongst younger formations. Inliers typically form through erosion of overlying young rocks to reveal a limited exposure of the older rocks below. Within the inlier are packages of sedimentary rocks including these conglomerates. They consist of rounded pebbles of sandstone and limestones identical to the rocks the conglomerate is found interbedded with which indicates this rock as an intra-formational conglomerate.⁣] Spring Bay running scores: Bourbon Cask: 3.5/5 The Rheban: 3.25/5 Apera Cask: 3/5⠀ PX Cask: 3.25/5⁣ French Oak WLA: 3.5/5