The Grove Distillery Cream Sherry Cask Whiskey

Nose: Rotting fruit, especially bananas, undertones of sherry and wood. There are faint diesel and brown sugar notes. Palate: Sweet, woody and tobacco on the arrival. There are strange plastic and fruit flavours as it develops, with sweetness eventually coming to the fore. There are also definite orange and apricot notes. The texture is OK but there is an overall sensation of something synthetic. Finish: Medium. It finishes a little sour and fruity, with an afterthought of sherry. I really wasn't sure what to make of this. @Soba45 sent me the tasting sample and he is certain that it is aged for a single day, but I could not find any information about it online. It's curious because to be legally sold as "whisky" in Australia the spirit must be, among other things, at least 2 years old. All the examples of Grove whisky I could find on the internet say they are aged for 2 or 3 years. Anyway, regardless of its origins it did not make a good impression and I frankly thought it has as much relationship to fine whisky as does Domestos. However, as I was nosing it and pondering its odd nature it suddenly hit me - this is much, MUCH more like rum than whisky. It has both a nose and palate that you could be forgiven for mistaking for a really funky, greasy old Jamaican rum, and if that was what I'd been told it was I'd score it much higher. However as a whisky this is just a fail. I have no idea how much this cost but the Grove 2 year old Single Malt Whisky sells for around $170, and if it is anything like this that is highway robbery. "Poor" : 60/100 (1 star)

Yup 1 day exactly in the 50 litre barrel. Apparently if you leave it more than 4 hours more it's overdone. Now that screams cheap crap to me but trying it (admittedly after 2 vineyard and 1 brewery tasting in Margaret River) I was impressed. You really get the cream sherry coming through and a nice base spirit to accompany it which goes to show not all good things take time. And yes I bought another bottle. Post this large session I woke up the next day and realised I had far to much alcohol to bring back through customs. 8 bottles of spirits 25 samples and 10 bottles of wine. We drank as much as wine as we could at the in-laws in Melbourne a week later and gave 2 bottles of spirits as presents, cancelled 1 bottle of duty free and still had to leave 1 bottle behind... next time I'll have to staple a note to my forehead... don't let me buy any more bottles I'm over limit! Update: Having opened the bottle in the cold light of day it smells and tastes more like what it is....a 1 day aged based spirit briefly dunked in a cream sherry barrel. The smell is a bit like baby sick (although not that bad) and the taste more one dimensional. Note to self if you are to drunk judgement is impaired! Update 2: After giving away samples I then gave away the whole bottle as I couldn't bare too drink it. Score revised!