Wolfburn Bibendum Bar

Wolfburn tasting evening at The Oak Barrel, Sydney, May 30th 2019: Whisky #6 Nose: The signature distillery fruity/floral character is here but it's distant and obscured by uninteresting dark fruit aromas. There's also a taint like old mouldy laundry. The sherry character here could almost be described as an "oloroso stain", being dark, woody and stale. Palate: An attack that veers disturbingly towards dry sourness. What the hell is going on here? A dry and dark fruity development that devolves into a melange of discombobulated sherry and oak notes and develops the unpleasant aroma of rubber tires. The texture is good but the rest of the palate experience is plain confused. Finish: Medium. Fruit fading into a cereal after-image and a bitterish aftertaste. Have you ever had wet woolen socks that you've draped over a heater or in front of the fire to dry and then left too long? That's the aroma of this whisky - pungent damp woolliness, almost scorched, with a hint of sweaty feet. The culprit? Sulphur, sulphur, sulphur, sulphur ... how many times must it be repeated? I'm not particularly sensitive to sulphur in whisky (and a small amount is normal from most fermentations) but this is way over the top. Who the hell thought this was a good cask? They must have had a very bad cold that day. I have to rate this as the first poor Wolfburn I've tasted. It was apparently a one-off single cask bottling from Cask 131 (a 250 litre ex-oloroso hogshead) that yielded 280 bottles. It was commissioned by Bibendum Bar in Sydney and is exclusive to them. For some folks at the tasting this was a highlight but I wouldn't want to buy another taste, let alone a bottle - particularly not at the asking price. For that matter I wouldn't want to accept a free dram, but hey - it's all subjective so I guess this will float some people's boats. "Inferior" : 69/100 (1.75 stars)