Whisky Tasting : The Oak Barrel, Sydney, 19 January 2021. Whisky #1 Nose: Aromatic barley, full but not overbearing, with a fragrant, dusty quality from both the grains and the casks. A little syrup note but not as intense as malt extract. As it rests in the glass fruit notes begin to appear as the sherry casks come through – orchard fruits at first, particularly sweet apple, and later raisins, dates and dried figs. After opening in the glass for a long time the nose gains a brown sugar aroma. The casks also show up as a fresh woody aroma in the background. Well balanced overall – neither wholly distillate nor cask driven. Palate: Sweet arrival with lots of dark fruits, cereal grains, sweet nuts (particularly cashews) and a little golden syrup. The texture is rich, creamy and very satisfying but the palate does not have the complex progression of the nose. Nonetheless it is very good. Finish: Medium. Sweet malty cereal and dark fruit right to the last glimmer of the aftertaste. Tasmanian Independent Bottlers was established in 2015 and has been releasing Australian whiskies as single cask, batch and vatted expressions. Experimentation and re-casking are priorities and they have created some very good bottlings. This whisky was created by a vatting of three casks from their warehouse. Their origins are not revealed on the label but two are thought to be from the old Redlands Distillery (now revived as Old Kempton) in Tasmania. The origin of the third is unknown. The casks are identified only as “sherry” but whether this means old-style Australian sherry, imported sherry, or Australian apera is uncertain. What is known is that 196 bottles were created from the vatting, released in December 2019, and that the whisky is good. It has a character that is closer to Scottish malt whisky than is usual for our local product, and it bears a passing similarity to Benrinnes. I enjoyed this and considered buying a bottle, but only one was available and it was quickly snapped up. It was on the expensive side, the bottle being only 500ml, but for the level of quality it was reasonable. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)