Whisky Tasting : The Oak Barrel, Sydney, 19 January 2021. Whisky #6 Nose: Orchard fruits, mild peat, honeysuckle, roast beef, charcoal, toffee, flamed orange peel, burnt butter, a hint of liquorice. The nose is ultra-tight and very spirity when neat and must be reduced with water to allow its full potential to be revealed. Palate: Sweet syrup, toffee, caramel, malt extract, plum pudding, almost-rotting tropical fruits. That’s just the arrival. The development brings raspberry and blackberry jams, maple-glazed barbecue, sweet tobacco and buttered soot. The texture is full, heavy, rich and mouth-coating. Finish: Very long. Peated Christmas cake. What an amazing whisky – it’s like a mixture of Glenfarclas 105 and Ardbeg Uigeadail, and yes you read that strength correctly. This is 71.3% abv. The astonishing thing is that it is not only drinkable at that neat strength (but you need to be careful!) but it is delicious. It is like drinking highly peated, highly flavoured thinned molasses. Black Gate is fast becoming one of my favourite Australian distilleries. Run by Brian and Genise Hollingworth, it is a small operation with a growing cult following They are located at Mendooran near Dubbo in country NSW where the daily temperature at can fluctuate by up to 40 degrees celsius. Their stills are small and direct-fired, producing an oily, pungent, highly flavoursome new-make with toasted cereal and caramelised sugar notes. The spirit is matured in small casks (some extremely small) and yet while Brian manages to coax as much flavour and aroma as possible from them he somehow manages to avoid tannins. The malt for this expression was heavily peated and imported from Bairds in Scotland. The spirit was aged in five 20 litre(!) refill ex-apera casks that were vatted for bottling. Like many Australian whiskies this one is expensive at the equivalent of US$170 for a 500ml bottle, but for once the cost is justified. This is a very good artisanal whisky and for me it stole the show at the tasting. “Very Good” : 89/100 (4.75 stars)