Nose: Big, grassy and fruity with an almost Armagnac quality. Dark stewed fruits, orange juice concentrate, caramel, axle grease, banana bread. Some very good oak aromas, a hint of mint and a zephyr of freshly laundered linen. Palate: Rich, full, rounded, malty arrival. An almost meaty beef bouillon quality – Sunday roast with home made fruit chutney. Soft grains in the development and a strong earthy flavour from assertive oak tannins. A faint suggestion of citrus peel. The texture is perfection, mouth-coating but not at all cloying, with a touch of astringency. Un objet d’art. Finish: Medium/long. Dark chocolate and a touch of gingernut cookie. Lingering malty sweetness in the aftertaste. A delicious new-world style of single malt that reminds me a lot of some Australian and Indian single malts. Large, very “present” but not aggressive. There is no hint that this is 53% abv, in fact the alcohol is masterfully contained. If there is any sort of fault it is that the oak is just on the cusp of being too forward, but that’s part of the package. Rather than make a new entry I’ve added this to the generic listing for “Balcones Texas Single Malt Single Barrel French Oak 53%”. This particular bottle was from cask #9647, the juice was distilled on May 25th, 2017 and bottled February 5th, 2020 and it is non-chillflitered. How remarkable is the amount of maturity that can be crammed into a malt in less than 3 years of Texan warehousing, and how nerve-wracking a task must the cask-management be? I’d guess just a couple of weeks too long and this would be way over-oaked. (Hmm, I wonder what it would be like if it was aged for 10 years in a quiet Scottish dunnage 🙂) It ain’t scotch single malt by any stretch of the imagination but who cares – it’s wonderful stuff and good value. Normally AUD$150, I picked this one up for $99 and I wish now that I had bought two. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)