My fourth offering from Launceston Distillery, and I have arrived at what I suspect will be the best representative of the “core spirit” without strong assaults from typhoons of Apera or Tawny, and no heavy European oak tannins. I have again created a new entry here for this juice, albeit just a 30 ml sample of yet another astoundingly rare single cask. Using Tasmanian malted barley and pure river water this offering was matured in nine small American oak ex bourbon casks before vatting together and marrying ahead of bottling. Double distilled and non-chill filtered with another impressive cask strength ABV of 62%. N: light and bright. Honey, a slightly sour pear. Very slight hint of freshly cut grass and maybe some honeydew melon/ gooseberry. Very white wine like I think. Given enough huffing and puffing a tiny drizzle of caramel, but its hit and miss and I can’t consistently find it. The nose here is very timid and really doesn’t want to come out and play, but, what is here is razor sharp and precise. P: oh that is light and summery… initially very soft and gentle with a ginger warmth that builds gradually. Vanilla joins the discussion along with honey and crisp pear from the nose. A few sips in and the barely is apparent with just a slightly drying spectre of wood. A creamy mouth feel that slightly impresses the 63% ABV after a few sips. F: Medium. Barley sugar, ginger, a little cinnamon or allspice are all wrapped up in more light honey. A few drops of water open the nose wonderfully. The vanilla comes out, there is a lovely creme caramel kind of vibe going on and some of the pear and grass notes have kind of merged into a sour melon type of thing. Its interesting. The malt is much more obvious too. The palate broadens those winey nose vibes come on a bit further now, there is the gooseberry (I guess slightly unripe orchard fruits?), the wood tannin is slightly more apparent and a much more bourbon forward vanilla-caramel is starting to really make its self known until it becomes slightly warm and toasty. Excellent stuff. The finish is slightly tempered. This was pretty much what I expected, it drank like one of my staples, Limeburners American Oak. The Limeburners is a little less complex but its also a heck of a lot cheaper. Limeburners AO is $140/700 ml, this Launceston Distillery is $235/500 ml which is about $340 if it were a full size bottle. Yes, the LD is 63% versus the LB which is 43%, but the marginally improved complexity hasn’t made it any more enjoyable. O.K. it’s got the edge in a purely objective show down between two very comparable spirit forward Australian whiskys, but I’m not going to go out of my way to take up shelf space here. I’ve enjoyed my mini Tasmanian foray, certainly Launceston Distillery are doing very good things in Hangar-17. And, when I eventually get over to Tassie I’ll definitely be stopping in. After all it is just opposite the airport, so it would be rude not to. [Pictured here with stichtite from the early Palaeozoic stichtite serpentinites of Dundas Tasmania. Stichtite is only known from 14 locations globally. One of these locations is Dundas in Tasmania. A fittingly rare mineral, from the island that produced this rare liquid] Price is for a 500 ml bottle. Distiller whisky taste #108