Last night was a weak start to a six strong series of Irish Whiskeys from Hyde. Tonight we have a liquid that after maturation in ex-bourbon barrels was transferred into first fill ex-rum casks to mature. Importantly we move from a grain whisky in No. 3 to a single malt with this, No. 4. N: Very light and shy. A vaguely juicy fruit salad mixes with a gingery spice and a little toffee. I’m really reaching though, there is almost nothing here. The more I work at this the less I get. P: Plenty of prickle to an otherwise soft and crisp mouthfeel. Apple, lime (interesting), brown sugar (very much a dark rum molasses sugar), is there a malty biscuit crunch here? Maybe, I’m struggling battling a very sharp and building prickle as if I’m biting on raw root ginger. F: Short-medium. Surprising richness of brown sugar, buttery vanilla, and more ginger burn. I do not care for this. This is a conflicted malt, an all but absent nose leads to more ginger burn than I hope to experience ever again whilst never getting much past a brown sugar richness. Sure some of the juicy fruit notes are fine but it fails to get going, just an over bearing sugar presence presumably from the rum cask. The limey citrus note in the palate, thats super interesting but way to fleeting to redeem this lacklustre poorly conceived and delivered dram. Distiller whisky taste #169 [Pictured here with another Western Australian LCT-Pegmatite, apparently thats the theme for the Hyde series. This pegmatite is from Ravensthorpe in the south of WA and has some rather lovely big green spodumene crystals with white albite and quartz and silvery books of muscovite. Spodumene is the dominant ore mineral for Lithium outside of salt lakes and brines] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5 No. 4 Rum Cask Finish 1.75