DrRHCMadden
Spring Bay French Oak Cask Whisky Lovers Australia Limited Edition
Single Malt — Tasmania, Australia
Reviewed
November 25, 2023 (edited December 3, 2023)
N: Huge, and with a definite alcohol burn creeping in at the end. Bold, and very forward with a blend of dark chocolate bitterness, tobacco leaf, musty wooden boxes, and a sweet malt. Dark cherry, and leathery heavily tannic spice.
P: Not as alcohol burn laden as the nose would suggest. An astringent and slightly bitter approach filled with more dark chocolate, dark cherry, raisin, cinnamon and a whack of peppery heat. The oak here is a little overwhelming, astringent, tannic, and spiced to what should be an illegal level. I am hoping water calms and opens this. Something good wants to escape.
F: Medium-long. Tannic and drying, espresso crema and a little sticky dark caramel. More pepper.
A hefty dash of water and a cloudy and turbid transformation starts to unravel. A dry, warm, more tobacco laden malt unfolds and gently subdues the raw spirit burn. Tannins calm and a deep dark fruit body moves into their place. This is the depths of a Hans Christen Anderson fairy tale forrest now. The palate follows suit, softer mouthfeel accompanies a dark fruit cake with deeply browned edges. Dark toffee, sweeter cherry, mocha, no pepper but plenty of bakery spice and warmth. The finish moves towards an oily bitter chocolate and slightly nutty cherry.
This has been a very protracted run. Disappointingly my memory of the progression through my Spring Bay samples is limited at best. This means I am unable to really say that there has been a common flavour theme running through them. Rather the palates have been somewhat forgettable. I think in large part, the generic quality of these drams has been heavily impacted by very powerful oak influence to the detriment of the underlying spirit which I believe might be quite good. In tonights pour, the abs is high enough to allow an exploration with dilution that finds something of a diamond in the rough. Perhaps one to watch for later years but for now, they just need to calm down, stick to the bourbon casks perhaps and focus on getting the ageing and wood contact correct.
Oh, for those that care, this pour was from 100 bottles only, a 3.5 year raging in ex-Sullivans Cove refill casks that I believe had a sherry influence at some point in time.
Distiller whisky taste #237
[Pictured here with an intraformational conglomerate. 20 km outside of Marrakesh, Morocco is the Lower Carboniferous (346-323 million years old) Jebilet Inlier. An inlier is an old rock formation isolated amongst younger formations. Inliers typically form through erosion of overlying young rocks to reveal a limited exposure of the older rocks below. Within the inlier are packages of sedimentary rocks including these conglomerates. They consist of rounded pebbles of sandstone and limestones identical to the rocks the conglomerate is found interbedded with which indicates this rock as an intra-formational conglomerate.]
Spring Bay running scores:
Bourbon Cask: 3.5/5
The Rheban: 3.25/5
Apera Cask: 3/5⠀
PX Cask: 3.25/5
French Oak WLA: 3.5/5
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A quick buck, I suspect, drives everything. Huge alcohol taxation, expensive start up costs, and a lack of willingness to wait for slower, calmer, maturation. Whilst not a huge fan of rum casks, the availability of rum barrels, and quality wine casks should be able to add some home grown consistency….
@DrRHCMadden It's a regrettable tendency, but I think we are starting to grow away from this widespread method/recipe/philosophy of "brewer's malt, brewer's yeast, tiny casks & 2 years max aging". I can't understand why no distillery in Australia ages in huge oak tuns. Our laws requires ageing for two years in wood, but the type of wood and size of cask are not specified. You could legally put new-make in a 10,000 litre ex-rum tun from Bundaberg and let it rest for 20 years in our climate without it becoming tannic or cask dominated.
It was, busy is the perfect adjective. To be fair to it, there was some lovely richness when watered to what I’d guess was around 40-45%. When this one was released by WLA they said “we can’t say where the casks came from”. I found a few bloggers who uncovered Sullivan’s Cove, and I found reference to red wine and sherry. And now that you’ve said it, I’d probably suggest more of a red wine than a sherry. The bourbon cask from these folk was by far and away the most enjoyable. Another example of Aussies trying to do too much.
@DrRHCMadden Phew! Sounds like a very busy malt. Whan Australian distilleries say "French oak" then 9 times out of 10 it means "an ex-apera or wine cask made from French oak", not a virgin French oak cask. That's almost certainly where the sherry note is coming from. I think Sullivan's Cove buys ex-wine casks from McWilliams, but I'm not certain.