Nose: Fresh and breezy aromas of cereal, malt, good oak and orchard fruit (pears, apples). There is a grassy and slightly resinous note and a little vanilla. With a few drops of water added the nose shows previously hidden floral and honey notes and becomes less tense and more inviting. It improves even more with time in the glass. Palate: When tasted neat the arrival is initially sweet and malty but is then rapidly overtaken by sparkling spice notes of cinnamon, clove and a dusting of white pepper. These subside in the development as fruity cereal and honey become dominant. The texture is oily and pleasant. Adding water relaxes the whisky and more honey and deep malt notes are apparent. Water also makes the texture very creamy. Finish: Medium. Spicy malt that fades to a leafy ale-like aftertaste. Sullivans Cove has one of the most Scottish profiles of any Australian whisky. It reminds me a lot of Speyburn, Glen Grant, Glenmorangie and any number of other lighter-bodied Speysiders when they are matured in ex-bourbon. It also brings to mind Auchentoshan sometimes and the palate has some things in common with Limeburners, from Western Australia. Double Cask is the baby of Sullivans Cove’s core lineup. They also produce an expression fully matured in refill ex-bourbon and another in 1st fill ex-bourbon, another fully matured in refill French oak and their most expensive which is fully matured in 1st fill French oak. The 1st fill ex-bourbon is my favourite but it's almost twice the price of this Double Cask. All their whiskies have been steadily improving over the years and the recent batches are the best I have tasted. I reviewed a bottle of Double Cask Batch 076 here four years ago and this is the first bottle of Double Cask I’ve tried since then. I think the old batch (which was bottled in 2014) was softer and fruitier, but it was bottled at 40% and that did the whisky no favours. Double Cask is now generally 47.5% and it greatly improves the profile. The best news is that after a decade of low stocks and intense buying due to crazy hype, things are calming down with stocks being easily available and prices dropping substantially. 10 years ago you could only get this whisky through a ballot system direct from the distillery and it cost around AUD$400 a bottle. I bought this current bottle from my preferred online store and it cost AUD$250. It’s amazing and wonderful to see this happening. Classic whisky from the second oldest distillery in Australia. It’s not quite a 4-star dram, but pretty close. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)