Australian Single Malt Whisky Tasting (Part 2), The Oak Barrel, Sydney 17 January 2020, Whisky #7 Nose: Deep sherry, warm baking spices, ginger biscuits, orange oil, cocoa. Palate: A warm, rich Christmas cake arrival with a hint of spice and oak. Fortified wine, brandy and cherry liqueur become apparent as it develops, together with an amplification of the dark cake flavours into treacle tart, fruit mince pies and stewed pears in port. Balancing this huge palate are some bright spice tones and bittersweet fruit notes (grapefruit and kiwifruit). The texture is creamy, full and dense. Finish: Medium. Fortified wine and honey trail off into a sweet malty aftertaste. This was the last dram of the two-night tasting of Australian single malts and it was a great finale. Unlike the 18 year old Smith’s Angaston that we tasted at the end of the first night [see separate review] this whisky had good balance. The distillery that produced it was acquired by Yalumba (a massive Australian wine producer) in 1970 but it was immediately mothballed as they had no interest in whisky production. However the still was later recommissioned and ran for three years from 1997-2000 to produce a few experimental hogsheads. This expression was one of 264 bottles produced from cask No.970331 in 2019, which had been filled from one of the last spirit runs in 1997. The bottling was dedicated to Peter John Wall, the late production manager at the distillery, who was responsible for the brief recommissioning of the still and the experimental runs. “Very Good” : 85/100 (4 stars)