Southern Coast Single Malt Whisky - 46% - Batch 003

[Nick Brown]

Southern Coast (not to be confused with Great Southern) is a new micro-distillery based in Welland, a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia. This batch won the Malt Whisky Society of Australia's 2011 award for best Australian Whisky.

N: plasticine, icing sugar, honeycomb (i.e. slightly waxy), spongecake, vanilla - possibly pine needles if you try hard enough

T: sweet with a slightly astringent woody edge, heats up, burst of honey and lemon cake - with time, the sweetness fades into more bitter woody notes, slight hint of burning leaves

F: icing sugar, sweet and very short, marshmallows, green grass

There's nothing wrong with the whisky, especially on the first sip. But it just doesn't seem remarkable and after more than a sip or three, starts to become annoyingly bitter. Southern Coast whisky is relatively cheap by Australian standards and does come in a full sized bottle (yay!) but there's simply not enough flavour. The flavour that is present seems to be drawn entirely from the wood - the new spirit must have had almost nothing.