Australasian August - Live Tasting - 29-30/08/09

[borgom]

Thought I’d kick it off early and check back later when you guys are less likely to be asleep
Unfortunately the Cradle Mountain bottles haven't arrived in time so I’ll have to post some notes on those in a few days. So here's my only contribution for the weekend:

Bakery Hill Peated Cask Strength (500ml 59.5%ABV cask 6709)

With water to approx 43%
Colour: Amber with an orange hue.
Nose: Zesty. Clean and natural notes of orange and lemon. Underneath there's a mild chocolaty peat that reminds me of the HB Springbank 11 Port wood. With a little time the nose develops further offering some fragrant floral tones and vanilla.
Palate: Somewhat oily. Flavours of very mild coffee with some pepper, spice and balancing citrus.
Finish: Long. Tangy citrus gives way to creamy light chocolate and mild coffee.

Neat
Nose: Hot chocolate and weak milky coffee. There are some balancing floral and citrus notes. Very aromatic.
Palate: Again a little oily with coffee and citrus notes. There's also some heat and something vaguely reminiscent of Turkish delight.
Finish: Long and lingering. The peat is earthy but somehow clean. Again vanilla, chocolate and coffee flavours linger on.

Comments
By far the best Australian whisky I’ve tasted and the only one I’m excited enough about to explore further and purchase again. The surprisingly delicate style and peating contradicts the youth of the whisky - the heat on the neat palate being the only give away. It's like a lowlander in the early teens combined with some light Campbelltown peat. The fact that I’m mentally comparing it to the likes of Rosebank and Springbank says it all.
And to think I may not have purchased it at all if not for the Australasian August Online Tasting!

[Mark C]

Welcome to this month's live online tasting which is 'Australasian August'.

borgom's already off and running!

[Nick Brown]

Continuing on a Bakery Hill theme, I've just poured a dram of Bakery Hill cask strength unpeated whisky.

Bakery Hill is a small distillery just north of Melbourne (Australia in case you didn't know) that has recently had some very good write ups in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible.

[Nick Brown]

Bakery Hill Classic Malt, Cask Strength, 60.2% Cask 2308

Colour: pinkish gold, peach flesh

N: yummy, icing sugar, sweet, gristy, some sweet fruit - plums? apricots?, pencil shavings, warm wine, cookie dough, touch of sourness too - soor plooms - giving way to even more icing sugar (a few drops of water clearly define the icing sugar smell as the white flour you find in the mill room)

T: hugely fruity, grape, melon, apple, plum, some slight drying woodiness, charcoal, faint hint of plasticine (water brings out honey)

F: waxy, hay, grass, touch of gooseberry, becomes minty

The label doesn't mention age, nor does it mention cask type. The colour and flavour suggest it may not be a typical bourbon barrel - perhaps something from the nearby Yarra Valley wine region. This really is top rate whisky - not quite like Scotch, the fruitiness is different, but well made. There's hardly any heat, even at cask strength. There is also no suggestion of youth - none of the feintiness. This could suggest a relatively mature whisky or, more likely, the effect of first fill casks in a warm climate (the Amrut effect).

[Mark C]

I'm back from the Auchentoshan event which was superb. I've poured a Bakery Hill courtesy of Nick Brown.

The nose is icing sugar and a little nutty. Very enticing. Quite fiery on the mouth and bitter chocolate on the finish. Pretty good all roumd.

[Mark C]

Still loads of icing sugar on the nose. Delicious and very enticing. Sweet nuts on the mouth and finish. I'm very impressed by this.

[Mark C]

This sample bottle has a bit 'L' on it so I assume that's a Lark. Similar to Bakery Hill there's a very sweet and powdery nose, like icing sugar.

[Nick Brown]

Glad you like the Bakery Hill - I am pleased with it.

Now pouring a dram of Lark Distillery LD84 - bottled in September 2008 at 43%. Lark Distillery is in Hobart, Tasmania.

[Mark C]

On the mouth it is sweet but has a sharp edge and this becomes a bitterness on the finish. The sweetness remains throughout but becomes bitter chocolate and pepper at the end to prevent the sweetness overpowering.

[Mark C]

Glad you like the Bakery Hill - I am pleased with it.

Now pouring a dram of Lark Distillery LD84 - bottled in September 2008 at 43%. Lark Distillery is in Hobart, Tasmania.

I posted before looking at your posts and the icing sugar was clear without any influence from other opinions. A very sweet and smooth dram. I'm pleasantly surprised.

[Nick Brown]

Lark Distillery LD84 - bottled in September 2008 at 43%

N: Oh dear - there is some grist in there if you look for it, but overwhelmingly there is a not terribly pleasant leather tang; some icing sugar comes through with time; perhaps nuts; treacle; rubber - really not in balance at all

T: toasted tea cakes; dried fruit; rubber; baked apples with burnt demerara sugar; treacle tart - definitely some pleasant flavours in there but overall it feels a bit rubbery and unbalanced

F: rubber, leather, baked raisins, currants and apple, slightly sour edge, brandy-like, really sweetens at the death (icing sugar, meringue) - better balanced than the nose and palate

If I were tasting this blind, I'm not sure I'd pick it for a whisky. There are elements that are more like a grappa or a brandy. Again, the cask type isn't mentioned but it may well be something other than a bourbon or a sherry cask.

[Mark C]

To be honest I'm getting a lot of similar notes to the Bakery Hill but might be jaded after the festival today. I definitely get the icing sugar on the nose but I'm not getting any unpleasant notes. There's perhaps a little something like burnt rubber but it's very, very faint in this sample and doesn't detract from the overall sweetness.

The mouth has a fiery touch but again nothing that detracts from the overall sweet experience and the slightly sour and bitter finish seems to round it off fairly well.

[Nick Brown]

I'll be interested to see what others think of the Lark - although I do suggest those with samples try the Bakery Hill first on a fresh palate.

[borgom]

Glad to see you guys liked the BH, the peated was a very pleasant surprise. From what i've read they only use ex-bourbon with the exception of some French Oak in the Double Wood bottlings. The CS bottlings are also supposed to be single casks so the "oddities" identified are probably just the single cask variation/character.
Not sure about the Lark though - it doesn't sound very good from your notes Nick and probably more what i'd expect from an Oz whisky.

[Nick Brown]

The finish on the Lark is building and becoming more attractive - coffee, milk chocolate and blueberries. The nose and palate are still not right.

[borgom]

Nick - is there anything in the way of an unusual/different woodiness? This was the one dominant flavour that stood out in the previous tastings of Hellyers Road and Great Outback whiskies.

[Nick Brown]

I'm no expert, but I'd have thought the woodiness of the Lark is more like a brandy cask. It could be a regular cask but just with different barley or something. The thing is, Aussie whisky is a bit of an unknown quantity so it's hard to attribute flavours.

Now getting a touch of gueuze beer in the finish of the Lark - only ever had that once before in a Cadenhead's Pittyvaich.

[C57]

Good to see some notes coming here. I'll be joining you guys a bit later - courtesy of Nick B who was kind enough to send me samples. Many thanks Nick

[C57]

OK first sample is the Bakery Hill (cheers Nick!)

Neat
Nose: I immediately get the icing sugar that's already been noted. But then I get plum duff
This is a rather good nose - I'm surprised, which gives away my prejudices!

Palate: Nice and warming though not hot. A hint of the flavour of the Bladnoch New Make - which again was very plummy to me. Now it's quite dry. There are other fruits in there but having had a while off serious tasting, I'm finding identification difficult.
I find some feintiness too.

Finish: Quite dry and fairly long, on some wood spices and again the new make feintiness.


Water
Nose: A few drops have made the aromas even stronger and the plums are much to the forefront. Now a hint of apples too - Bramleys. The NM aromas are coming in rather stronger too.

Palate: Much smoother now, the icing sugar coating the mouth. Feints all gone. The apples are present in the palate now and it's staring to taste more of blackberry and apple pie than plum duff.
Really rather nice

Finish: Much sweeter than neat and again the feints have vanished. Rather long and round.

Altogether, I'm quite impressed by this. It's very drinkable.

[Jimmy321]

As suggested i will start with the BH, thanks Nick for the samples.

N. Warm icing sugar, like the sweet smell of icing sugar from a cake just out of the ovan.

P. Again sweet, hints of apples and perhaps citrus fruits.

F. Slight oak the sweetness decends quickly in to biterness, i could be wrong but the bitterness could be caramel.

I don't know if the sweetness is caused by youth but to me the taste profile is somewhere between a Scotch single malt and a single grain.

[Nick Brown]

I should add public thanks to Calliope for bringing the Bakery Hill with her when she visited Scotland this summer.

[Jimmy321]

Lark 43%

N. Sweet but much more fruity than the Bakery Hill, hints of spiced apples.

P. Lots of barley and slightly malty, spice with minor hints of chocolate.

F. Drying and bitter, hot, tastes more alcoholic than 43%.

I def perfer the Barker Hill, will try both of these again later.

Again thanks to all who made this possilbe and provided the samples/bottles Nick, Calliope and anyone else involved.

[Mark C]

I'm going to have my dinner and give the two samples I have another try as I don't think my tastebuds were up to much last night after the Auchentoshan Festival.

[Jolly Toper]

Evening all. The end of the month has snuck up commando like and my machine has suffered e-mailitis so forgot this was on till this morning. Thanks to Calliope and Nick for the Bakery Hill and Lark. If only jelly head could get his S**T together and we could all have tried some Cadenheads Lammerlaw and Cradle Mountain. If anyone is interesrted let me know and I'll try and sort something out. Its the Edinburgh Festival just now and theres not much spare time. I'm sure trying them later and posting notes elsewhere would be better than nothing.

A couple of notes before I try anything. The Cadenheads Lammerlaw has been stateed 10yo since 1999 on every bottling. We've bottled about ten casks so far. I thinkl there must be legislation stating Kiwi whisky can only be stated at an age indicating the time spent in NZ. So we're almost certainly selling a 20yo at the moment despite 10yo on the label. A powerful but not unpleasant note of acetone is usually found in the Lammerlaw and strength is nearly always 49% at cask strength. Frank McHardy thought the policy must have been to cut the spirit dramatically when filling to promote rapid maturation. Also I'm sure I read some time ago the distillery had only one still and it was stainless steel! If that was the case I'm guessing the still was joined by another and both were copper eventually.

The Cradle Mountain is more of an unknown quantity for me, keeping abreast of new world stills is not getting easier. But the Cabernet Sauvignon cask Cadenheads bottled was a Frankenstein's monster. Clear notes of chocolate peanut butter on burnt toast, for sure. The other, which I thought was Chenin Blanc, seems to actually be a Bourbon Hoggie. this is more striking thanks to its pertinence and sharpness. But in turn I find it quite good and too brash. I did the overland trek from Cradle mountain to Lake Claire about 13 years ago and can honestly say it was one of the most magical places I've been. Knee deep snow to giant and ancient ferns, killer snakes to over crowded bothies and if you pooed outwith the 5 toilets on the 50 mile 5 day walk you had to bag it and take it home. I digress.

I've also got Meekong but this is molasses based I think so shouldn't count. Again let me know if anybody is criouos.

[The Craw]

Thanks very much indeed to Nick/Calliope for the 2 samples.

First the Bakery Hill.................

N - Sweet, mincemeat, treacle toffee and certainly vinous (sweet wine casks?)

T - Fruity, all sorts of ripe fruits and crystallised fruits then stewed fruits, then toffee, burnt toffee - a drop of water turned this one bitter for me, I preferred it at CS.

F - Fruit slice and spices, then continues on the burnt toffee theme

A very nice whisky and a pleasure to try. I suspect the Amrut effect and would also suspect some sweet/sauternes or monbazillac wine casks?

Will try the Lark next and report back. Again thanks to Nick etc for the samples