Knowing that a tasting on the third of January was likely to be a much smaller group as many members were still on holiday or hosting family, we thought this would be a great opportunity to sample drams that come in bottles usually to small for our numbers.

Belgrove Distillery 100% Rye Whisky

This bottle of Tasmanian Rye Whisky was procured by our Bard, Joel Honig, on a trip to Tasmania last year. It comes from a distillery that prides itself on sourcing everything locally, leaving no carbon footprint. Some members from the Nundah club who joined us for this tasting recalled visiting this distillery and had some interesting stories about the unique set up. Ask a member about it at your next tasting.

To taste, there was certainly a softness from the rye, carrying a light sweetness that made it pretty smooth and easy to drink. There was a slight oil to it and took a drop or two of water to open it up, bringing out a surprisingly soft peat. Not quite a bourbon, but not yet a whisky, some thought it would be a great gateway drink to introduce bourbon lovers to single malts.

Quite an easy drink, but lacking some of the robust complexities of a single malt, it scored an average of 6.35 out of 10.

Mortlach Rare Old Scotch Whisky

Before getting to the taste, this no age statement whisky had an incredible nose to it. There was a balanced sweetness that created high expectations for the taste.

On the palette, the first thing you notice is a light burnt caramel flavour. The sweet smell carries over with a sweet taste, yet not overly sweet as the nose would have you expect. Some members noticed flavours of spices, oranges, malty biscuits and even a hint of coffee at the end. There was even a subtle peat flavour hidden in there.

Rather well received, it scored an average 7.54 out of 10.

Dunedin Double Wood 16yo

You can find out more about this whisky if you visit the website, but the short story is it was leftover from a closed New Zealand (north island) distillery, stored in an aeroplane hanger, then aged in New Zealand wine barrels.

The wine carried across a wonderful red colouring rarely seen in whisky, looking more like muscat. However, it didn’t really taste like a whisky anymore.

Once everyone got past expecting a whisky and tasted it for its own drink, it turned out to be quite nice. Keeping the gateway theme going, it would be a good transitional drink for a wine lover being introduced to the world of whisky. It had a wonderful nose, a light sweetness and carried across flavours from both wine and whisky, without the more robust flavours of whisky. It was thought this would go nicely with chocolate, cheese, or even some Wellington beef.

While enjoyable, scoring as a whisky it received 6.5 out of 10.

Poitin

For something different, we also sampled some traditional Irish Poitin. While it was interesting to try, this was essentially Irish moonshine and was a little harsh. It was educational to try this whisky base before any aging took place, but not even mixing it with cranberry juice could take away the sharp edge.

For obvious reasons, we forewent the scoring on this experimental sampling.

The Loch Fyne Living Cask

This was a dram brought back by our Chieftain, Nath Martyn, after a recent holiday in the UK. It was found in a specialty whisky store in the ‘beachside’ city of Brighton. An independent blend of two Islay whiskies, they couldn’t officially say what distillery they were from, but could assure that both were aged 25 years in living casks.

It turned out to be a fantastically well constructed peat and a perfect dram to end the night on. It was missing some of the salt you would come to expect from Islay whiskies, possibly due to being aged away from the renowned whisky region. It was even said “this is 110% what peat lovers like.”

The pick of the night, this unique blend scored an average of 8.25 out of 10.

The takeaway from this tasting was the benefit of having members who travel bringing back something you wouldn’t normally find in Australia. If any members are going to be travelling this year, please feel free to chat to a committee member about procuring a bottle on behalf of the club.

Keep your eye on your email for more of these holiday procured drams in our tastings this year.