[48.0%・NAS・Bottled Circa. 2017・Official Bottling]
Nose:
Spirit driven and rather piercing on the nose. Wet grass and mud, yet just a faint presence of smoke. Wood chips and limestone with a curious red brick note slabbed on top of a base of floral tones.
Palate & Finish:
Sugar melting into butter as the oily spirit takes centre stage; rather green with bits of peat attaching themselves onto the teeth whilst the sugary content runs on.
Hint of menthol with traces of cough syrup residues giving a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Thoughts:
Last year’s peated release was a single cask, this year’s has been vatted; to me this is not necessarily a minus, not every barrel of whisky is destined to be released as a single cask and Australian distilleries in particular need to understand that.
I applaud the Limeburners guys’ foresight in recognising the significance of putting out a good vatted, non-cask strength expression. The peated release should become more matured and more importantly, more consistent over the next few years.
Side note: I wonder if the “Australian peating method” will ever catch on?
-Nicholas
WhiskNick 