• Welcome to the Green and Gold Rugby forums. As you can see we've upgraded the forums to new software. Your old logon details should work, just click the 'Login' button in the top right.

Spirits thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hugh Jarse

Hugh Jarse

Rocky Elsom (76)
Staff member
^^^ Good to see Adam Freier as a judge in the Whisky Bledisloe Cup. Another clever member of The Cauliflower Club.
 
Lindommer

Lindommer

Steve Williams (59)
Staff member
Great article, Baldric, thanks for bringing our attention to it.

I took my son to the Sydney Whisky Fair put on by The Oak Barrel in September (he's showing an interest in top-level spirits) and I must say the Australian whiskies outshone the American, Irish, Japanese and Scottish exhibitors that night. It's probably a bit unfair to lump the Septics in with the other four as their whiskies were very different in style, there were only American bourbons while most of the others were malt whiskies in the Scottish and Irish traditions. The Starward mentioned in that article distil their drop in one of the old hangars at Essendon Airport, and it was very, very good. Limeburners from Albany in WA was also delicious. The Tasmanian trio of Lark, Overeem and Sullivans Cove had the outstanding whiskies of the show for me, they were so much softer than the Scottish malts. To my palate the Scottish whiskies all had a considerable amount of "fire" the Australian ones didn't. A rather idiosyncratic character called Peter Bignell runs Belgrove Distillery on his farm in the Tasmanian midlands, Peter does EVERYTHING himself, grows the grain, malts it, he even made the still in his back shed. Belgrove only uses rye, no barley, in their whiskies. Their unoaked was a bit plain, probably very good for mixing in cocktails instead of vodka, but the oaked ones were very good. The problems with Tasmanian whiskies are twofold: their production runs are extremely small resulting in very high prices (the peated Belgrove comes in at $224!) and they're now bloody hard to get due to recent publicity (Sullivans Cove won best single malt whisky at the 2014 World Whiskies Awards).

There were two exhibitors who triple distil their whiskies: Tyrconnell from Ireland and Auchentoshan from Scotland. There was a distinct smoothness about the drams from these two, by crikey, a flight of Auchentoshans is a fine thing! The Tyrconnells were by far the sweetest whiskies on show.

All in all a good night. I was so taken with the Tassie drops I've subsequently shouted myself a bottle of Overeem, port cask finish, with a forthcoming tax refund. It wasn't cheap, well into three figures, it's beautifully smooth with the most incredible length. Well worth it.

Whisky Fair site here: http://www.whiskyfair.com.au/ See you there next year.
 
Baldric

Baldric

Jim Clark (26)
a flight of Auchentoshans is a fine thing!
Click to expand...

I have been shot down a few times by one of these flights. The Three Wood is by far one of the best late night partners to a cigar.
 
sevenpointdropgoal

sevenpointdropgoal

Larry Dwyer (12)
Baldric said:
I have been shot down a few times by one of these flights. The Three Wood is by far one of the best late night partners to a cigar.
Click to expand...


If you are a fan of the Three Wood, I recommend you get your hands on some Lagavulin Distillers Edition; virtually unpeated (unlike it's 16 year stable mate) and rocking a shitload of PX deliciousness.
 
Baldric

Baldric

Jim Clark (26)
sevenpointdropgoal said:
If you are a fan of the Three Wood, I recommend you get your hands on some Lagavulin Distillers Edition; virtually unpeated (unlike it's 16 year stable mate) and rocking a shitload of PX deliciousness.
Click to expand...

I might not need to get that. I will be able to age cheap hooch overnight with this little puppy.

http://www.theage.com.au/executive-...ee-years-in-just-one-day-20141020-11914m.html

Reminds me of adding woodchips to wine to get the new barrel flavour out of a tired old barrel.
 
sevenpointdropgoal

sevenpointdropgoal

Larry Dwyer (12)
Baldric said:
I might not need to get that. I will be able to age cheap hooch overnight with this little puppy.

http://www.theage.com.au/executive-...ee-years-in-just-one-day-20141020-11914m.html

Reminds me of adding woodchips to wine to get the new barrel flavour out of a tired old barrel.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I saw that on Kickstarter a while ago and I don't get it. Ignoring questions about the validity of their claims, fresh and matured oak staves have been available for decades - they cost about $20 a bag retail, and they are used in massive commercial quantities to age crap spirits and shitty, high volume wines.
 
Lindommer

Lindommer

Steve Williams (59)
Staff member
Found a bottle of Sullivans Cove at a western Sydney bottleo last week, the bastards jacked the price up considerably after the big award in 2014. It's the American oak one, not the French oak variant which won the world's best single malt whisky gong. Mulled over buying it for, about, 10 minutes before deciding, fuck it, you only live once, and pulled out the plastic. Snuck a small sip over the weekend, gorgeously smooth, and the length, can still taste it five days later.

If Australia keeps putting out outstanding drams like the Tasmanian ones, Westward from Essendon Airport and Limeburners from Albany the Scots have every right to be worried. Saw a bottle of Timboon single malt recently, anyone tasted it?

Apart from Australia the Kiwis have some delicious drops from Oamaru. There's a lovely story about those clowns at Foster's (what haven't they fucked up in the liquor trade these last 20 years?) purchasing Seagram's New Zealand distillery in the 90s and immediately closing it down. Luckily, the barrels of whisky were well stored until a young Tasmanian fella picked them up recently and spent a shitload of money and time finishing them off in various barrels before releasing them. More power to him. Must try one of them soon. They're talking about putting together a co-production of Australian and New Zealand whisky to commemorate the centenary of ANZAC Day this year. Here's their website: http://www.thenzwhisky.com/
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top