PRE-ORDER: 53.509 Doctor Tar and the Lactones (Australian Exclusive)

Description

From the Team

It’s not often we see a 53 with this sort of treatment, four years of further maturation in a 1st fill heavy toast French oak barrique. As soon as this sample came across the desk last year we knew this was the one, the perfect winter warmer with a music twist (doesn’t the title just sound like a rock group?). You know that unmistakeable coastal bonfire note, the crushed seashells? Now add some toasted chestnuts, smoked paprikas, charred pineapple, and smoked olive oil to the mix. There’s a thick, oily texture to 53.509 that will stay with you long after the your glass has emptied. The entire cask is in Australia — all 167 bottles, just for our Aussie members!

Tasting Notes

The neat nose was full of creamy peat smoke, tar, oak lactones and spices, plus softer notes of earthy black tea, jasmine flowers, coal dust and barbecue sauce on a grilled steak. Water enhanced these varied aromatic properties, with smoked paprika, roasted red peppers, balsamic glaze and charred pineapple all noted. The palate, when neat, was sweeter than expected and very tarry. Impressions of old-school tar liqueurs came along with sweet, oily textured peat flavours and eucalyptus resin. Water added horseradish, smoked olive oil, camphor, cloves, sweet and salty types of liquorice, and pickled dark fruit to the mix. This was matured in an ex-bourbon hogshead for 10 years before being transferred to a first fill heavily toasted French oak barrique.