$149.00 inc. GST
Out of stock
So many bottles to choose from this month, where to even start? Our final virtual tasting for 2025 covers only a fraction of what we’re releasing over the next two months but has been curated for a fun and expansive flavour appeal. Seven drams across 1.5 hours of fun with the SMWS Australia team; join Adam Ioannidis, Matt Bailey, and Alex Moores in a banter and flavour-fuelled evening on Wednesday, the 10th of December.
Limited packs available!
Opening a new library book we found a hidden compartment stuffed with cinder toffee, waxy honeycomb pieces, and fig rolls wrapped in paper decorated with calligraphy ink. The palate was well rounded, a smooth and sweet lavender, honey, nutmeg and raisin purée, with marmalade atop custard tarts. Water offered peach cobbler and Dundee cake on the nose, while the palate gifted sultanas, lavender popcorn and cask char. After six years in a refill oloroso butt, we transferred this to a first fill ex-bodega oloroso butt for the remainder of its maturation.
This conjured plenty of associations on the neat nose – crème brûlée, flapjacks, cinnamon buns, frozen yoghurt caramel swirls and wild strawberries steeped in sweet wine. To taste it was initially very spicy, serving up grilled plantains in a cayenne pepper sauce, but with time a tropical fruit jam developed with mango, pineapple, lemon and ginger. After reduction, we tucked into a charcoal-grilled flat iron steak kebab with a tikka marinade served in flatbread. On the palate, a sip of Turkish coffee spiced with cardamom transported us to a vibrant market in the Middle East. Following four years in an ex-bourbon hogshead, we transferred this whisky into a first fill PX hogshead.
Some of us were reminded of long-gone school days opening a ‘distressed leather’ pencil case, drinking instant hot chocolate and building a traditional balsa wood model aircraft. On the palate these memories were soon erased by tart and prickly flavours of sea buckthorn juice, pink peppercorns, medicinal herbs and pungent hickory-smoked sausages. Water released, at first, a petrolic, ripe fruitiness like an aged riesling wine before the scent of burning heather and candied smoked chestnuts took centre stage. The taste, barbecued mackerels came drizzled in zingy ginger, chilli and lime, and served with rustic sesame, sunflower and flax crackers.
A light and attractive nose delivered refreshers and love hearts, apple pie with custard, melons, grapes and hints of citrus and flower meadows. The palate, slightly spritzy, had intense fruity sweetness – evoking pear flan, cotton candy, tangy fruit jelly chews, lemon and mango sorbet and biting a green apple. With water, the nose also found paint, wheat fields in the sun, toasted coconut and cooked pineapple. A change came over the palate; we still identified fruit pastilles and rhubarb rock but deeper, spicy and woody notes came to dominate – notably mocha and oak, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, and the pips from that green apple.
Tangy notes of lemon, raspberries and orange sherbet swirled in thick rice pudding and vanilla custard adorned with raisins, marzipan and soft butterscotch. Tart cherries and candied orange then emerged against a backdrop of stewed apples, dark chocolate and sticky toffee pudding. Adding water enhanced the delight as creamy butter textures wrapped around popcorn, tangerines and sticky dates, before honey-roasted nuts tumbled on to the palate with crunchy cereals and sponge cake. The abundance of sweetness found the perfect balance on the finish, however, as lime marmalade and plum skins delivered a tart dryness alongside the tang of hoppy IPA beer. After spending 21 years in an ex-bourbon barrel this was transferred to a first fill heavily toasted barrel for the remainder of its maturation.
The nose suggested coastal fog round a shipbuilders yard: clean and subtle, with additional hints of clover honey, golden syrup, fruit salad chews and banana split. It acquired more self-confidence on the palate, with intense flavours of salted caramel pieces in dark chocolate, salted liquorice and green olives, grapefruit and lime acidit, and an aftertaste of Szechuan pepper and ship’s timbers. The nose in reduction delivered wood shavings, perfumed pear, salted plantain chips, chocolate and pepper spice. On the palate, we now found coffee, apple cake, white wine gums, cinnamon bark and dry-roasted peanuts. The much-vaunted maritime character was subtle but undeniable.
At first nosing the Panel detected prunes, plums and various other sticky dark fruits soaking in armagnac. We then felt it developed more towards spicy pumpernickel bread, pumpkinseed oil and heavier notes of camphor. Water brought out salted dark chocolate, hessian and classical sherry aromas of rancio and walnuts. The palate was wonderfully dense and full of old-school sherry characteristics such as sweet plum jam, strawberry wine and walnut oil. A few wee meaty touches also showed through after a while. Water made it wonderfully rich in the mouth, adding notes of beefy gravy, dried cranberries and more preserved dark fruit vibes. This was matured in a bourbon hogshead for five years before being transferred to a first fill Spanish oak oloroso hogshead.
