Month: March 2014

Nose

Nose gives a lot of spices, nutmeg, leather, caramel, sage, espresso, nuts, and rosemary at first. Then a thick almost meaty flavour emerges, bbq flavours… Quite meaty, almost like a good piece of bacon in there with some pine wood, and dried fruits, vigs, prunes, raisin, and a bunch of heather honey. It is a quite complex nose must say. It keeps on developing and releasing more and more.

Palate

Sticky toffee pudding, spices, liqeurish, wood, meaty bbq, honey and heather at first.
Then after the first initial WOW also from the 65,4% has faded a bit the notes come flying around on my palate. Creme brûlée, sugar cane, vanilla, raisin, mango, prunes, spices, heather honey, abricots, orange, mint, cinnamon, christmas cake, and so many more. Oh my. What a dram. Balanced and complex, full of sweet notes, combined with the heavier ones, it just gives it a very beautiful balance….
Finish

Long finish, and beautiful, ending in a bit chocolate and espresso mix, making up a mocca creamy flavour.

Score

Gonna give this one a 9 out of 10. Had the pleasure of tasting this one at a blind twitter tasting and this was definitely the highlight of the night, just wow! Very intrigued by this one must say. On their website they state a couple of details on this one, but not much is made known sadly. They say it is matured in two port barrels and then married in an Australian Sherry cask, that makes really a hell of a combination must say!

Loving Whisky Blog

Hello Tim

Thought you might like the attached photo. The guys are from the Military College and are from Australia (Holding bottle of course), India, Japan, Holland and Italy. We had a tasting and finished up with a drop of the Convict – no guessing which one they wanted to buy!

Best wishes

Ken & Fran
Arkwrights Whisky & Wines

Tasted #63: Australia Day Special – Heartwood “Release the Beast”
Happy Australia Day, Australia!

Given the proliferation of excellent whisky we have on our shores, I figured today’s tasting had to be an Australian whisky, and what better than one from Heartwood Whisky?

Fans of Australian whisky might be familiar with Heartwood, but for those who aren’t, think of them as an Australian independent bottler, who only deal in (high) cask strength, high-quality whiskies.

Without going into too much detail (given this is a “Tasted” post), Heartwood currently have 10,000+ litres of Australian whisky maturing away. A lot of it is from Lark Distillery (where Tim who runs Heartwood also sits on the board), but some of it comes from other Australian distilleries too, such as Tasmania Distillery.

When Heartwood decide the whisky is ready they release it at cask-strength, which (due to the unique climate in Tasmania and cask storage conditions forcing the water to evaporate faster than the alcohol) often results in an ABV% higher than when the new make entered the barrel. Seems they have some tee-totalling angels in Tassie!

Whilst some releases are bottled at a mental ABV% like 72.5% (“The Convict Redemption”, an excellent dram by the way), this one here was bottled at a slightly less insane 65.4%, after maturing in two port barrels and being finished in an Australian Sherry (aka Apera) cask. The website states NAS, but I’ve heard this one is around 7 years old.

Oh, and a final note – if you’re reading about any Heartwood release, there’s a good chance it’ll no longer be available. While there are a few available at the time of writing, these whiskies do sell out very quickly. Not hard to see why…

Heartwood “Release the Beast” (65.4% ABV, NAS, Tasmania Australia)
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Colour: Deep, deep copper. Rich, red. One of the darkest whiskies I’ve tasted for the site.

Nose: Big sherry hit at first – reminds me of the Kavalan Soloist which I tasted early last year. In addition to the obvious sherry notes, a fruity, nutty, sweet nose comes through. Complex and sweet.

Palate: Big, clearly strong, but also incredibly smooth. Very, very drying. Hints of hazelnuts. But dry, so dry. Absolutely no burn though – a whisky that has been matured and cared for well.

Finish: Still dry, with long berry notes. Hazelnut notes show through at the very end again.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 89/100. Not for the faint of heart (ha), but certainly not rough or unapproachable in any way. Incredibly smooth, reasonably complex and with some delicious notes. Try it with a drop of water and watch the flavours explode. All the Heartwoods I’ve tried have been excellent, and unique, so if you’re a fan of different, interesting, quality Australian whisky, give them a look.

Thanks to Cooper from singlema.lt for the sample.

Cheers,
– Martin.
Posted by Martin at Sunday, January 26, 2014
http://www.timeforwhisky.com/2014/01/tasted-63-australia-day-special.html