Casks Down Under - Sullivan’s Cove

I stare into the massive pair of eyes as I slowly chew on my bacon. This is the weirdest breakfast I have ever had. I lean back to take in the equally massive pair of fluffy ears and swallow. A very weird breakfast indeed. There is nothing more surreal than watching koalas laze about while you're munching on your sausage, bacon and eggs. What my studying of these eucalyptus-masticating beasts over breakfast led me to realise was that they are fairly pointless animals. They barely move and if they do it’s only a couple of feet to a branch of fresh leaves, and that's their lot in life. Move, eat, sleep... On reflection there's something quite human about that. Existential musings aside, if there was one thing I needed to ease me into a day of looking at bizarre mammals with pouches, bizarre mammals with beaks and bizarre mammals that lay eggs, it was a whisky. But I was a long way from home and a long way from a good Scotch. It is only now with hindsight that I should have realised that the Aussies, in all their enthusiasm for wine and beer, would clearly make whisky. It would be a lot longer after this trip that I would finally get my hands on some Australian whisky but finally, I did. The whisky I managed to procure comes from that island off Australia’s south coast that is home to those destructive little devils immortalised in the cartoon Taz. The whisky was Sullivan’s Cove double cask; a combination of both bourbon and port casks and the resulting whisky is like nothing I’ve tried before.

Sullivan’s Cove Double Cask
40% - No Age Statement - Tasmanian Distillery – Port and Bourbon Matured
Nose: Wood and batter announce themselves first followed by pepper and hazel and cashew nuts, with a faint aroma of botanical gardens.
Palate: Creamy with a high presence of wood.
Finish: The batter returns with fresh yeast.
Overall: Clearly a young whisky. There is something about it that shows promise, although some tweaking may be necessary to bring out its full potential. I’d like to try some of their other releases and maybe some other Australian whiskies if only to see if there is a general style. There is however something there, I just wish I could put my finger on it. One's thing is for certain I think the angel's share has become the koala's!