Timboon Cask Strength 64.7% ★

Spirit Name:	Timboon Cask Strength
Score:	91/100
ABV:	64.7%
Region:	Victoria, Australia
Body:	Full
Intensity:	Medium-high
Texture:	Medium
Balance:	Heavenly
Best served:	Neat
Theme(s):	While the 40% ABV Timboon was the "Mad Dog" Morgan of whisky with its friendliness and sparks of rage, the cask strength Timboon, to keep the bushranger theme, is definitely the Ned Kelly of Whisky: it bursts out iron plated and with guns blazing, hitting the right notes with each blast. An immediate firestorm of dense Port and piercing creamy alcohol electrifies the taste buds with the buzz of malt; an energy that develops into dark chocolate layered over raisin dense Christmas cake as the snap of dry wood adds some spice and leaves the palate with a smoky haze of Port stained wood tannins while the earthy bite of wood spices flood in and out like a gentle tide.
Tasting notes:	Move over Tasmania. First it was Starward and Bakery Hill and now it is Timboon that confirms to me that Victoria is fast becoming the new heartland of Australian whisky. It may be the four seasons in one day, the extreme weather fluctuations or a magic spell, but the people at Starward, Bakery Hill and Timboon appear to have attracted the favour of the oak gods as their superbly crafted distillate matured in what are clearly high quality casks. All this means that what we have in Victoria is a re-birth of the whisky industry, a renaissance from the old days of illicit "new milk" and "mountain dew" that used to trickle down in the 1890's to quench the insatiable Australian thirst for booze.  Timboon Cask Strength boasts an elegant maturity and youthful aggression that makes it, in my opinion at least, one of the very best "world whiskies" (from outside Scotland, Ireland or the US) I have tasted. This whisky also has a genuine uniqueness and originality about its character that in my view is in the same league as two other exceptionally crafted non-Scotch whiskies: Kavalan Solist Sherry Cask and Hicks and Healey's Cornish Whiskey.  "World whisky" tends to be quite young and, unfortunately in my experience, much of it is tainted with the undesirable aspects of new spirit. The Timboon Cask Strength has none of this, and it radiates with the crisp flecks of malt within its Port rich fiery core. One possible reason for the rapid maturation of the spirit may be that the area around Timboon in Victoria reached 43°C in January, which explains a lot about weather patterns during the time this whisky matured in country Victoria; weather patterns that may have, I imagine, caused the oak pores to expand and contract more often than in other regions with more stable weather thereby allowing lots of interaction between the oak and the spirit.  Do not let the age of this whisky fool you, because the distiller at Timboon has absolutely nailed this one. Congratulations Tim, a job very well done.    Nose: Rich dashes of sweet Port intermingle with dry oak tannins as the gust of raisin dense Christmas cake and dark chocolate carry granular grain and the gentle glow of the distillate. The distillate continues to retain its heart of earthy grain, but without the undesirable aspects that are commonly associated with new spirit. As the whisky rests dried fruit develops, in particular dried fig and banana chips, and a luscious creaminess fills the glass. This is a Christmas cake layered with shavings of dark chocolate, dried fig and dashes of Port. Within that foundation are flashes of something different with each nosing, banana chips, crushed mint and an alcohol drenches orange dusted with cocoa.  Taste: An immediate surge of bitter dryness floods into the palate, stinging with the bite of creamy alcohol, the burst of dry wood and the sweet moderating force of sugary sultana that carry the Port stained character of wood tannins. The sultana develops bitterness, morphing into raisins and then dried fig as dates linger with the spicy wood.  Finish: The smoky haze of grape tannins and the bite of earthy anise seed lingers, with the gentle glow of the grainy distillate shining within the lingering Port, now dry and steaming off the tongue as the aroma of nutmeg and bark spices moves from the nose to the palate.
Tasted: Likes:	2 Aug 2013, 4 Aug 2013 Powerful and supremely complex, this masterstroke is also incredibly smooth for a whisky bottled at 64.7% ABV. It offers rich Port stained wood tannins and the snap of an angry Australian tiger snake.
Warning:	Please be wary of the alcohol volume of this whisky, and note that it is quite dry and piercing at first.
Price:	$195 (Aus)

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