Battery Point Islay Cask (Batch #2)

Battery Point Distillery tasting, Hobart, Monday August 10th 2024, Whisky #3 Nose: Light ale and cereal, diluted malt extract. When nosed straight, there was almost no smoke, but after adding a splash of water, the smoke significantly intensified. Palate: Dry arrival of nut toffee that becomes sweeter with notes of maple sugar and honey, plus a hint of vanilla. The smoke is more pronounced on the palate than the nose, both neat and after dilution, and it also has qualities of smoked ham and resin. The texture is oily and becomes creamy with water. Finish: Medium/Short. Nougat and smoke. This peated whisky was not created from peated barley. Instead, the distillery aged their unpeated spirit in various casks, including one from Laphroaig and one from Lagavulin (second fill ex-bourbon casks in both instances, I believe). The spirit also spent some time in second-fill port and sherry casks, which the distillery stated was for "balance," but I would have preferred to taste it without these wine influences. We sampled from bottle #77 of the second batch produced (371 bottles in total). I'm uncertain if this batch represented the second use of the same peated casks or if a new set of peated casks was employed. I was initially unimpressed by the nose, as there seemed to be minimal presence, but a dash of water truly elevated the profile and brought the spirit to life. While not uncommon with cask-strength whisky, this effect was very pronounced here. I'm also unsure why the distillery opted not to use a peated mash for this, given they have conducted peated distillations, but I suspect they are conducting parallel experiments in peated whisky production. The whisky made from their own peated spirit is not yet ready, but I am very eager to try it and observe how it differs from this peated cask expression. "Good": 83/100 (3.5 stars)