Black Gate BG068 Australian Peated Single Malt

Initial impression: Intense phenolic peat smoke, bright lemon notes, savory bacon fat, and a subtle fruity caramel undertone. Taste: The initial taste brings sweet smoke, ripe red berries, and stone fruits like golden peach and apricot. As it develops, it shifts to sweet citrus, such as tangerine and lemon, with the smoke transforming into a barbecue meat character. The mouthfeel is rich and oily. Aftertaste: The fruit flavors fade, leaving a lasting sweet smoke sensation. It's a strong, heavily peated, single-cask, cask-strength single malt with significant character. Despite the high alcohol, there's no harshness, making it excellent neat. It also handles added water well, becoming richer and smoother without negative effects. This distillery is among the smallest globally. It was established by a couple in 2009 in a region of country NSW known for its extreme temperature fluctuations, ranging from sub-zero to 40 degrees Celsius in summer. They produce roughly 4,000 liters of spirit yearly from their two small direct-fired pot stills. Initially, the distillery focused on rum and unpeated single malt whisky, but since 2016, the emphasis has been on heavily peated single malt. This specific bottling was produced in April 2017, aged in a re-coopered ex-port cask (distillery cask BG068), and bottled in December 2019. The peated malt for this expression came from Smiths in Scotland. Every release from this distillery is a batch expression, typically from a single cask, consistently displaying a rich, deeply textured profile. However, there's considerable variation between batches based on the cask type, and each expression warrants its own listing. Strongly recommended, likely the top heavily peated Australian single malt I've encountered. Its character is reminiscent of Laphroaig Lore and Glendronach 18 year old, yet it possesses a unique identity. "Very Good": 86/100 (4 stars)