Fleurieu Distillery "Fountain of Youth" Single Malt

Australian Single Malt Whisky Event (Part 1), The Oak Barrel, Sydney, January 16, 2020, Whisky #5 Nose: Malt, barley sugar, sherry, stone fruits, with a faint hint of excellent oak. Caramel emerges as it sits in the glass. A perfectly balanced and complete aroma. Palate: A well-balanced malty initial taste is complemented by a slight sweet salinity. It's sweet but not overwhelming, coating the palate just long enough to impart a feeling of gentle richness. The malt character transforms into a rich barley and dark fruit profile, progressing to an almond fruitcake towards the end. The texture is velvety, and there's no alcohol heat whatsoever from the 53.5% ABV. Finish: Long. Tastes like salted caramel cookies. A very good cask-strength whisky (440 bottles produced) that earned the Gold Medal and overall Champion trophy at last year's Australian Distilled Spirits Awards, and it's easy to see why after just one sip. This tasting featured bottle 249. Well-balanced with great development. The profile starts as almost a sherry-dominated experience but softens, calms, gains dryness, and develops a salt caramel note on both the nose and palate as it's tasted. Highly satisfying, and for me, one of the three standout whiskies of the evening. Adding water is highly recommended, not because it needs toning down, but for the enhanced smoothness and lightness it brings to the palate. An already excellent spirit gains elegance and poise that you didn't realize were possible, and the salty note is very slightly intensified. I can strongly recommend it if you can locate a bottle, though obtaining one will be challenging. The bottle we sampled that night was the last available, otherwise, I would have purchased it immediately. While I haven't tasted extensively from this distillery, I believe that although this specific expression was exceptional, their other offerings are similar in style and quality. "Very Good": 87/100 (4.25 stars)