Hellyers Road is a distillery in the Australian state of Tasmania – making them neighbours of Shene or Sullivan’s Cove and many more already.
They recently bottled a single cask exclusive to Kirsch Import in Germany and The Nectar in Belgium. It is a first fill bourbon barrel with double distilled malt whisky.
Hellyers Road 18 yo (56,4%, OB for Kirsch Import + The Nectar 2021, American oak cask #2269.03, 197 btl.)
Nose: quite fresh, starting on white bread and caraway seeds, with some fragrant oily notes and walnuts. Freshly sawn pinewood and faint hints of cardboard but nothing disturbing. Sponge cake with vanilla. Stewed fruits in the background, as well as a refreshing mint & lemon balm combination. Nice.
Mouth: pretty strong, showing spicy notes at first (ginger, caraway, chilli pepper) and moving towards warmer hints of latte and butterscotch. Buttered toast, vanilla and chocolate. Then oranges, lemons and green bananas. Some mentholated notes towards the end. There’s still a firm hint of pinewood and sauna aromas, but it blends nicely with the rest of the profile.
Finish: medium length, on grainy notes, lemon green tea and peppermint. Just a light astringency from the grassy wood.
Intresting whisky with a proper un-Scotch character. It finds a nice balance but I’m not sure I could spend around € 250 on this kind of profile. Still available in shops around Belgium and Germany.