Heartwood Devil in the Detail 15yr Whisky Review

As soon as Tim Duckett from Heartwood announced the release of this whisky on Facebook I ordered a few bottles. How could I resist? Every whisky I have tried from Heartwood has been spectacular and I expected this to be no different. Was I right? Yep, bang on. All good, as Tim would say.

Notes

Eye: Bright Blonde

Nose: High-octane bourbon vanilla dream. Jelly babies. Brown sugar, with hints of banana. Honey and toasted oats. With time in the glass comes rockmelon.

Palate: Very sweet and smooth. Bourbon influence is strong but doesn't make it taste like a bourbon. Lots of sweet honey and malt.

Finish: A little bit spicy, think high ABV. Gorgeous long sweet malty finish full of vanilla and honey. Malt finish just lingers and lingers. An hour later all I can taste is quality malt and I'm loving it. This whisky is not dissimilar to the Sullivans Cove American Oak releases but far better, in my humble opinion. Oak influence is just splendid here.

Details

Distillery: Tasmania Distillery (Sullivans Cove)
Age: 15yr's Old
Region: Tasmania
Bottler: Heartwood
Cask: HH 0244
Cask Type: American Oak - Bourbon
Distillation Date: April 2000
Bottling Date: May 2015
ABV: 73.5%

This bottling is the last of Heartwood's 1st generation Sullivans Cove casks. Fantastic example of a high quality Tasmanian whisky. 73.5% ABV is pretty damn high, especially after 15 years at rest, but this whisky is as smooth as it gets. Tim mentioned on facebook that the outturn from the cask was only 78 litres from a 200 litre cask, damn those thirsty angels! I have shared this bottle with family and friends. All who have tried it rated it highly, although my grandmother needed a bit of water added to drop the ABV slightly to allow her to breathe.

Exceptional quality from Australia's best independent bottler. Music to go with this whisky is from Placebo.

Placebo - Devil in the Details

Sláinte!