Heartwood Convict Redemption ex-Sullivans Cove Cask Strength Tasmanian Malt Whisky Batch #2 - Historic

Heartwood Convict Redemption ex-Sullivans Cove Cask Strength Tasmanian Malt Whisky Batch #2 - Historic

$840 AUD

71.9%
500ml

Convict Redemption Batch 2 was distilled at Tasmania Distillery (Sullivans Cove) in May 2001 and matured in port cask HH611 until it was bottled in December 2013.

At 71.9% there were 177 bottles in this release.

Tasting Notes

NOSE: It starts with interesting floral characteristics; honeydew, mango, melon and nashi pear take the fore. Wild garlic, sautéed mushrooms and pine forest floor form a counterpoint to the fruits and offer two different playing grounds for the malt to evolve. These are rounded and sumptuous aromas, which entice investigation. Marshmallows give a soft pillow while meringue gives an ‘eggy’ quality that melds with vanilla seamlessly. On a second pass, hints of blackberries and strawberries lurk on the fruit end of the spectrum while potatoes in hessian sacks emerge from the other.

PALATE: On entry, viscous acacia honey becomes thick caramel before turning into fudge. A nod to chestnuts becomes home made buttered popcorn on the expansion. Merengue translates from the nose to the mouth giving a chewy quality and offering a flick of vanilla.

FINISH: A vague salinity is overwhelmed by buttered brioche before oak sugars prevail to lend the impression of Chinese egg tarts. Roasted nuts (pecan, chestnuts and walnuts) have the fade with chocolate brownies and baking spices. (The Whisky Empire)

This product is located in Australia.

Distillery

Heartwood

Heartwood is the creation of whisky connoisseur extraordinaire, Tim Duckett. He has been buying barrels of whisky from the various Tasmanian distillers for a considerable number of years and then bottling them, after careful tasting and nosing, to produce some wonderful expressions with highly imaginative names and lovely labels to match.

 Duckett is, in effect, the leading independent bottler of Tasmanian whiskies and, as such, deserves a very special place in the Tasmanian whisky story, not least because he has brought to the table an element of excitement and expectation, which might never have existed without him. His knowledge is more than matched by his enthusiasm, which gets wrapped up in a certain poetic flare as in the names of his whiskies and his highly imaginative descriptions of them.

 Who else other than Duckett would draw on Jurassic Park to describe his whiskies! Thus, the long necked and long-tailed brontosaurus beautifully depicts a whisky that starts off a bit thin but then quickly broadens out to a thick body and then gradually tails off to a rather long finish.

 Tim’s creativity does not end there because he also marries or blends different casks of whisky to produce something that is peculiar to his particular vision of what makes a good drop. There is a tradition of this in Scotland and the result used to be called a “vatted malt” but is now referred to as “blended malt”. Whilst there is always the suspicion that this process might be used to absorb a poor whisky by masking it through blending it with something better, in the Heartwood case the end results speak for themselves.

 To give full credit to, and due recognition of Tim Duckett’s efforts, we can do no better than provide here a modest inventory of some past examples of the Heartwood product range, none of which is, as far as we know, available on the open market.