Melbourne's The Gospel Whiskey Distillery might have built its brand on their famous rye-based whiskey, but have now unveiled an exciting project that was 7 years in the works - the distillery's first Single Cask Rum #001.

The single cask rum was double distilled in direct-fired pot stills using Australian sugarcane, which is said to create "characteristics of funk and sweetness followed by a backbone of rye whiskey cask influence". The rum was then matured in a re-coopered Australian red wine cask that was charred in the alleyway behind the brand's original South Melbourne Distillery and was kept at ground level to ensure a slow, gentle maturation, before being finished in a freshly disgorged straight rye whiskey barrel, with a total aging of 7 years.

(Image Source: The Gospel)

“You can only ever do anything first, once. This Single Cask Rum is exactly that for us – the first barrel we filled at our first distillery in South Melbourne, Cask #001.

Everything at South Melbourne was so hands-on, from re-coopering the barrel and stirring the mash by hand to making all the cuts purely on taste – the end result speaks for itself. While it is bittersweet to see Cask #001 go, I am immensely proud to share it.”

- Andrew Fitzgerald, Co-founder of The Gospel

(Image Source: The Gospel)

Official Tasting Notes

Notes of dried apricot, brown sugar, toffee, crème caramel, roasted hazelnuts, orange marmalade, nutmeg, cinnamon, jasmine and leatherwood honey.

It is aromatic on the nose, salty and savoury on the palate with a warming rye spice to finish.

The rum, part of the distillery's Projects series that seeks to bottle more experimental expressions, predates the distillery's emphasis on rye whiskey, with the 100% unmalted rye whiskeys now having formed the core of the brand with regular expressions such as the Straight Rye Whiskey and Solera Rye.

The Single Cask Rum #001 is priced at $135 AUD and was released in late September 2022.

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@111hotpot