What You Need To Know:

• Independent bottler (IB) That Boutique-y Whisky Company (TBWC), same parent as online whisky retailer Master of Malt, is releasing an Australia series of whiskies.
• IBs give us the chance to try lesser known, harder to find whiskies, many of these Australian whiskies come from small batch distilleries. So good chance for those of you looking to expand your whisky-verse.
• List of bottlings below! *Hint I’m eyeing the 2YO Killara.
• Happy hunting mates!

(Source: That Boutique-y Whisky Company)

G’Day mates!

We have some plonk for y’all today!

That Boutique-y Whisky Company or TBWC, is a well-known independent whisky bottler, from the same people who bring us the online whisky retailer, Master of Malt. Their bottles are pretty recognizable from their cartoon labels that can range from entertaining to sometimes pretty confusing.

Independent bottlers do not distill their own whiskies but instead purchase casks from distilleries and bottle them themselves. This can potentially be value-added to us drinkers through several ways:

1. They bring to our attention whiskies that are lesser known and less accessible,
2. They can mature the whisky in ways different from how the distillery would themselves do so (eg. Different casks, longer than usual, etc), and lastly
3. They are potentially cheaper than official bottlings; keyword is potentially 

Sullivan’s Cove is a highly popular Australian whisky that has been making waves and bagging some nice metalware along the way.

So here we have TBWC’s latest range, focusing on Australian whiskies, which frankly I am very excited to try. The good blokes from down under have been doing some pretty interesting stuff but unfortunately most of them are not globally distributed yet (pssst hit us up, we’ll do it!). Some names that have certainly made their rounds (though their whiskies are still hard to come by) are Sullivan’s Cove, Lark and Archie Rose, the latter being a rye-based whisky.

TBWC’s bottlings albeit a fair bit smaller in volume, 50cl versus the standard 70cl bottles, and also tending to be *cough* more expensive, have nonetheless done a bang up job of bringing us super high quality bottles and helping us get hands on otherwise pretty hard to find whiskies.

TBWC’s World Series is responsible for bringing us a slew of world whiskies. The Nantou bottling was incredibly floral, light, creamy and refreshing. (Image Source: TBWC)

Most recently they released a World Series range where I first got to try whisky from Taiwanese state-owned distillery Nantou, which I must say is really worth a try if you can even get your hands on a bottle. Wonderful stuff, super floral, light and refreshing, creamy to boot. It’s so good the government had to intervene.

Sam Simmons, head of TBWC’s parent, had this to say:

“While I think it’s fair to say that most of the world is just waking up to the fact that Australian whisky is on the map at all, I would dare to say that these whiskies, and the future of whiskies from down under, may turn the world upside down, Literally flipping the hegemonic order on its head, with Australia at the top of the pile in the 21st century.”

(Image Source: Oz Whisky Review)

The list for TBWC’s Australia series goes like this:

• Black Gate 3 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £109.95/ US$153)
• Belgrove 4 Years Old Rye (RRP £139.95/ US$195)
• Tin Shed 3 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £99.95/ US$139)
• Fleurieu 3 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £99.95/ US$139)
• Killara 2 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £169.95/ US$236)
• Riverbourne 3 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £99.95/ US$139)
• Starward 3 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £69.95/ US$97)
• Bakery Hill 5 Years Old Single Malt (RRP £138.95/ US$193) 

I definitely think this is one series to keep a look out for if you’re looking to expand your whisky-verse. And if you have no clue on where to begin and you find yourself lost in a land down under, here are some tips from us:

• If you like peated whiskies, you want the Bakery Hill.
• Wine cask is your thing? Starward it is.
• Fashion yourself a salty seadog that chugs Talisker? Fleurieu coming right at ya.
• Love the show Peaky Blinders? It’s the Black Gate for you.
• Wanna try some Rye whiskies? Belgrove you go!
• Still the same old Sherry cask finished whiskies for you? Have some Tin Shed.
• Got a sweet tooth and a thing for heavier bodied whiskies? Get yourself some Riverbourne.
• Glenmorangie fan? You’re gonna wanna hit the buy on the Killara.

 (Image Source: Killara Distillery)

As for myself? I’ll be looking to pick up some of the Killara. To boot, Kristy Lark who runs the distillery happens to share the same last name as Lark Distillery…hmm I wonder what that could mean…

Happy hunting mate!

@111hotpot