Whisky review: First look at Craft Works, Kinglake, Hillwood and 7K

Julian White -
Whisky Reviews
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On tasting: 7K Pinot Noir Cask, Kinglake O’Grady’s Stand Cask Strength, Hillwood Ex-Bourbon Cask (Cask No. 28), Hillwood Pinot Noir (Cask No. 3), Craft Works Distillery I AM… 

Peak season for whisky releases has arrived, and what a belter of a line-up we have here to put an exclamation mark on that.

Emerging Australian distilleries aren’t shy about offering up huge openings, and their experimentation with different malts and casks shows how quickly the industry is progressing.

Craig ‘Crafty’ Field is well advanced in that respect, with his micro-batch masterpieces all displaying a creative approach to the use of specialty malts and unique wine casks and finishes. Comparing his first Capertee-distilled offering next to newcomers Hillwood, Kinglake and 7K was always going to be a fascinating experience.

Honestly, it was one of the hardest reviews I’ve put together (only one of the five was below 62% ABV!). These are totally unique whiskies, massive in flavour and from tiny production runs. As a result, I’ve tried to keep an open mind with these, as I always do with new Australian releases.

All of these whiskies benefit from a lot of time in glass (can’t emphasise that enough). And while they mightn’t be to everyone’s taste, they all reward repeated analysis and contemplation.

 

  • 7K Single Malt Whisky Pinot Noir Cask
    The Stats
    • ABV: 50.2%
    • Price Band: $ $ $ $ $
    • Style: Single malt whisky
    • Production Story: Distilled through 7K's self-built pot still on the 27th July 2018 from wash produced at Last Rites Brewery. Matured in Tasmanian pinot noir casks and bottled 5th November 2020.
    • Location: Hobart, TAS
    • Score: 81
    Nose
    Takes time for this to open up and reveal its malt character. First impressions are piney and resinous, although that softens to orange oils and Fanta. There’s a red grape character from the pinot cask that is pleasant without being winey. Creamy vanillas in the background, but there's something a little awkward about the combination of aromas.
    Palate
    Plenty of oak spice that dominates the palate - spirit character plays second fiddle to the timber. Black olives and treacle, and the spirit remains lean as it progresses. Wine flavours are well integrated, but could have been brought more to the fore.
    Finish
    Vanillas and biscuits, but powerful oak over light spirit meant a shorter finish.
    Comments
    There’s great oak at work here, but perhaps the weight of the spirit needs to be dialed up to fill the palate out. The pinot noir theme was palpable, but the lighter weight of the spirit didn’t quite bring out the complexities the cask had to offer.
  • Kinglake Single Malt Whisky O'Grady's Stand Cask Strength
    The Stats
    • ABV: 62%
    • Price Band: $ $ $ $ $
    • Style: Single malt whisky
    • Production Story: Distilled 6th of February 2019 through a Knapp Lewer pot still from a unique mash: 20 per cent Scottish peated malt, while the other 80 per cent is supplied by Voyager Craft Malt, and includes chocolate and other lightly roasted malts. Matured in 50 litre re-coopered ex-Bourbon casks and bottled 26th of February 2021. 500 bottles in total.
    • Location: Kinglake, VIC
    • Score: 88
    Nose
    Fantales, milky coffee and melted white chocolate. Lime jelly and flamed orange zest.
    Palate
    Rich malt and oak sugars shoot off as the powerful spirit takes over. Water calms the aggression, revealing buttery shortbread and toasty oak. There’s a puff of smoke later on the back palate that adds to the intrigue.
    Finish
    With water, the sweetness held all the way through the finish. Never became bitter, and that smoky rum character, wherever it comes from, adds real personality.
    Comments
    This is a pretty neat package. Compared to the rest of the whiskies on offer here, this is much more approachable and relatable and should be applauded, especially for a first release. Complexity and depth will only continue to grow as Kinglake whisky matures.
  • Hillwood Single Malt Whisky Ex-Bourbon Cask (Cask No. 28)
    The Stats
    • ABV: 62.8%
    • Price Band: $ $ $ $ $
    • Style: Single malt whisky
    • Production Story: Distilled at Tamar Valley Distillery through a locally built copper pot still from Tasmanian barley - milled, mashed and fermented onsite. Matured for just over two years in a recoopered 20 litre ex-Bourbon cask.
    • Location: Hillwood, TAS
    • Score: 86
    Nose
    Golden syrup and orange sherbet. Tangy and concentrated oak with hints of butter pastry. Solventy at first but you can smell the sweetness under all that booze. Give it plenty of time and some water and the sweetness eventually shows itself.
    Palate
    Given lots of time in the glass, this calms down considerably, and for the better. The caramels are insane for such a young whisky, almost more like a Bourbon level of oak. Leather and pipe tobacco mixed with golden syrup. With water, the spicy hit dissipated nicely without diluting the sweetness. There’s a unique oak character on this that will be foreign to many drinkers, but variety is the spice of life.
    Finish
    Ginger and chilli, butter pastry comes back with a chewy vanilla fudge character.
    Comments
    Let’s face it, this is damn powerful and I did have to look past the heat and intensity with the reasoning that a potential buyer could also water it down. More of a Bourbon-style level of oak extraction, and when you look at it like that, it’s got so much to offer. The spirity beginnings and the oak-dominated first impressions will be off-putting for many, but for the non-dismissive, this does have beautiful spirit body and oak integration.
  • Hillwood Single Malt Whisky Pinot Noir (Cask No. 3)
    The Stats
    • ABV: 62.4%
    • Price Band: $ $ $ $ $
    • Style: Single malt whisky
    • Production Story: Distilled at Tamar Valley Distillery and matured in a recoopered 20 litre pinot noir cask. Bottled 4th of May 2020. 40 bottles in total.
    • Location: Hillwood, TAS
    • Score: 84
    Nose
    Pungent dried fruit and liqueur chocolates. Approach the nose with caution here - that 62.4% will easily burn. Hints of menthol and furniture polish and the tiniest tinge of blotting paper. With water, more of the fresh berry character associated with pinot noir casks slowly begin to show themselves. Give it heaps of time and air and you’ll be rewarded.
    Palate
    An onslaught of spiced buns and Big Red chewing gum. Nice complexity about this. With water and further time, what starts off as a marauding mess of oak and spice actually softens out and broadens into a very rich, 'Bourbonesque' style dram.
    Finish
    The wine elements are prominent here, and enveloped by oak. Dill pickle at the end (which I really like).
    Comments
    Not for the uninitiated. There’s a lot of contemplation that needs to go into this one and certainly not the type of whisky to drink in the company of its Scottish kin. The initial oak character is the driving force, and sugars do begin to develop on the third and fourth sip. The weight of the spirit is just enough to carry all the spice… just! Very rewarding in the right circumstances.
  • Craft Works Distillery I AM... Single Malt Whisky
    The Stats
    • ABV: 62.7%
    • Price Band: $ $ $ $ $
    • Style: Single malt whisky
    • Production Story: Distilled at Craft Works Distillery through a Burns Welding pot still from a mash which includes a range of specialty malts supplied by Voyager Craft Malt. This first release is a marriage of three component whiskies: two 50 litre Barossa shiraz casks that were seasoned with 'oloroso' and heavily charred. A portion of whisky from a 225 litre cask that previously contained ex-cabernet sauvignon and tawny from the Mudgee wine region was also blended into this release. Bottled November 2020. 486 bottles in total.
    • Location: Capertee, NSW
    • Score: 86
    Nose
    Red apples, rich beef stock and spiced almonds. A light (but good) sulphury character backs this up as more of a savoury dram. With time, purple Maynards Wine Gums - there’s bold sugars here with oak to match. You could spend hours pulling this apart on the nose alone.
    Palate
    Decadent, ripe red fruits. It’s like biting into a Cherry Ripe that’s ablaze. The initial sweetness is incredible before it darts away down a rabbit hole. There’s a good hit of wineyness but the complexity more than stands up to it. Water drove out more of the red wine characters and diluted the sugars, so I recommend this at the full whack.
    Finish
    With so much heavily charred oak influence, the finish is largely about those charry flavours which rounds out nicely and balances the wine influence.
    Comments
    Whopping sweetness and richness has been expertly applied here. Personally, I did find the wine influence a tad flabby (really hangs out). But Crafty does advertise this as a wine cask dram, so that's down to personal taste. Yes, it is balanced, but you’re going to need heavy duty scales to deal with it.
How We Score
Julian White
Julian White is the co-owner of Melbourne’s Whisky & Alement and the driving force behind its importing arm the Independent Whisky Company. When he’s not scouring the planet for old and obscure bottlings, and creating daring whisky and beer projects for Australia’s curious drinkers, he’s a panel chair at the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards and a presenter, whisky educator and consultant.