I’m often asked, “Which do you think is the best Australian whisky”? It’s a difficult question to answer, although I had a fair crack at answering it in this article here. One of the problems in answering the question is that it can depend on how much you’re comfortable spending? Ask me what is the best Australian whisky for under $150 and I’ll give you one answer. Ask me what is the best Australian whisky for under $300 and I might answer something different. And we’re all too aware that there are plenty of Australian single malts being sold at RRP’s much higher than $300! Of course, the inconvenient irony here is that it doesn’t necessarily follow that the $300 whisky is actually better than the $150 whisky! But as we discussed previously in the article referenced above, one of the key metrics in deciding which is the best Australian whisky is the “bang for your buck” factor. There have been some exceptional Aussie malts sold out of Tasmania in recent times, but if the RRP is over $900 and the whisky is effectively inaccessible to most consumers – then how good it is can be a moot point. And so we often have to ply a line of best fit. Or, you can simply nominate Iniquity Gold.
Iniquity is the whisky made by Tin Shed Distilling Co, whose origins date back to 2004, thus making it one of Australia’s older distilleries in the modern era. (The distillery also produces rum and vodka, which it releases under the respective names Requiem and Piotr). We won’t give you the full rundown and distillery history here, but you can certainly read up on it all in this feature article we wrote about Tin Shed back in 2021. For now, let’s just focus on the hero of the moment: Iniquity Gold Batch 008.
I’ve long maintained that Tin Shed Distilling Co’s “Iniquity” is one of Australia’s best single malt whiskies, and their Gold releases are at the pinnacle of what this country can produce. Reserved for only their finest, “star” casks, there have only been eight Gold releases in the distillery’s long history. Batch 008 was released only just last week, and I wasted no time buying myself a bottle.
Let’s great straight into some casual tasting notes: Batch 008 is a stunning flag-bearer for the brand. Bottled at an impressive 56.8% ABV, it is instantly rich in…well…everything! There’s fruit (orange citrus and cherries); there’s malt, there’s spiced honey; there’s a savoury, umami note lurking in the background; there’s toffee and caramel sweetness; there’s dark chocolate (again with a hint of choc-orange); and there’s LOADS more going on around the edges and under the surface. Being at a higher ABV, the malt also changes with time in the glass, as some of the lighter volatiles blow off over 10-15 minutes.
But the big stand-out here for me is just how insanely DRINKABLE it is. If Phil Spector had been behind this, we’d describe it as a “wall of flavour”. It’s just damn tasty, and I’ve refilled my glass several times already in typing these words. It seems a sin (iniquitous?) to quaff something that’s so insanely complex, integrated, and complete…. and yet I just want to drink it! That said – like previous batches of Iniquity Gold, this also stands up to deep exploration – if you’ve got the time, discipline, and patience, the dram will reward you if you’re the type that likes to contemplate a whisky and pick it apart.
I’ve long admired Tin Shed’s cask management, and Gold Batch 008 gives you some insight into this: It’s a six year old whisky, with four years in a number of 3rd-fill French oak port casks, before being dumped into a single Shaved Toasted Recharred (STR) port-seasoned, 225L American oak cask for a further two years. This accounts not just for the whisky’s complexity, but also its balance – the casks’ port influence has shaped the flavour, rather than dominated it. 2nd-fill and 3rd-fill casks are something we’ve not seen much of in Australia, and it’s obviously only the older distilleries that have disgorged their casks over two or three fillings that can play in that space. It is in contrast to one or two Tasmanian distilleries who, for many years, insisted that a refill cask has nothing left to give. This is also one of the great aspects of the Australian whisky industry on the whole – nothing stands still or remains constant for too long, and the last six or seven years have seen developments and innovations that have changed much of the narrative that governed the preceding 15-20 years.
Top marks to Ian and the team at Tin Shed Distilling Co. If you’re keen to try the Iniquity Gold Batch 008 for yourself, swing by Tin Shed’s website and reward yourself. At $290 for a 700ml bottle of utter goodness, this is definitely a contender for the best Australian whisky under $300.
Cheers,
AD
PS – you might also like our reviews of Iniquity Gold Batch 007 and the Iniquity “Lazy Daze” releases here.
