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Hello and welcome to the whisky channel!
Today we'll go back to New Zealand
with the South Island 21 yo.
If you look at a NZ map,
you'll see that it mainly consists of two islands.
North Island and South Island.
Produced at Willowbank distillery,
in the city of Dunedin.
We already talked about the Dunedin Double Wood 15 yo here.
The Dunedin Double Wood is a blend,
whereas this one is a single malt.
It is the flagship of the NZ Whisky Co.
Before the year 2000, when the distillery shut down,
the single malts used to be sold by the name of Milford.
And it was in a Milford box that I received my bottle!
I panicked for a moment!
Yet they had warned me here by crossing out the Milford name!
Hopefully it was indeed South Island 21 yo.
This whisky is supposedly the heir of the Milford era.
It was bottled at 40% ABV.
The nose is soft,
very fresh,
slightly creamy along with vanilla,
a lot of yellow peach,
and beneath it, I kinda struggle to find how to say it but
dusty, cerealy, *** nose.
like being in an attic full of wheat.
On the palate,
Slightly ***,
maybe not enough for a 21 yo,
the finish is dominated by exotic fruits,
which is very special.
Rather short finish,
with a hint of acidity,
but it's not a bother. On the contrary, it underlines the freshness
of this drink which tastes like almost a cocktail.
It may sound contradictory to serve a 21 yo as an aperitive,
but that's what I would do with this dram.
This whisky hasn't got the fullness of a 21 yo Scotch whisky.
Certainly not.
But it remains a very special dram.
The oldest whisky ever produced in NZ is a 26 yo.
So at 21 yo, it is almost already an antique drink for this country.
I had the chance to taste a 23 yo cask strength of theirs
ans it was pungeant! But that's another story.
I can tell you about the mood there was
around the NZ Whisky Co stand at Whisky Live Paris, this year.
The guys were infectiously enthousiastic
pouring huge drams on and on,
talking to you:
Sir do you want to taste the cask strength? whereas your glass wasn't even emptied!
Very cool!
Almost everybody there was thrilled by
the products they had to offer.
Back then I told myself:
those guys are wasting a very precious liquid,
as the distillery shut down 13 years ago.
I already told that the NZ Whisky Co owns 600 casks of whisky.
split up into 8 expressions,
So let's assume that
25 casks are devoted to this South Island 21 yo.
Their website specifies that the casks are barrels.
Barrels can contain 200 liters of liquid.
250 liters for Hogsheads,
500 liters for Butts,
and only 50 L for the quarter casks.
So 25 barrels, giving 5000 L,
so around 7000 bottles, still.
Just to give you an idea
7000 bottles are produced in 3 hours time at Glenfiddich!
Let's keep that in mind.
A great french firm that imports whisky
sells this bottle at 130Ç.
Only 68Ç will be charged if you directly buy it from the distillery,
shipping cost excluded,
a minimum of 24Ç,
custom charges excluded,
Those charges were 0Ç for me
Was I lucky? I ignore it.
See you on a next episode!