Chief’s Son CXR5 ‘Sweet Kalash’

Fresh from their huge successes at the 2023 World Whisky Awards – Chief’s Son are in the house and we are super proud to be rocking the Silver Medal Winning CXR5 expression – better known as ‘Sweet Kalash’!

The CXR5 ‘Sweet Kalash’ is a marriage of 5 year old ‘900 Standard’ and ‘Sweet Peat’ whisky from Chiefs Son that spent a 12 month honeymoon in an ex Heaven Hill Bourbon barrel that had previously matured a ‘Hop Nation Brewing Co’ Dark Russian Stout named ‘The Kalash’. It seems this was a marriage made in heaven – and the judges at the 2023 World Whisky Awards thought so as well, awarding the CXR5 ‘Sweet Kalash’ a Silver Medal.

Now, as we all know, whisky is distilled from a fermented malted barley wash. This is very close to beer. In fact, all whisky wash is missing is the addition of hops – and it would be beer. To this end, Chiefs Son started wondering what a little hops infusion in their whisky would result in. Of course, you can’t just add hops to a single malt whisky wash, because it wouldn’t result in, well, Single Malt Whisky (by definition!).

So, Chief’s Son decided to finish some of their developing whisky in a barrel that had aged a Dark Russian Stout. And voila! – the CXR5, or sweet Kalash was born!

Nose: Fat fruity notes with some citrus peel and even a touch of vanilla there. Barely any suggestion of peat though.

Palate: Lovely oiliness, more big stewed fruit notes, and more of those citrus notes (quercus alba doing it’s thing!) A faint musty note is the only part the peat plays in here.

Finish: Delicious, chewy and satisfying. Yep. there’s the peat right there in the tail. It wafts around and fades, then returns once more as you chew it.

CX or Cask Expression are two terms we use here at Chief’s to distinguish between individual releases. All cask expression releases are exceptional and highly unique, and no two will be the same. We collaborate with leading brewers all around the Mornington Peninsula to create all of our cask expression releases.

With CXR5, we collaborated with Hop Nation Brewing Co. on their biggest beer, a Kalash Stout, which was aged for four months in a Heavens Hill Bourbon barrel. The beer-soaked barrel was then filled with our richest five-year-old 900 Standard and Sweet Peat whisky, and with over twelve months of secondary maturation, the whisky absorbed the creamy malts and yeast of the beer, resulting in a Cask Expression of incredible intensity and balance yet exhibiting the smoothness that has become synonymous with our brand DNA.

The team enjoyed CXR5 so much that we entered it in this year’s World Whisky Awards, where it took out a silver medal and carried on the award-winning tradition from its predecessor, CXR4.

We are honoured to offer the final thirty bottles to The Single Malt Whisky Club for members to enjoy yet another exceptional Chief’s Son release.

APPEARANCE: Deep mahogany, brilliant clarity, 8/10 viscosity.
NOSE: Dark maple & toffee, spirituous stout malts, cigar box & sweet tobacco.
TASTE: Creamy dark malts, rich dried fruits, caramel, soft coffee & old sherry oak.
FINISH: Long, rich & velvety stout finish.

‘DEVINE’

The Chief’s Son distillery is a family owned and run small batch distillery set on the picturesque Mornington Peninsula. Run by the McIntosh family, the distillery name refers to the Gaelic meaning of the family name McIntosh – ‘Son of the Chief’ (“Mhic an Tòisich”). The ‘900 Standard’ name comes from the 900 years since the establishment of the ‘Mcintosh’ name.

“For the past 500 years of our family’s long history, whisky has been at the epicentre of love and laughter, life and death, tears and triumphs. Our ancestors transformed exactly the same ingredients, utilised the same ancient craft and derived the same level of enjoyment as we do today. And going forward… it reaches so far forward past our future, connecting through the generations.”

Chief’s Son is handcrafted single malt whisky – made by utilising the very best of artisan ingredients, small batch processes, hand selected barrels and a totally manual distillation system.