It gives me great pleasure to introduce our April Malt of the Month. Not only is it a fantastic whisky, not only is it a fantastic Aussie whisky, not only was it created especially for our little club – BUT it’s actually made by one of our very own club members! How awesome is that! So without further ado, I give you.. Iniquity Batch 015.
The Iniquity Batch 015 is aged predominantly in 2 American Oak port barrels. A small amount if the Iniquity Batch 014 has been added to give some french oak characteristics (peppery/spicy notes) to the final product. Only 280 bottles of this have been made!
The nose is wonderfully sweet with honey, apricot and chocolate wrapped around a solid core of malt. On the palate the sweetness is surprisingly tempered allowing weetbix with honey to mix with spices and grassy notes that wind it’s way to a peppery – almost minty finish that really lingers and warms.
INIQUITY BATCH 015 – DISTILLERS NOTES
Bottle Size : 700ml
ABV : 46% abv
Region : Australia
Peated : No
Palate: soft, subtle arrival, honey, fudge, roasted nut skins (almond and walnut), sherry/port, with wood tannins more forward in the tail,
Finish: drying, warm and slightly tannic. Wood bitters, some metallic notes and some leather. Crisp and dry.
An interesting transition from nose to palate; more restrained than usual. Second time through the distillery character became more obvious. Maybe your aficionados might find it a bit wimpy but it grows a spine in the glass.
ABOUT THE DISTILLERY
Ian Schmidt first began distilling in 2003 but a partnership dispute soon bought that chapter of Ian’s distilling life to an end. In 2010, with lessons learnt, he set up the Tin Shed Distilling Co. (located in Adelaide – only a stone throw from the airport) with long time friend and fellow alcohol enthusiast Vic Orlow and has gone from strength to strength since. Ian is a strait talker with little time for fake extravagances – and his distillery certainly reflects this attitude. From the unassuming (and if you didn’t know it was there, you’d totally miss it) front door, through to the utilitarian stacks and rows of ageing whisky, to the small stills – this is grassroots craft whisky at it’s finest! There’s no ‘Visitors Centre’ here (although Ian welcomes visitors by appointment) – the distillery is the visitors centre. What you get is plain and simple – almost spartan. A distillery, bond store, bottling plant and office all under one roof. It’s all about the whisky at Tin Shed Distilling.
What Tin Shed Distilling lacks in size, flashyness or ‘pomp’ it certainly makes up for in the quality of it’s whisky. Ian and Vic’s philosophy is ‘only bottle what we like to drink’ – and the results of this attitude were apparent from day one. The very first batch of Iniquity made Jim Murray’s ‘Liquid Gold’ list in 2015 with a score of 94 – he described it as “a gorgeous experience”. Iniquity Batch 003 received a Gold Medal at the 2018 World Whisky Awards – when it was only two years old!. This years World Whisky Awards saw Iniquity batch 012 crowned ‘Best Australian Single Malt, no age statement’. (We can only wonder if we’ll see Iniquity Batch 015 featured in future awards.) That’s not bad for a distillery that doesn’t enter in ‘many competitions’.
Whilst awards are great, with a distillery as small as Tin Shed, they don’t drive sales. As Ian puts it – “by the time the results are out, we’ve sold all of the whisky we entered”. What’s more important to the boys at Iniquity is feedback from ‘the Den’ (the Iniquity members club) and the drinking public at whisky shows. If you’d like to join Iniquity’s ‘the Den’ please click here and stay up to date with all new Iniquity releases and everything that’s happening at Tin Shed Distilling.
