Old Kempton Solera Cask Single Malt Whisky 500ml

Old Kempton Solera Cask Single Malt Whisky is a Tasmanian single malt drawn from an ongoing solera, this being batch four.

The solera began in 2017 and currently amounts to a single 500-litre Portuguese Port cask, drawn from and refilled with 250 litres of stylistically similar spirit off the cask program every six to nine months. Each draw carries a fraction of everything that came before it, which is the point of the method and why complexity builds faster than in straight cask ageing. Rob Tyson intends to grow the system, bringing 30-plus-year-old 500-litre Yalumba Muscat casks into it over coming years. The base spirit is the usual Tasmanian barley wash, double distilled in the distillery's copper pot stills.

Oak sits lighter here than elsewhere in the range, so bright fruit and florals get a look in against vanilla, spice and nuts. Subtle to smell and considerably bigger to taste: shortbread, dark fruit, chocolate, then molten caramel. Neat, at room temperature, on a cold night.