The Auswine Forum

I was having a look through my cellar and the drinks cabinet last week and found some unopened bottles

(top - under 50%abv) Edradour 10YO; Chief's Son Imperial Stout; Chief's Son 2020 Distillers Select; Chief's Son Standard (Release 1); Chief's Son The Tanist; Chief's Son Single Barrel 05; Chief's Son Single Barrel 69; Chief's Son Imperial Porter; Chief's Son Single Barrel 001; Archie Rose Single Malt
(Bottom - over 50%abv) Chief's Son Pure Malt; Chief's Son Standard (Release 1); Chief's Son Single Barrel 58; Chief's Son Standard 200ml; Chief's Son barrel tap (64% single cask - 100ml); Chief's Son barrel tap (63% single cask - 100ml); Ardbeg Uigeadail; Paul John Classic Hellyers Road Henry's Legacy; Hellyers Road Original; Lagavulin 8YO; The Balvenie 15YO; A Cadenhead's bottling (at 23YO) of a 1997 Cradle Mountain whisky (the first Australian whisky concern) and a Yamazaki Distiller's Reserve.

Very interesting, I've not heard of either Chief's Son nor Archie Rose. What can you tell me about them.

Mahmoud.

Young upstarts. Their websites probably tell most of the story. Archie Rose won the worlds best Rye whisky at the WWA last year, but were originally a gin distiller. Chief's Son has won Australia's best 'No Age Statement' single barrel the past two years and were always only going to be a single malt distiller.
https://archierose.com.au/journal/
https://www.chiefsson.com.au/handmade/
Needless to say, I'm only about 20 minutes from Chief's Son - Archie Rose is in Sydney - so that's where I'm more likely to visit.
Chief's Son is basically a much fuller mouthfeel than any other whisky I've tasted. Probably as a result of the unique still. They also pay careful attention to barrel consistency for their Standard, Pure Malt and Sweet Peat releases. And they've managed to grab a number of interesting barrels from local beer and wine makers for some very interesting 'barrel expressions'. It's interesting that a 20 litre barrel of their whisky only needs 9 months to have basically the same barrel flavour profile as a Scotch whisky gets in 10-15 years - a result of our temperature variability. So Stuart has to keep on top of the aging process (most are in 200l barrels) - as he says, "it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it!" I've volunteered, but no cigar as yet...

I just visited Sydney and was on the hunt to buy a peated Australian whisky for a whisky club and an Archie Rose whisky was one of only two smoky/peaty whiskies that were over 500 ml. The only reason I didn't opt for the Archie Rose was because it was timber smoked instead of peated.