Great Southern Distillery Limeburners Cask M5

I'd recently attended a free whisky tasting featuring my favorite Australian whisky, Limeburners, thanks to the information of a Connosr member, Whiskybaz.

I'd recently finished the last of my two bottles of Limeburners and was looking to find a new Australian love. Plus the chance to meet up with a Connosr member in real life was too good to pass up.

Sadly many of the whiskies we tasted were just a wee bit above average with one whisky that was at best....ok.

As the tasting goes on Whiskybaz brings out a bottle of his own. A early bottle of Limeburners.

Limeburners M5.

He pours me a dram and asks what I think.

Young, very young.

Strong strong aromas of orange peel. In fact almost nothing else.

And then a quick taste.

Oranges again.

Not much else.

Not bad, but boring.

As I sit with Whiskybaz we talk with the lovely lady who's running the tasting, who seems to remember me from somewhere.

She can't place her finger on it, then I tell her I interviewed her boss and she goes "That's right you! I LOVE that you brought glencairns!

At this point Whiskybaz and all of us are talking about the use of brandy barrels in finishing whisky, and comments that he hopes Limeburners never does it again as the M5 is aged in American bourbon barrels and then finished in brandy barrels.

I however, LOVED the M31, which was aged in the exact same way and hope that they will do that experiment again.

As the conversation goes on at one point Whiskybaz says that he can't wait for his M5 to be gone. He REALLY doesn't like it.

I didn't mind it.

Wasn't the best, but I've certainly had worse.

"How much to buy that bottle?"

"This? You can have it for free!"

SCORE!

Time to head home to meet my wife with my new booty!

I pour a wee dram into a clean glencairn when I get home and start to seriously nose the whisky.

Whoa!

Some changes.

The orange is still very very strong. But honey and vanilla are now present on the nose.

Still an extremely young nose, but a wee bit more complex then when I was nosing it at the tasting.

I let my wife nose the whisky and she says that it reminds her of Grand Marnier more then anything else.

Time to drink!

Chocolate appears right after a hint of honey and cinnamon, but the chocolate completely dominates the flavor profile.

The finish is short and full of the chocolate with just a hint of honey and the orange appearing about 30 seconds after the chocolate and honey finish.

Not bad, but certainly not worth the $130 that it probably sold for.

However to replace my missing Limeburners, more then good enough!

Thanks Whiskybaz!