Tasted #23: Bakery Hill Blend 46 for Eau de Vie (#101drams)

Last week I wrote about Eau de Vie's partnership with Bakery Hill Distillery to create a bespoke whisky for use in their "Bobby Burns" cocktail. Soon after that post we popped down to Eau de Vie in Darlinghurst (Sydney) for a taste (and maybe a cocktail or three...) following an invite from owner and Sydney bar legend Sven Almenning.

(I later remembered that #97 on my #101drams list is "A special bottling made specifically for a bar", so I was getting the chance to tick another dram off the list too!)

Charlie (champion) was manning the bar when we arrived on a cold Wednesday night, and was quick to pour out a taste of the new whisky. Here are our thoughts:

Eau de Vie / Bakery Hill Blend 46 for Eau de Vie (46%, Victoria Australia)

----

Nose: Sweet, smooth, creamy. Almost like ice cream, but not that diet stuff - the full cream / full fun ice cream!

Palate: Sweet shortbread. Seems to have some youth, but very, very smooth. Morish - made me want to keep going back for more. A slight earthiness too. Very enjoyable.

Finish: Very short (presumably this works well for the cocktail, to allow the other flavours to have a say). The sweet (port barrel?) notes stay through to the end.

Rating (on my very non-scientific scale): 89/100. A great dram with some very specific characteristics (e.g. short finish) that should work brilliantly in the cocktail.

So with the whisky tasted and given both thumbs up, it was onto the "Bobby Burns" cocktail, which consisted of:

50ml Bakery Hillʼs Eau de Vie Whisky
20ml House blended vermouth infused with fig 
10ml D.O.M. Benedictine
1 dash angostura bitters
Stirred, served on an antique side plate with doily and short bread cookie

Yep, it was pretty clear these guys put some serious effort into selecting / blending the perfect whisky for the cocktail. Eau de Vie cocktails have always been perfectly harmonious, but this was just something else. Every ingredient just worked in perfect harmony, with no single spirit overpowering the others. A slightly bitter taste (brown, bitter and stirred - just the way a good cocktail should be!) was followed by a long, sweet (but never to sweet) delicious aftertaste. Perfect. Even the shortbread was a perfect match. Definitely add this to your list of "Cocktails to try".

A few cocktails, a JD unaged rye and a dram of our Gentleman Jack bottle later, it was time to head home (why can't Wednesdays be Fridays?) happy to have tried a fantastic whisky, ticked another off the #101drams list, and tasted near cocktail perfection.

Cheers, 

 - Martin.