Fleurieu Ecto Gammat Australian Single Malt
Australian Single Malt Whisky 2019 Release | 52% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very good indeed.
TL;DR
Sweet with savoury peat, but only as Australians know it
Of The Cults We May Fall Into…
Fleurieu Distillery practically has its own gravity.
I’m Australian, from Adelaide to be precise, and I’m a hopeless whisky tragic.
Somewhere distant, I’m sure, a chorus of other tragics chant back, “Gooble gobble, one of us.”
I only came into drinking whisky properly a little under three years ago from the craft beer industry, which, having worked as a brewer, I remain a steadfast member and critic (did someone say pastry sours?).
In the intervening time I have descended the Alighierian circles of curiosity; exploration, promiscuity, lust, gluttony, obsession, anxiety, consumption and - finally - healthy scepticism. The latter is to say that though my passion to uncover flavours, knowledge and experience remains unbridled as ever, it comes with a more cautious and even cynical approach. Bottles which once were bought on whim must now be tasted or reviewed by a kindred palate before the wallet is unfolded. I do, however, have a pair of scapegoats.
First, I started a whisky club at the beginning of this year which I source the vast majority of bottles for. Second, I work in liquor retail, so much of my expenditure can be considered at least partially as “research”. I’m also undertaking study via textbooks, IBD materials, technical documents and I’d like to work in distilling as a career, so a certain degree of madness is permissible. Alas, enough about me, let’s talk about whisky.
Of the Australian distilleries currently operating, there are tiers of production much like in the Scottish landscape. Many of you have probably heard of Lark and Starward. Incidentally, Starward is not my style of whisky given their dominant red wine cask profile. Pearls before swine, I’m sure.
I doubt, however, that very many are familiar with Black Gate, Tria Prima or indeed Fleurieu. This is largely to do with production capacities, but to a degree the length of time these distilleries have been open factors in. I say to a degree given that I have had some truly flabbergasting Australian whisky at around three years in cask, so the requisite time of entry to market here is much diminished.
Fleurieu Distillery is well and truly on the smaller side of things, with all of their releases to date including a bottle count not exceeding three digits. Fleurieu started life as many distilleries have; as a brewery. On the Goolwa coast near where the river Murray makes its departure to the sea, Gareth and Angela Andrews built the steam exchange brewery on the site of an old railway shed, which now serves as their maturation warehouse. You literally cross a set of railway tracks to get to their patio.
It was here the Andrews’ laid the foundations for their later products by working as brewers, perfecting all the flavour extractions and transformations necessary to make great wash. There is a culture here in Australia that many distillers like Gareth have adopted off the back of the craft beer scene and the tendencies of the Americans; make flavourful wash with alternative mash bills and fermentation profiles (ie kilned/roasted malts and high congener-ale yeasts) then keep those qualities in the new-make. It was the production of their beers which funded the eventual transformation into a distillery - though you can still try their ales on tap when visiting the distillery.
While Fleurieu doesn’t generally use these kilned malts (to my knowledge at least) the practice of good brewing to make good distillate is paramount. They do, however, occasionally employ the use of Scottish peated barley, likely Bairds or Simpsons, though this is speculation based on what is locally available. This Ecto Gammat is such a release.
“When we first started making whisky I assumed the Scottish industry would shake their heads at us stupid Colonials but wonderfully they instead encouraged us and invited us into their exciting world”
A side note:
Why use Scottish peated barley sourced from the other side of the globe when there must surely be local peat available for malting, I hear nobody ask? Well, I’m glad to comment. There is indeed locally sourced peat, both from the mainland in various spots and from Tasmania. The problem is that very few (if any) of the maltsters in Australia use peat in the process of drying the barley in the kilning stages to end the modification stage of malting. They simply haven’t been built with such facilities as there is little demand for peated product compared to European maltsters.
The compromise process to make Australian peated malt is a version of “cold smoking” where the malted barley is re-wet and then re-dried over local peat smoke. The moistening of the malt increases the rate of adsorption of phenols to the barley’s husk compared to the dry state, but it doesn’t produce anywhere near as high a malt PPM count for analogous smoking times in conventional peated malt. Certain distilleries do opt for this circumventive Aussie malt, or otherwise for a Rauchbier malt using any number of local wood types instead of peat. Usually though local peated malt is only employed when the desire is a light to moderately peated final product, or if the distiller is looking to highlight domestic ingredients. Australians are usually quite patriotic when it comes to domestic produce.
Review
Fleurieu Distillery Ecto Gammat Australian Single Malt, 2019 release, 52% ABV
AUD $190, sold out
Considering the ridiculously high taxes we pay on alcohol here, both for production and retail, the price was very good for the calibre of the malt. Sold out at the distillery since 2019 but occasionally available through Australian auctions.
The Ecto Gammat is a fairly heavily peated malt in comparison to many other Australian peated releases, though in the international sense of things it perhaps falls somewhere in the neighbourhood of an Ardmore. As far as other information, we’re told reliably on the Fleurieu website this release incorporates a combination of sherry (whether actual appellation sherry or local apera is not specified) and tawny port fortified casks. Again, we’re not told what state the casks were in at time of use for maturation, nor their size, but it’s sufficient to say from prior experience with this malt that the casks have been active, and they are unlikely to be larger than 200 litres.
It’s worth noting with regard to maturation that Australia is a much warmer place than the British isles, and depending on location can have an even larger diurnal range than much of the USA. For instance, in Adelaide we regularly see summers as warm as 45º Celsius and winters getting into the low singles. Add to that the large barometric pressure shifts that come off the coast with storms and the like, as well as our regular use of cask sizes between 50-200 litres (largely due to high availability) and we begin to see why Australian malts rarely make it to the double digits; the race against oak is paramount. So, keeping these many, many facets at the forefront of our minds, let’s dive in!
Nose
The fortified casks make themselves apparent early on while the peat melds in seamlessly. A pleasant conflagration of fruits and spices; figs, plums and raisins stewed in a blend of demerara, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, clove and subtle white pepper. Think warm Christmas fruit mince pies with a drizzle of thick cream. The peat brings a welcome savoury twist - worn leather, the note off a robust cuban cigar intermingled with wafts of a hardwood smoke my friend (and Malt Maniac) Craig Daniels occasionally describes as “Burning red gum fence posts”- a rural bonfire delicacy here.
Palate
An excellent medium-viscous texture and a well-chosen strength. While the casks may have lead the nose a touch, the palate reveals the peat. Well-salted charcuterie, cigar ash and beef jus reduced to a sauce with a little honey and soy. The casks have still done much work, bringing again those fruits and spices in waves with the added delight of some crushed red berries, nutty maple syrup and Chantilly cream. Retronasal augments that nuttiness while the fruits turn slightly floral, then the finish descends into more sweet vanilla, some soft structured tannins, the barest rancio and warm lingering wood smoke.
The Dregs
I should give the disclaimer that while I’m a fan of big flavours in whisky (Islay, Campbelltown, Benromach, Clynelish, Ben Nevis, the usual suspects) I can be reticent to enjoy heavy cask flavours, especially sweeter fortifieds. It’s generally an interesting and/or challenging spirit profile that enthrals me. This makes one particularly picky about Australian malts, as some of them can rely on dominant cask qualities to give otherwise immature or characterless whisky a sweetness and richness to mask these defaults. It’s quite a thing then for something to come entirely from active tawny/sherry/apera casks while still displaying balance and structure, as well as having distinguishable spirit features. To me, many of Fleurieu’s releases have a maple-like nutty quality, regardless of cask composition. For anyone who has met Gareth though, he is as detail oriented about his cask vatting and blending as he is his brewing and distilling practices. Methodical almost to a fault.
Given the aforementioned pricing of many Australian whiskies and the ever expanding plethora of Scottish/Irish/US releases, Fleurieu is one of very few that makes the cut of distilleries with multiple bottlings on my shelves. If you can, give it a go.
Gooble gobble, one of us, one of us!
Score: 7/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. TK
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