Price: $450 AUD
Purchased From: SMWS Australia
ABV: 57.8%
‘Seductive Sweetness – Teasing Spice’ is a 18-year-old from distillery 24 with its entire maturation in a 1st-fill ex-Bourbon barrel. It was released in Australia in March 2021, with a total of 207 bottles. This release was a prime example of why I love SMWS and independent single cask releases: 18 years of maturation in a 1st-fill ex-Bourbon barrel from a distillery that focuses predominately on Sherry maturation. Also, given it’s a 24, not a bad price all things considered.
Nose
A gentle sweetness – honey, marzipan, cinnamon, vanilla.
Taste
Amazing. I wouldn’t pick this was distillery 24 in a blind tasting. Werther’s cream candies, Honey Joys, vanilla ice cream. Also plenty of pastry notes coming through – it’s like pain au chocolat in a bottle! I also found it didn’t really need water.
Conclusion
To me this was a great bottling that showcased the distillery in a different light. At the time this was hit and miss – people either weren’t impressed or loved it; I was clearly the latter.