This Laphroaig was distilled in 2011 and has been bottled at 53.7% without chill filtration or added colour.
Hand-In-Hand is a collaboration between importers Liquor Library, bars Whisky & Alement and Helvetica, and The Oak Barrel.
3,400 kilometres apart, Melbourne’s Whisky & Alement and Perth’s Helvetica may be on opposite sides of this great brown land, but the two whisky bars share the same ethos and love for spirit. They are mandatory stops for any whisky lover who visits their respective cities, Oak Barrel staff included. Melbourne-based importer and bottler Liquor Library are responsible for some of the most special and tasty whiskies on Australian shores and have worked with German-based bottler Sansibar for these first two releases under the Hand-In-Hand label.
When we get together, we share whiskies. Having found a couple of casks that we all love we’ve decided to bottle them and share them with you.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Cured meats, mossy peat, ripe red apple, the wafting remnants of the arvo barbie at dusk, allspice, toffee, buried citrus.
Palate: Really herbal, slightly medicinal and oily. Dust from a cricket pitch.
Finish: Good length, mossy, damp smoke lingering.
Comment: A really tasty cask, surprisingly moreish given the complexity. The picnic on a stinking summers day at the half-way point of the R Class journey.
The R class locomotive, which is featured on the label, was the last steam locomotive to be introduced to the Victorian Railways. Conceived in the late 1940s to replace the A2 class, they were rolled out from 1951 onwards. The 1950s also saw the emergence of diesel locomotives, however, and as these new-traction trains slowly replaced steam, the Glasgow-built R class became caught in time. The pinnacle of steam development and innovation, bowing out at the height of its power.
It had originally been intended for these then-modern R class locos to be built at Melbourne’s Newport Workshops, which are still active today. Industrial issues and a backlog of required repairs to Victoria’s aging steam fleet meant that the facility was at capacity and the decision was made to order 70 trains from the North British Locomotive Company Limited of Glasgow.
Numbered R700-R769, once early teething issues were resolved the class served with distinction – particularly in express passenger services. Many of those teething issues revolved around shipping damage, something that any Scotch whisky importer can relate to.
But the roll out of diesel was swift and brutal. Older steam engines which had given their service were rightfully retired, but for the youthful R Class it seemed a cruel blow. Benched in their prime, VR recourses were allocated to upkeep on the newer diesel and electric models as these fantastic machines were resigned to back-up duties during peak periods of the 60s.
The final working R Class locos were retired in 1974 but in reality they’d been a rare sight for at least a decade. A handful have been preserved, with just a few in working order. R707 ‘City Of Melbourne’ and the oil-fired R711 ‘Spirit Of Bendigo’ are the two most notable examples. They evoke feelings of wonder and pride in their rare outings as they charge through the Victorian countryside, the glistening black paint schemes and distinctive red lining and smoke deflectors a sight to behold.
In February 1977, three years after the R class was withdrawn, Norman Case founded the Gillies Whisky Club of Australia in Wollongong. Whisky lovers gathered to share the amber spirit and began importing whiskies from Scotland, in many ways laying the foundation for the proceeding decades of whisky appreciation in this country.
Hand-In-Hand continues that tradition of loving, sharing and drinking exemplary Scotch whiskies with friends from all across Australia. This Ardmore has been brought across the seas from Scotland like the whisky lovers before us did, and the R Class before them.
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