Highwayman Dieman’s Rising 001 Production Malt whisky 700ml

Cask Strength

This is a first in a series of collaborations between Highwayman and AOB with an interweaving back story containing many twists and turns….

  In 2016 my very good friends from AOB had thousands of litres of whisky contract distilled in Tasmania, aging it in a combination of various casks including tawny, Apera, Pinot noir and bourbon. This was left to mature for over 4 years before it was freighted up to Byron Bay. Meanwhile, and this is where it gets interesting, Dan purchased a mash tun and still in 2018. The same mash tun and still that the above mentioned whisky was produced on! This equipment was freighted up to Byron Bay and Highwayman whisky production commenced in that same year at the Lord Byron distillery. 

   In 2021 the AOB whisky was tipped into a vat and married together before being transferred into a Botrytis (dessert wine) cask for a second maturation of over one year. In 2022 this whisky was then tipped into a vat and married with 2 Highwayman peated whisky casks that had been aging in Apera for approx 26 months. This incredible whisky was now taking on depth and complexity like nothing the boys had seen before but it wasn’t ready just yet…

The whisky was then divided into three equal parts for a final maturation in a Meade cask, a maple syrup cask and a rum cask. The whisky from the Meade cask and rum cask were then married together and bottled to create Dieman’s Rising 001 yielding 600 bottles at 57.8%.

All of this dark and mysterious whisky was born in Van Dieman’s land, rising up the coast to Byron Bay - Dieman’s Rising.

Nosing/tasting notes

This whisky works incredibly well with a few drops of room temperature water to open up the higher ABV

 Nose-

Candied orange peel shining through sweet muscatel grapes. Vanilla fudge and hints of creamy malt. Musk sticks in 1980’s lolly bags meet a subtle earthy peatiness. A touch of bush fire smoke clashing with grape hubba-bubba bubble gum. Maraschino liqueur meet raw hazelnuts with a waft of dried cranberries 

 Palate-

Incredible spice explosion of cloves, cinnamon and a touch of Szechuan pepper. Dutch licorice meets dates and mixed dried fruits. Bursts of sweet Smoked paprika making an appearance with Intense oak interaction giving a dry mid palate. Hazelnut praline leaning into cranberry tartness

 Finish-

Long, thick and oily