Aroma: At first a takeaway hot apple pie, perhaps provided by a purveyor known for its golden arches. There is caramelised sugar, stewed apples and buttery pastry. This is followed by a drying vinous berry fruit quality and malty fruit.
Taste: First, there is a silky sweetness to this dram, which reminds me of vanilla fudge.
Then it quickly becomes super fruity – sweet plum jam, blackberries and some booze steeped stone fruit. Also in this part of the dram there is a nutty milk chocolate flavour, which is creamy.
Finally, the dram becomes vinous and there is a tannic oaky woodenness, which is moreish, fruity and complex like the best red wines.
Appearance: Deep rich reddish brown hue.
Real Dram Factor: Starward are an Australian distillery based in Melbourne, Australia. They were established in 2008 and first released whisky under the name Starward in 2013. In 2015 they raised 10 million dollars of investment with some of this coming from Diageo’s accelerator fund- Distill Ventures. This has enabled them to increase production output and widen their range of whiskies.
Two Fold is a “double grain whisky” that combines wheat (60%) and malted barley (40%) with finishing in Australian red wine casks. I purchased it at Christmas, as it was on offer on a popular whisky website. It seemed like an intriguing idea and I had been impressed by the Starward Solera that I had previously found all too easy to drink. This whisky is also easy to drink, but has complexity brought to it from the wine casking and the grain variety used in the mashing process. I think it is a really enjoyable whisky, which balances spice, sweetness and fruit in a very pleasing way. For that I would award it 7.7 out of 10.
You Will Like This If… you like tannic flavours, spicy fruit and sweetness. Imagine a Highland whisky that has been on a tour of an Australian vineyard!
ABV: 40%
Price: Between £34 and 40.
Source: Bottle purchased from Master of Malt.
More Information: www.starward.au
Buy Online: Master of Malt, House of Malt, Whisky Exchange