Cape Byron Mac. Liqueur Cask

Cape Byron is a distillery in which I’m always keen to try their new releases. Whether it’s their Chardonnay Cask, the limited Viognier Cask, or even their Brookies Gins, there’s always some unique Australian influence to enjoy.

The distillery has been producing a delicious macadamia nut and wattleseed liqueur, simply titled The Mac. It’s quite a unique Australian flavour made from produce grown on their Byron Bay property.

As an experiment, they aged some of this Mac. liqueur in bourbon barrels for a few months and released it as a limited Barrel Aged Mac. But as a B Corp certified distillery, they wouldn’t waste that barrel once they were done with it. They took some of their three year old single malt and aged it in the Mac. barrels for a full year, resulting in the limited release Mac. Liqueur Cask Single Malt.

A world first, as no single malt has ever been aged in macadamia nut liqueur barrels, it’s bottled at 45% and there are only 550 bottles available for sale. I was fortunate enough to receive a sample to review.

Whisky Tasting Notes

Appearance: Light golden colour with thick, slow running legs.

Nose: First impression is of sweet orange marmalade, hints of apricot and a bit of butterscotch.

Palate: Milk chocolate! The first thing that jumps out is a distinguishable, creamy note of milk chocolate. The orange marmalade from the nose moves to the background, but there’s a strong, buttery sweetness on the palate.

Finish: The sweetness lingers but transforms to carry a nuttiness, like toasted shortbread.

Make no mistake, this is a sweet whisky. If you don’t have a sweet tooth it probably won’t appeal to you. If you do like sweeter whiskies, you will probably love this! While the sweetness is front and centre, it’s still nicely balanced with the other flavour notes of the liqueur.

What’s next for Cape Byron

Some of the other expressions marked for this new series are whiskies aged in:

• French oak wine casks hand-selected by industry expert and Master Distiller, Jim McEwan – known colloquially as ‘The Cask Whisperer’.

With a humble price tag of $150 and only 550 bottles released, I wouldn’t expect this one to be available long. You can order the Mac. Liqueur Cask directly from the Cape Byron Distillery website, along with the original Mac. Liqueur, and even the Barrel Aged Mac that occupied the barrel before this whisky.