Cardrona Just Hatched Ex-Sherry

I've been waiting to try this distilleries offerings for quite a while now. 3 years in fact since they first layed down barrels. I had a work mate who went in with 3 brothers and stumped up $10k NZ between them for a 250 litre barrel. Again on thursday out catching up with old uni mates a friend of theirs also has gone 5 ways on a slightly less expensive $7,500 barrel. Sadly my work mate was waiting 10 years and my uni mates friend was waiting 30 years so i wasn't going to have much luck tasting either anytime soon. They had unlimited tasting rights at the brewery which was nice for them. Anyhow catching up with another uni mate for xmas drinks whilst down in ChCh I popped into my favorite bar in the world and got to sample both their newly hatched ex-sherry and ex- bourbon releases. These sold out instantly it seemed which was amazing given a half bottle was $150NZ or well over $100USD. So were they worth it? I liked the sherry the best. Butterscotch, caramel raisins. Well balanced and no harshness. Lighter than I would have liked though. Definitely wouldn't be buying a bottle but nice to taste a slice of history.

I cannot wait until they release more readily available expressions with a little age. This had some really nice flavors, but the youth was very apparent.