Killara Dark Mofo 2025 (Cask #KD65)

Nose: Rich and enveloping malt, dried fruits, sultanas, golden syrup, maple syrup, vanilla, roasted almonds, toffee. The malt is enhanced by the sweet sherry and rum but not overtaken by either. With water the nose is less rich and intense but it gains a softness that is very pleasant and you can now smell good oak cask and more of the wine influence. 88/100 Palate: When tasted neat the entry is sweet at first with the PX cask leading but this is rapidly overtaken by a lot of hot spice (cinnamon, clove), pepper and chilli. Dried fruit and scorched almonds on the developed palate with just a hint of salt. I thought that adding water made an improvement but it never quite settled. 82/100 Finish: Medium/Long. Tangy, spicy malt with a peppery citric edge and bitter black coffee in the aftertaste. 82/100 This year’s Dark Mofo whisky release from Killara is more intense and peppery than last year’s release. That had a creamier, juicy quality whereas this is spicy with a hot and slightly bitter edge, but that could partly be due to the higher alcohol content here. I think this has more nutty notes on the palate as well which I guess is coming from the PX cask. Adding water emphasises the sweet side of the palate but its spiciness is not much changed by just a few drops. You need to add water drop by drop to find the sweet spot. It’s worth the effort but I felt that this whisky never really found perfect balance between sweet and spice. The nose was excellent but the palate had a little too much untamed spice for my liking. Every time I had a sip it started out very well and I expected a soft, gentle fruity follow-up, but instead there were hot, spiky spices which was jarring. Tasted from a 15ml sampler. “Good” : 84/100 (3.75 stars)