Ned – Grand Reward Australian Single Malt Whisky (2023) (70cl, 50%)

An Australian single malt from Ned, made from a hand-picked parcel of its whisky barrels that were matured further in ex-Tawny casks. It is bottled at 50% ABV in a 70cl bottle, and the first batch was 318 bottles. The extra maturation continued until the vanilla, caramel and chocolate of the whisky and the dried fruit, Christmas cake and red berry notes of the cask were well integrated. Ned's distilling team describe it as 'an iron fist in a velvet glove'. The nose has ripe red berries, dried figs, creme caramel and milk chocolate. The palate is silky, with raspberry, figs, raisin and almonds, and the finish returns to red berries and sweet nuts with cracked pepper.