Sullivans Cove 24 YO American Oak Apera Finish HH0005 700ml

Some whiskies are made. Others are realised.

The Sullivans Cove 24 Year Old American Oak Apera Cask, drawn from single cask HH0005, is a whisky that took nearly a quarter of a century to become what it was always meant to be, not through force, but through careful listening and a rare willingness to wait.

This story begins in October 1999, when spirit from the earliest days of Tasmania’s whisky resurgence was laid down into a 300-litre American oak cask. It was bold from the beginning, meaty, rich, full of character. A kind of raw strength that, even then, seemed destined for a longer path. For almost 18 years it breathed and grew in that first vessel, absorbing the structure and spice of the oak, developing the kind of muscular, full-bodied personality that could only come from a different era of distillation, oilier and more elemental.

But Sullivans Cove didn’t stop there. In 2017, it was transferred, not hurried but with purpose, into a second cask. This time, a 225-litre American oak barrel that had previously held apera, Australia’s answer to sherry. Not to mask or mellow the whisky, but to give it something new to wrestle with. Where the first cask gave strength, the second offered nuance. Seven more years passed. The whisky didn’t soften, it grew up. What had been robust found balance. The heavy met the delicate, and something truly remarkable began to emerge.

This is not a finish in the decorative sense. It is a second chapter, fully lived. Over that final stretch, the integration of spirit and wood became complete. The result is a whisky that carries the intensity of its first cask, wrapped in the complex aromatics of its final one. And when it was finally bottled in October 2024, at 51.1%, it had become something altogether rare, a whisky both powerful and poised.

To nose it is to encounter richness head-on. Vanilla-soaked oak, grilled stone fruits, a waft of roast meat, and an unmistakable earthy depth that hints at tobacco leaf and distant spice markets. The kind of dram that tells you, immediately, this isn’t for casual sipping.

On the palate, it moves like old silk with shoulders, creamy and full, yet never clumsy. Fruit compote, burnt orange, and fig jam sit alongside roasted nuts, espresso, and a savoury undercurrent that’s hard to pin down, gamey yes, but refined, like wild venison in red wine jus. There’s a glint of citrus in there too, not bright but aged and preserved. And always, the oak. Not loud but firm. Present. Guiding the whole performance.

The finish is long, contemplative. Not showy, not sweet. Spice drifts in first, followed by leather and dark chocolate, with a final echo of polished wood and old books. You don’t taste the age, you feel it. In the body. In the structure. In the way it lingers with authority, not flourish.

Only 324 bottles came from this cask. And not one of them was rushed. HH0005 isn’t just a whisky with years behind it, it’s a whisky made by those years. By decisions not to bottle too soon. By trusting the cask, the spirit, and the slow alchemy that brings them together.

This is not a dram for everyday. It is one to mark time with. To reflect, perhaps, on what it means to finish well, not simply to last long, but to become something worthy of the wait.

Tasting Profile