Sullivans Cove Distillery has released a landmark single cask whisky, combining the flavours of two different casks – 24 Year Old American Oak Apera Finish, Single Cask Nº HH0005.
At 24 years of age, this whisky stands among the oldest Australian single malts ever bottled. It is also one of the most unique and limited bottlings in the distillery’s history, with the whisky having been transferred from its initial cask into a final cask for seven years of finishing.
This is the first time the distillery has ever undertaken a finishing process for a whisky of this age, and the first time it has used an American Oak ex-Apera cask for finishing. First filled into a 300L American Oak cask in October 1999, this whisky matured for 17 years before being transferred to a 225L American Oak ex-Apera cask in September 2017, where it spent a further seven years finishing. Following a decades-long maturation, the whisky was bottled in October 2024 at its optimal strength of 51.1% ABV, selected through blind-tasting trials.
HH0005 is bold and full-bodied, with a layered palate of chocolate, spice, gamey richness, and bright citrus. Its seven final years in ex-Apera oak delivered a subtle yet powerful evolution, fusing structure and sweetness into a deeply integrated, harmonious whole.
The company said bringing together elements from two distinct casks to achieve true harmony is a process that demands time, patience, and creative conviction. Over the course of the final seven years of maturation, the Sullivans Cove Distillery Sensory Team began to see this transformation more akin to the art of blending – rather than finishing – where the robust and delicate had been brought together.
Sullivans Cove Distillery manager, Heather Tillott, said vanilla-laden oak, meaty and robust spirit from a bygone era, and the fun fruit of Apera have co-created pure brilliance under the unrushed guardianship of Sullivans Cove’s guiding palates.
“While this is a single cask finished in Apera, what has unfolded is not merely a finish – it’s a complete integration, where spirit and cask have truly married. Impeccably balanced, unmistakably Sullivans,” said Tillott.
“And then, there’s the age – felt in the body, the texture, the citrus, the gamey notes. Telling of its time, and all the better for it.”
The 24 Year Old Apera Finish, Single Cask Nº HH0005 is available exclusively via ballot at sullivanscove.com, for RRP $2500.
