Limeburners Single Malt Whisky Directors Cut - Muscat 58% ABV (M874)

Albany sits where the Southern Ocean meets the Great Southern region's cool, unhurried air. It is a place that asks patience of those who work here – and patience, more than anything, is what M874 required.

Directors Cut is not a range. It is a standard. Head Distiller Cameron Syme releases an expression under this name only when a single cask has earned it – when time and oak and the particular character of a spirit have converged into something he considers worthy of the designation. M874 is a whisky he will not forget selecting, and one we believe those who encounter it will not forget either.

Crafted from premium local barley and the pristine water of Albany's Great Southern region, the spirit was distilled in traditional small-batch copper pot stills at the Great Southern Distillery on the edge of Princess Royal Harbour. It matured in a second-fill 200-litre ex-bourbon American oak barrel – building structure, softness and the quiet authority of good wood – before moving to an aged Muscat cask for its finish.

That final period in Muscat oak is where M874 became itself. The cask has given the whisky an extraordinary richness – layering dried fruits, golden syrup and a deep vinous sweetness through a spirit that was already beautifully composed. The result is full-bodied and syrup-textured, with a pronounced Muscat influence that runs from the first nosing through to a long, velvety and utterly unhurried finish.