The Next Country You Visit for Whisky? Australia
The roadside stall at Shene Estate in Tasmania looks straight out of a Mumford and Sons music video: wooden shed, corrugated iron roof, a bicycle leaning out front. It seems like the kind of place that would serve homemade apple pies, not Australia’s only triple distilled Irish-style whisky. Elsewhere on the 19th-century country estate, sheep graze in front of Gothic Revival sandstone buildings built by convicts in the early days of the colony. Tour groups and wedding parties pose for photos in front of the beautifully restored stables, and in the old hayshed, a large copper pot still creates award-winning Mackey Single Malt Tasmanian Whisky.
If you’ve never tasted Tasmanian single malt, it’s probably because the island’s nascent spirits industry produces just 100,000 bottles of whisky per year. By contrast, a major distillery like Scotland’s Glenfiddich “would spill more whisky in a year than the whole of Tasmania currently makes,” according to Brett Steel, founder of Drink Tasmania Premium Tours. Despite its modest output, Australia’s smallest state has taken the whisky world by storm in recent years, ranking highly in international competitions as well as Jim Murray’s seminal Whisky Bible. The burgeoning whisky region was thrust into the spotlight in 2014 when then 20-year-old Sullivans Cove, Tasmania’s second-oldest whisky distillery, won Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards, making it the first distillery ever outside Scotland and Japan to do so. International interest skyrocketed overnight, and demand for Tasmanian whisky has exceeded supply ever since.
So what makes this New World liquor so good? For one thing, Tasmania has all the right ingredients for making great malt whisky: barley fields, peat bogs, pure water, and temperate climate. It was this optimal environment that led Bill Lark, a Scotch-loving pub owner and land surveyor who is affectionately known as the godfather of Tasmanian whisky, to wonder in 1991 why no one was making use of it. He discovered there had been no legal whisky distilling on the island since 1838 when prohibitionist governor John Franklin restricted it. He lobbied to amend the law and opened Lark Distillery a year later. Lark was followed by Sullivans Cove, Hellyers Road, and Overeem, the four founders of Tasmania’s whisky industry.
Why You Should Go to Tasmania Now
Today the state has 37 registered whisky distilleries, although less than half have released bottles to market; most of Tasmania’s liquid gold is still aging in casks. While production has ramped up markedly, the scale is still relatively small—and that’s another reason the quality is so high, says Steel. “We’re operating at this craft level where everything is handmade and taste tested. We’re making whisky the way it was being made 150 years ago in Scotland.”
Since the good stuff is still scarce outside of Australia, tasting it requires a trip down south. You can explore the Tasmanian Whisky Trail on a Drink Tasmania tour or a self-guided trip, but be sure to call ahead as opening hours vary and some distilleries are by appointment only. Here are a few places worthing stopping for a nip.
Lark and Overeem Two of the island’s founding distilleries are now operating from the same site. If you’re lucky you might catch the godfather himself, Bill Lark, having a breakfast whisky.
Belgrove It doesn’t get more paddock-to-bottle than this—fourth-generation farmer Peter Bignell built his own biofuel-powered still and grows the grain for his 100 percent rye whisky.
Shene Estate Irish-style whisky and gin are served with a strong dose of colonial history at Tasmania’s most Instagrammable distillery, located on an historic 19th-century country estate.
Source: The Next Country You Visit for Whisky? Australia
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