Slow and steady
Tasmania’s whisky industry is young by European standards, but it has no problems with taking it slow.
Give Tasmania's reputation for producing world-class whisky, it is hard to believe that it’s been barely 30 years since Bill Lark, founder of Lark Distillery, convinced the authorities to overturn a 150-year old law prohibiting small-batch spirit production on the island.
Fast forward to 2021, and Tasmania is home to more than 20 whisky distilleries. Killara Distillery founder Kristy Booth-Lark says that while her folks, Lyn and Bill Lark, taught themselves the art of whisky production (with a little help from friends in Scotland), their passion for sharing their knowledge helped Tasmania’s whisky production grow. “One distillery doesn’t make an industry,” she says.
Credit: Max Combi
Credit: Max Combi
Kristy, one of the few female owner-distillers in the world, launched Killara (top left) in 2016, naming it after the street she lived on as a child. It was there that her parents first registered the Lark label. She attributes Tasmania’s success as a whisky producer to its scale. “We focus on small-batch and quality of craft, and I think that really shows through in the whisky.”
Heather Tillott, head distiller at Sullivans Cove, says good whisky just takes time.
Production at Sullivans Cove – the two-time winner of World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards – is slower than many people might think is sane, she says. “We have a reverent respect for the liquid, and we treat it very gently all the way through.”
Credit: Natalie Mendham
Credit: Natalie Mendham
Credit: Natalie Mendham
For now, Heather and her team are planning a physical expansion – a new distillery and cellar door on Hobart’s waterfront is about two years away – but the low and slow approach will never change. “The amazing liquid being distilled in Tasmania is only going to get better,” Heather say.
- Visit Killara Distillery in Richmond and Sullivans Cove in Cambridge for tastings.