By Andrew Starke
Tasmania’s Lark Distillery has appointed two of Europe’s most respected whisky houses – ‘La Maison du Whisky’ in France and ‘Van Wees’ in Holland as their latest international distributors.
Lark Distillery’s popularity at last year’s Whisky Live Paris led to numerous import opportunities and offers from some of Europe’s most respected spirit distributors.
Tasmania moved one step closer toward recognition as a producer of world-class whisky after the Lark Distillery’s LD-100 batch was named Best Other Single Malt Whiskey at the World Whisky Awards 2009 in London.
“In the end we chose to partner with Maison and Van Wees simply because they understood the unique opportunity and vision to bring our new world whisky to Europe and Great Britain,” Lark Distillery’s global sales manager, Ross Dinsmoor, said.
“It is very gratifying to have these icons asking for our single malts and spirits. As well as purchasing our whiskys, Van Wees of Holland was very enthusiastic about our Pepperberry Gin and felt the Dutch would be quite keen on it.”
“It seems it is easier to sell to our products the rest of the world than it is here in Australia,” he continued.
The first pallets leave Tasmania for Europe later this month (February).