Tassie distillers play the waiting game

By James Atkinson

The newest distillers on Tasmania's burgeoning whisky scene are each taking different and innovative approaches to overcome the cash flow issues of putting barrels of whisky down for maturation.

Launched last year in Port Arthur, William McHenry & Sons is Australia's southernmost distillery.

Founder Bill McHenry (pictured left) told TheShout he hopes to have his first fully-distilled and matured whisky on the market by early 2015, "although it could be a bit early depending on the maturing spirit".

In the meantime, McHenry is selling his Puer Triple Distilled Premium Vodka and McHenry Classic London Dry Gin, as well as Three Capes, his signature whisky brand bottled from a carefully selected barrel from the Tasmania Distillery, which produces whisky under the Sullivans Cove brand.

Elsewhere, Belgrove Distillery in Kempton is selling 'new make' rye whiskey while founder Peter Bignell (pictured right) waits for his stocks to come of age. 

Bignell believes the flavour profile of new make rye spirit is ideally suited to cocktails and his distillery has an excellent accompanying story for bar owners.

He grows the rye used in his whiskey on his Kempton farm, where he built his copper pot still from scratch. 

"It is direct fired with biodiesel that I make from waste cooking oil from a roadhouse next to my farm," Bignell says.

Tasmanian whisky pioneer, Bill Lark told TheShout that cash flow is a significant issue for any distiller as they get their operations up and running – including his new venture Redlands Estate Distillery.

"We're going to restrict production to probably only about 60 barrels a year for probably the first five years," Lark said.

"Instead of going flat out and using all our financial resources to lay down barrels, we're going to restrict our production to what we can afford from the cash flow coming into the distillery from tourism."