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Happenings at Hellyers Road

Posted by: Nick and Ted

“Twelve months ago, we couldn’t have foreseen the growth that has occurred”.

Hellyers Road Distillery has always been a welcoming and friendly place to we Whisky Waffle boys, a fact that was abundantly apparent when we sat down to lunch with Master Distiller Mark Littler and media manager Don Jennings.

In 8 to 10 years these babies are gonna taste great!

2015 has been a busy year for the distillery with sales increasing by 50% in Australia, as well as expanding distribution throughout 30 European countries and tapping a new market in Japan. Due to demand, Mark has fired up the stills once more, originally planning a 30 week brewing program which has now been extended indefinitely.

One of the new priorities of the distillery is exploring the connection to its namesake Henry Hellyer. With the limited release Henry’s Legacy range continuing to fly out the door, and future releases in the pipeline, Don envisages an interpretation centre telling Henry’s story and pointing out his discoveries.

New Henry’s Legacy bottlings are not the only future releases to look forward to, as Mark tells us his new sherry barrel stock, while young, tastes amazing. Within the core range consistency and value are the priority, although this has led to depletion of 12 Year Old stocks. The 12 will soon only be available at the cellar door and in travel retail, so if you see one in your local bottle shop snap it up fast!

Obligatory cricket reference: this whisky hit Dave Warner for 6! Photo courtesy of Hellyers Road

Whisky isn’t the only spirit being made by the Hellyers Road stills. In partnership with Dean Lucas, the distillery is producing 666 Pure Tasmanian Vodka, a premium spirit which is part owned by Australian cricket vice-captain David Warner. Dave apparently caused a stir recently when he dropped by in a helicopter to see how his investment is made.

What resonated the most with us was the humble and generous nature of our hosts. It is fascinating that despite their growing success and international awards, the biggest whisky distillery in the southern hemisphere still consider themselves to be small-town Burnie boys, just enjoying making a bit of good quality whisky.

Mark doesn’t have any writing on the back of his shirt

Jim Murray rates Tasmanian whiskies as liquid gold

Posted by: Nick

An early dust-cover for the 2015 Whisky Bible which did not make the final printing

Here at Whisky Waffle we don’t take our rating system too seriously. We’re certainly a far cry from individual nose-ratings, and can barely count to 100, let alone score out of it! We are far more, in a word: wishy-washy (yes, ok, that was two words, but like I said, we have problems counting).

For some people however, wishy-washy doesn’t cut it, and a nice tangible score out of 100 is the way to go. One such man is Jim Murray, who did not quite squeeze into the quartet of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and decided to write his own bible. About whisky. Appropriately titled: The Whisky Bible.

This man has tasted and rated over four thousand whiskies for his latest edition, and apart from having the best day job in the world, he also has a half decent palate. This, apparently, is enough justification for distilleries to go gaga when he attributes high scores to their products.

Whiskies to which he deigns an award of 94 points or higher are granted the impressive-sounding moniker: ‘liquid gold’, not to be confused with Macallan Gold, which is another matter entirely (and one not nearly as impressive-sounding, despite what the PR guys at Macallan try and tell you).

There are two points, however, that Jim Murray and I see eye to eye on. The first one is our love for trade-mark headwear which, while a fascinating discussion, is not relevant to the current article. Our second is our love for whisky made in Tasmania. While I may have proved time and time again that I am slightly biased on the subject, Jim’s love is purely objective (with the possible exception of Nant).

I am rarely seen without my trademark top-hat. DISCLAIMER: this statement may or may not be true

The Tasmanian distilleries who have produced liquid gold bottles for the 12^th edition of the Whisky Bible are Lark and Sullivans Cove, and I offer them both my sincerest congratulations. Sullivans Cove received a score of 95.5 points for its American Oak bourbon cask release, until now the neglected younger brother of the coveted French Oak port cask. Lark received 94 points for its cask strength release, which makes me exceptionally happy, partly because it is a wonderfully deserving distillery and partly because I happen to own a bottle.

My precious…

Elsewhere in Australia the wonderfully obscure Limeburners distillery from Albany, Western Australia has also been awarded liquid gold status, due to both being a fantastic drop and to being from a region of the world where it can get hot enough to melt actual gold.

These bottles join a number of Australian products to receive this honour. In Tasmanian alone Overeem, Heartwood and Nant, as well as other Sullivans Cove and Lark releases have been given the tip of the panama hat. And if this isn’t enough justification to my Scottish friend that this country makes a damn good dram then I don’t know what is.

In the end, however, it’s just one man’s opinion. And this whisky blog is simply another. The most important critic of a whisky’s quality is you. If you try a drop at the right time in the right place with the right people, then that is all the justification you need. Like I said, wishy-washy. But they do call it liquid gold after all…

The Tasmanian Whisky Appreciation Society

Posted by: Nick and Ted

We may have mentioned (once or twice) that we live in Tasmania. Within our little state we have the joy of seeing the local whisky industry going from strength to strength. Around it we’ve also seen the development of a real whisky community, which is both exciting and satisfying to be a part of.

At the forefront of this community is the Tasmanian Whisky Appreciation Society, known to one and all as TWAS. Headed up by Heartwood Malt Whisky’s own Tim Duckett and as well as Richard Stewart, TWAS is a great repository of knowledge, observations, and experience about the Tasmanian whisky scene (and the wider world of whisky in general).

TWAS hold tasting evenings open to the general public at intervals determined by the amount of time required to get over the previous one. The lads at Whisky Waffle sadly live at the wrong end of the state and have not yet made it along to one of these gatherings (although we definitely hope to in the future). In the meantime we’ve managed to bag ourselves the next best thing!

Whisky Waffle are proud and excited to welcome TWAS’ own Richard Stewart aboard the good ship WW as a guest contributor. Tune in tomorrow to catch his first review (what could it be?), and over the coming months for the odd update about TWAS, and in the best tradition of this blog, random wafflings about whisky.

Find out more about TWAS at their website, or for more regular updates check out their Facebook and/or their Twitter.

Inaugural Young Whisky Enthusiasts Event

Posted by: Mooresy

Throw away your soft-caps, pipes and tweed vests, it’s time to bring whisky out of the dusty gentlemen’s clubs and into the open where it belongs. Whisky is unique in that it’s both an ancient and emergent industry at the same time. Old recipes hold their timeless elegance and modern distillers are creating experimental creations: between them there is a flavour for everyone.

Increasingly more young people are keen to get into the whisky scene. They either know what they like and are excited to try more, or they are new to the drink and want some guidance. Either way, they often don’t want to attend tastings full of middle-aged people with years of knowledge, and they often don’t speak up when they think they have guessed a flavour or a smell.

This is a great loss, and I want to change that.

That is why I started the Young Whisky Enthusiasts, to encourage interested people to get more involved. The tastings have been small but due to the support they have received, we are moving venues and getting bigger. Through the generous in-kind support of the Lark Distillery, we are saying farewell to small tastings and welcoming bigger and better things.

Mooresy: "there is a lot of whisky in this photo"

Mooresy: “there is lots of whisky in this photo”

The first of our tastings at the new venue will be held at 7:30 PM on 5 November 2014 at the Lark Cellar Door in Hobart. There will be rare and expensive whiskies on the tasting table, so contact me (0417 382 542, alexandermoores@gmail.com, or on Facebook) to secure your ticket. Price is $30 and includes at least 5 special drams.

At this first distillery tasting we will do a world tour of whisky taking in many countries and flavours, as well as voting on the name of our group and doing a people’s choice award which will help shape the next tasting.

It’s your community too, so get involved and help us forge a future for young whisky enthusiasts.

Ardbeg returns from space!

Posted by: Nick

My good friend and drinking guru Scott once successfully fooled me into believing the bottle of Ardbeg Galileo he was pouring me a nip of had actually been into space. As in the very bottle he held in his hand. I was naturally overawed and sipped my drink reverently, commenting stupidly how the lack of atmosphere did not diminish it’s peaty flavours. He eventually came clean and confessed the reason that it’s peaty flavours were undiminished was because it had never actually left earth. It was created in honour of the Ardbeg space project, where a barrel had indeed been sent into space. I had just not been drinking it.

Fast forward to the present and the Ardbeg space program has now landed! Three years and 15 570 orbits later, a barrel of Ardbeg’s finest is currently being inspected by men in white coats, and of course, Ardbeg whisky creator, Dr Bill Lumsden, to find out about the effects of zero gravity on the maturation process. The question remains, however, what will these effects be? Will my learned whisky drinking friend Bonnie be correct in her assertion that the whisky would have spent three years in a ball in the centre of the barrel, not interacting with the wood at all? Or could this be the birth of a new super-whisky?

What is certain, however, is that Ardbeg are celebrating in the best way possible – by bringing out a new release of their famous (and currently out of stock) Supernova! Plus, you can play an Islay-themed version of space invaders, so it’s worth checking out the site simply for enjoyable procrastinatory reasons alone!

Space travel and Islay-whisky. Life surely does not get more exciting than this.