Whisky scene newcomers Launceston Distillery nearly missed out on being a part of Tasmania’s inaugural whisky week.
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The operation has only been open for 10 months and, as such, does not have any whisky product on hand to share with the lovers of the amber spirit.
However, the distillery has offered connoisseurs a chance to tour their unique facility after participating in Thursday night’s food and whisky pairing session.
Distiller Chris Condon said because of the length of time it takes to mature whisky, they didn’t have any on hand, but they have been offering pre-sale casks.
“We don’t have any product on hand so what we did was approach some of the other distillers and try to organise the food and whisky pairing night, with Curly [Haslam-Coates] and those who participate in that will be coming up on Friday to do a tour,” he said.
“We will be showing them the process, and how all of those different types of whisky they tried on Thursday night are made.”
Also available is the sale of pre-sale casks, that allows whisky lovers to add personal preferences to their own cask.
“They can decide how strong they want it and which kind of cask they want it to mature in, we are hoping to get some personalised labels for them, but they get to put their own touch on the whisky,” Mr Condon said.
Launceston Distillery is located at Hangar 17, an old Ansett hangar near the Launceston Airport. Mr Condon said he and the team at Launceston Distillery were happy that they had been able to “breathe new life” into an old building such as the hangar.
The distillery has yet to open to the public but when the product is mature Mr Condon said they had plans to open the facility as a cellar door.
Unfortunately, whisky takes at least two years to mature, cask owners will have to wait until 2018 before they can taste their personalised whisky. Tasmanian Whisky Week runs from July 22-30. For more information go to http://launcestondistillery.com.au/ or Facebook.