American Justin Turner came to the Tamar Valley to launch Turner Stillhouse

However, it was the richness of his wife's homeland that drew him to open his craft whiskey, rum and gin business in the Tamar Valley.

Justin Turner was raised among California's rich wine regions, it was there that he first developed a taste for the alcohol industry.

He studied finance at Texas' Southern Methodist University, before moving to New York City where he worked for various finance companies.

"I expected I was only going to spend a small amount of time in New York, [I] ended up spending 13 years there," Justin said.

His work also took him to destinations across Europe.

But eight years ago on St Patrick's Day, Justin met his his future wife: Sarah-Jayne Hall.  

She had also been working in New York City and they met through work colleagues.

"We met towards the tail end of both our stints in New York," he said.

"We decided we have had enough of New York so we decided we wanted to do something different."

After spending time in Park City, Utah Justin helped his family sell their business. 

It was at this point he decided to put his dream of crafting an alcohol business into action.

"I had always had this dream of doing something in the alcohol space on a craft scale and really honed in on the spirit space," Justin said.

"I had always had a passion for it."

Justin knew about Tasmania through his wife as they had been visiting throughout their relationship.

"A few years ago I had started looking for locations around the states and Australia," he said. 

"On one of our trips to Tassie I did my due diligence and saw that the industry was starting to really take off here, and found just a really wonderful location for the distillery and focused in on moving here at that point."

Justin recently formally opened his business, named Turner Stillhouse, on Friday March 22 at Rosevears.

He said it was Tasmania's similarity to California that drew him to it.

"But a slightly less populated version of California, just absolutely stunning views everywhere you go from the coast to the mountains and central portions of the state," he said.

"It felt very natural for me."

In terms of adjusting to the Tasmanian lifestyle, Justin said it was easier for him than his wife.

"It's been, to some degree, more of a transition for her than me just because she has been over in the states for so long," he said.

"Coming back home is always a transition for those people that have been gone that long.

"For me it's just been a big giant adventure."

Justin was optimistic about Tasmania's future, and looked forward to being a part of its emergence into the world craft liquor scene.

"I think you [Tasmania] have this great mix of an agriculture sector as well as other industrial sectors and professional services industries all in one," he said.

"There's generally a buzz that's happening with the word 'Tasmania' even over in the United States or places around Europe and other places.

"The name Tasmania has this exotic feel to it and so I think that the New York Times put it on top 100 places to visit, it's finally getting the recognition it deserves."