Sorry for the delay just had a few other trips after Tasmanian Whisky Week. Including another Whisky weekend which I will post about soon. So a little run down of things from Tasmanian Whisky Week 2023, I have usually just gone to a couple of events over the week, But this year after a silly post on Facebook last year the plan was to show a couple of friends from Western Australia around Tasmania and visit a few distilleries. (Perth to Tasmania is just under 4000 km (Approx 2485 miles) They flew into Launceston in the North of Tasmania on the Sunday evening after approx 5 hours of flying and a change of planes in Melbourne. Sunday evening they settled into the Air BNB and went out for a few drinks, Day 1, Picked Aaron and Tash up in Launceston for the drive up to Burnie, This is around a 2 hour journey, Did a couple of non whisky stops on the way up, First a cheese factory then a chocolate factory, Next stop the first distillery of the week, Hellyers Road. Hellyers Road is one of the oldest distilleries in Tasmania and originally started by dairy farmers. Hellyers is also one of the bigger producers of whisky producing around 100,000 litres a year. Also having whisky which is nearly 21 years old. After Hellyers Road we had a short drive to Sprayton. Located just near the coastal town of Devonport and probably one of the smallest distilleries called Sandy Gray, This is run by two amazing musicians called Neil and Bob from the garage in Neil's garden. After visiting the small but wonderful distillery we headed back to Launceston stopping off at Deloraine to look around and then past Western Tiers distillery, (Unfortunately to late in the day to visit) Western Tears was started by a company that makes stills in Tasmania to showcase the work they do. Once back in Launceston we had our first evening event for Tasmanian Whisky Week, Tasmania vs Scotland this was over 4 rounds like a mini knockout competition. The first round was Launceston Distilleries Tas Whisky Week release Port and Rum cask(Alternating staves in the barrel) vs Jura Ex Bourbon/ Rum Cask Finish for me the Jura just edged it but the crowd on the night went for the The Launceston Distillery Release. Next we had Adams distillery Pinot cas release vs Bunnahabain Unpeated Red Wine cask. Again Tasmania won in this round. Next was Battery Point Distillery Islay Cask vis Speyburn Hopkins Reserve Peated Cask release. Once again Tasmania won here! I would say easily as the Battery Point Islay cask release was one of my stand out whisky's of the week. Now for the final round which pitted Mc Henrys Ex Bourbon Heavily peated vs SMWS 53.411 again Tasmania won , But for me the 53.411 was the winner.

Posted by GaryHN at 2023-08-28 12:39:34 UTC