Day Two, A bit later start today as the first distiller to visit is Launceston Distillery which sits in an old hanger next to Launceston Airport. Aaron and Tash did a tour while I sat back and had a chat to a couple of the great distillers there. Also got to pat Angus the distillery dog, Such a cute West Highland Terrier owned by one of the distillers there. Launceston Distillery is a great distillery which I always enjoy visiting. Friendly staff great whisky and close by. After the tasting we got chance to fill a 100ml bottle with a Tas Whisky Week Blending from 9 distilleries, This was a release for an earlier TWW which they had kept. After saying bye to Angus and the crew we had a drive to a lovely seaside village of Lulworth to visit Fannys Bay Whisky(this is my local distillery and I love coming here as Mathew and the team are so friendly) We tried the full range of whisky here from Bourbon to Peated, All handcrafted in Mathews Garage next to his house. The still he uses was welded together by Mathew after designing it, and the label on the back is a print of a painting by his wife Julie. Whisky from Fannys Bay Distillery did make it over to the USA thanks to Holly Seidewand and Mathew and Julie did a Friday night show with Mark from The Whisky Cast. After saying our farewells to the Fannys Bay team we head down towards Launceston to another small town called Hillwood to meet Paul, Ollie and Chilli (The distillery dog) Hillwood distillery was started by the Heron Family with Paul the dad starting to do the distilling after his 3 sons bought the distillery, After selling his restaurant in Launceston Ollie started being more hands on. The guys tried a few whiskys then got chance to try a couple of release not yet bottled including a very nice Peated cask. Next we headed South of Launceston to Adams Distillery. Adams Distillery is located about 20 minutes South of Launceston and at the moment is not distilling after the fire which injured one of the workers there in Feb 2021(all going well the new and improved distillery will start up in 2024.) Here the guys got to try a few gins and a couple of whiskys including a sold out release of Peated Ginger Beer Cask. This is a fun whisky which is ideal for a hot summers day with a dash of soda or other mixer and some ice. After this we headed back to Launceston to The Barrel Collective for Event number two of the week. This was hosted by Matt Bailey Country Director at SMWS Australia. We got to try 6 different whiskys, First up was Waubs Harbour a distillery I have yet to visit on the East Coast of Tasmania at a lovely town called Bicheno. The was a mix of Bourbon and Tawny Casks for a new distillery the whisky is really impressive. Next we went onto Launceston Distilleries TWW23 release the Port and Rum cask. after this we had two independent bottlings, First up from Tasmanian Whisky Selectors was a Killara Distillery Apera Cask, No Killara Distillery is a distillery owned and run by Kristy Booth-Lark (not sure if you picked up on the name but Kristy is an amazing distiller who happens to also be Bill Larks daughter) This released was another stand out from the week well done to the team at Tasmanian Whisky selctors for releasing this, The Next Independent Bottling comes from the Team at Whisky in Isolation its an Old Kempton Distillery Rum cask. Whisky in Isolation have only released a few whiskys at the moment but if they are all like this release they are ones too watch. Next we had a different release a Port Cask finished in an Espresso Martini Cask from 7k Distillery. this was surprisingly nice. Then the final dram for the second day was a Peated Bourbon Cask from Adams Distillery. Another great dram to finishe the night off. Will do another update of Day 3 onwards on Tuesday.

Posted by GaryHN at 2023-08-28 13:10:59 UTC