New world whisky made in old way

Tucked away between rolling hills dotted with sheep and winding roads taking wine lovers to vineyards is a nondescript, white warehouse with small, square windows.

The modest-looking building gives no hint of what lies within its four walls, except for a small sign hanging on a fence - Sullivans Cove - signaling the home of the recently anointed world's best single malt whisky.

Made with barley and fresh water and matured in barrels in Tasmania off Australia's southern coast, Sullivans Cove is among a new breed of whisky makers in the country's smallest state that is making waves on the international stage.

"It's an old-fashioned style of whisky and I think when the judges tasted it, it appealed to them," owner Patrick Maguire said about the 13-year-old single malt he and colleagues distilled, which won the top accolade at the World Whisky Awards in March.

Whisky link revived

While some may see Tasmania's products as upstarts, Bill Lark - regarded as the grandfather of Australian whisky - said the southern state had a budding industry in the 1820s before more pressing concerns ended it.

Sydney was starving and needed the barley for food, the 60-year-old said as he cradled a glass of single malt in his bar alongside Hobart's harbor.

In 1830, the governor of the day increased the whisky tax so high that six of seven distilleries closed. The next governor imposed a total ban on distillation in 1839.

Fast-forward one-and-a-half centuries to 1992.

Lark and his wife were drinking whisky in the state's highlands and wondered why Tasmania did not make the spirit even though it had "very good barley, beautifully clean water, a wonderful climate ... and peat fields".

The Larks persuaded a local politician to help amend a 1901 law that discouraged boutique breweries and bought a A$65 ($55) still to make whisky in their home.

Awards and international recognition followed, and two decades later Lark's business has 18 staff and turns over millions of dollars each year.

(China Daily 12/03/2014 page10)