On tasting: Hobart Whisky Winter Feast 2021 Maple Stout Cask Finish, Spring Bay Limited Release Rum Cask, Killara Dark Mofo 2021 Rum Cask Finish, and Sullivans Cove Winter Feast Witches Brew 2021
Dark Mofo finished up yesterday, and I’ve been lucky to taste some of the 2021 bottlings and have a chat to those involved about the future of the event, which is currently under a cloud.
Since 2013, the festival has celebrated all that’s dark and decadent and won both fans and detractors for its polemical art installations, winter solstice nude swim and the popular Winter Feast.
It’s also brought Hobart and Tasmania to life during what used to be a dead period for tourists and visitors.
Tasmanian whisky makers jumped on board almost from the get go. Sullivans Cove was the first, releasing a whisky to coincide with the event in 2014, and an annual bottling every year since (they’re now fetching crazy coin on the secondary market). Half a dozen other whisky makers joined Sullivans in the years following, unleashing left of centre whiskies from their bondstores.
Sullivans Cove Winters Feast 2014
Cam Brett, president of The Tasmanian Whisky and Spirits Association and co-founder of Spring Bay Distillery, joined the party this year with Spring Bay’s first Dark Mofo bottling. The limited release, just under 50 bottles, was solely matured in a small rum cask, a first for Spring Bay.
‘This is the first time we’ve been at Dark Mofo representing Spring Bay at the feast,’ Brett told me. ‘So it was a nice little surprise when I looked back through the barrel register and thought, hang on, our little rum cask is going to be ready about now. It was good timing.’
Spring Bay Winter Feast Release 2021. Photo – Spring Bay Distillery
Photo – Old Kempton Distillery
Old Kempton, Taylor & Smith Distilling and Hobart Whisky also released Dark Mofo bottlings in conjunction with this year’s event.
Hobart Whisky, one of the festival’s keenest whisky supporters, continued their maple cask maturation theme this year. The distillery’s 2021 release was finished in a maple stout cask that was brewed in-house and served boilermaker-style alongside the whisky at the feast.
‘We try to work to a theme with our whisky and really go hard with our packaging to make it a bit more interesting for people,’ says John Jarvis, Hobart Whisky’s distillery manager. ‘It’s always a chaotic week, but we love being a part of it.’
Dark Mofo Winter Feast
But despite the roaring success of Dark Mofo in recent years, the future of the festival is uncertain. Last year’s event was cancelled due to the pandemic, and with a number of senior organisers moving on, the festival’s viability moving forward is in doubt.
But Cam Brett is confident the event will continue, so vital has Dark Mofo become to the Tasmanian calendar.
‘I was impressing on some of the organisers how important Dark Mofo has become and what it means for Tasmanians and Hobartians during winter. The celebration of winter in Tasmania during this period really lifts the spirits in what is the darkest and coldest part of the year…. I’m confident, and I’m planning on it proceeding next year.’
I hope Cam’s right. It’s a wicked event, and here’s what you can expect from some of the 2021 Dark Mofo bottlings. (Good luck trying to track any down.)
