On tasting: Furneaux Single Malt Whisky Cask No. 154-155, and two Furneaux single malt cask samples
Every second March, whisky fiends in Australia and New Zealand are thrown into a frenzy by DramFest, the Southern Hemisphere’s most renowned whisky festival. It takes place in Christchurch every two years, and when it hits, the biggest names in whisky descend on the region (most stopping off in Sydney and Melbourne at some point), presenting their wares and inspecting the latest happenings on both sides of the ditch.
‘Innovation’ is often the hot word on everyone’s lips. But more and more, we keep hearing about regionality and ‘terroir’ – does whisky have the ability to capture the culture, landscape and unique qualities of its surrounding natural environment?
There’s a number of regions around Australia that would be perfect to test this idea. And when flying south to Tassie, I’ve often wondered about the largely unknown islands in Bass Strait – the perfect spot to open a distillery.
And now, Damien Newtown-Brown has done just that, with his recently constructed Furneaux Distillery on Flinders Island. Newtown-Brown has a long association with the island, and over the last couple of years, he’s been hard at work getting the spirit of the place into his whiskies.
Furneaux Distillery. Photo – Ness Vanderburgh
Like Islay, Flinders Island is blessed with an abundance of maritime peat, so Newtown-Brown’s been digging some up from his property and performing a post-malt peating, similar to the method used at Lark Distillery.
It’s created some intriguing coastal flavours, but at the moment, it’s important to note that all current bottled product was distilled at Launceston Distillery and wash is also fermented there as well. But considering what I’ve tasted so far, keep your eyes out for the next peated whisky release due in July.
