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Sticky toffee #pudding with #vanilla ice cream, caramelised orange and #Peat Project trifle, #Scottish tablet, #Octomore brûlée and white #chocolate soup (Taken with Instagram)
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Whiskies of the World: Australia. Lark’s Master Distiller Shares his Thoughts on Australian Whisky
There has been alot of excitement regarding Lark Whisky recently. Bloggers and magazines have been publishing lots of juicy information regarding Bill Lark’s reincarnation of a wonderful industry. They are also deservedly singing his praises as the Whisky and other spirits his distillery produces impress the most respected reviewers the world has to offer.
Last year I was lucky enough to meet their current master distiller, Chris Thomson on his tour around Europe. We shared a few drams, talked a lot of shop and sampled many of Australia and Scotland’s spirit related delights. I’ve been following his progress since then, and always relish the chance to try his latest creations. With all of the current buzz surrounding Lark, I took the opportunity to catch up with Chris and offer a unique insight into what makes Tasmania perfect for Whisky production, what makes Lark unique and what drives him in his passion for making some of the best spirits the World has to offer. Part one looks at Tasmania and the unique aspects of Lark’s Production:
Facebook Interview between Craig Johnstone and Chris Thomson:
Tasmania:How long ago did Bill start distillingin Hobart, and when was the last distillation before that?Theshort answer is 1992, but the story is not that simple. Between about 1840 and1901 it was illegal to distill in Tasmania. Post federation, distillation wasonly allowed with a minimum capacity of 2700 litres. Bill Lark had to have thelaws changed (the Distillation Act of 1839) to allow small-scale distillationto commence in the state of Tasmania for the first time since 1839. So nextyear will be our 20-year anniversary!Why is Hobart a good place to makewhisky?The key is really to do with the abundance of high quality natural resources inTasmania.Weproduce some of the best cold climate brewing barley, have some of the purestsoft water in the world and an ideal climate for maturing whisky.Weonly use brewers barley (a Tasmanian strain called Gairdner) which results in a rich, particularly malty spirit. Theclimate in Tasmania, though reasonably stable in temperature, is dominated bylow and high pressure systems rolling over the Island state. This forces thematuring spirit in and out of the wood, speeding up the maturation process,producing a whisky full bodied and full of life. No boring drams here!How important is the local area to Larkwhen it comes to making spirits and liqueurs?Very!Again the key is in Tasmania’s ability to produce high quality barley and anideal climate for maturation of Lark’s whisky spirit. Lark also has a mininglicense over an area of peat bog in the center of Tasmania called Brown MarshBog. We can boast having the only peat mining license in the state! Thispeat is significantly different to Scottish peat, and imparts a real sweetnessto the spirit with far less of the heavy smoke flavors. It is also the only place where the Tasmaniannative Pepperberry grows (TasmanniaLanceolata). The distillation of this botanical forms the basis of manyof our liqueurs and spirits including the Gin and the Pepperberry liqueur,TASI. The Pepperberry trees grow wild on the rugged inland mountains and areharvested by hand, and distilled to produce these uniquely Tasmanian spirits.You’ve been to Bonnie Scotland, how doesthe climate and landscape compare to Hobart?Thelandscape is very similar, with both highlands and lowlands but with quite differentvegetation of course. In terms of temperature, Tasmania has a greater rangewhich is suited to maturing whisky.
Production:Where do you source your ingredients?Allingredients are Tasmanian, something we are very proud of.Who does your malting?Cascadebrewery produces some world class beers and is the largest maltster inTasmania. We have had a long and rewarding relationship with them!Can you explain the peat smoker Billinvented and why it’s different to our traditional kilns?Wereceive all of our barley at lark malted but not peat smoked. We then moistenthat barley and sit it in racks above a peat fire. We have named this system“post malt smoking”. By post malt smoking the barley we eliminate the issue ofcarcinogens, which appear when green (non-malted) barley is peat smoked. Ourprocess negates the need to treat the barley with sulphur, giving us a morenatural process.Where does the peat come from?Ourbeautiful peat bog in the center of Tasmania, Brown Marsh Bog!Wheredo you source your casks?Weuse mostly port casks sourced in an exclusive agreement with Seppletsfieldwinery in South Australia (producer of world famous Para Port and the only 100year old port on sale in the world). These barrels have been maturing port forat least 20 years but in most cases are considerably older. These barrels arethen cut down to 100L (aka “quarter cask”) and heavily toasted before beingfilled.What species of oak are they?Frenchoak.Why single barrels?Lark’ssingle malt whisky is produced in the most hands-on way possible, in extremelysmall quantities. The mash tun is stirred by hand and the cuts for the finaldistillation are done by taste and nose alone. There is no recipe for ourwhisky, the brewers and distillers are there to produce the best possiblewhisky on that day. As external factors change (for example seasonal variationin barley) so does the spirit and the distiller’s job is to guide that to thebest spirit possible, not the same spirit produced last week, last year or fiveyears ago. Thus each distillation is a unique experience, and is given its ownbarrel. We feel that by making our whisky single cask we are allowing thisprocess of artisan brewing and distilling to shine and the unique qualities ofour whisky to shine with them.Ourwhisky will always taste like Lark whisky because of the shape of the stillsand the quality of the barley, but will vary slightly with every barrel.Ihave always said ‘quality over consistency’.Why quarter casks?Billexperimented with small cask ageing from the beginning and settled on thequarter cask as our standard very early on. They mature whisky much faster thenthe standard 200L to 400L casks, producing the equivalent 12 to 18 year old injust 5 to 7 years. However there is more to it than us just wanting to tasteour mature whisky as soon as possible. They seem to produce a real livelinessto the mature whisky; an excitement - for a lack of better expression, an Xfactor. They never produce a boring dram that just sits on your pallet thendies.How are Lark’s stills unique?BothLark’s 1800L wash still and 600L spirit still were designed by Bill Lark andbuilt here is Tasmania by mater craftsman Peter Bailey, who has gone on tobuild many more stills and even exported them. Still design is unique in someway to each and every distillery.Who comes up with new product recipes?Everyone! The products we run now were developed by various different members of our team.People like a traditional hand-madeproduct, how hands-on is Lark’s production?Lark is the epitome of a hand-made artisan product, from stirring our mash tun to hand labelling every bottle, everything in the production is hand done; sometimes by traditional methods and sometimes differently through innovation, but always with the quality of the final product in mind.Is there a typical age range for yourcasks at Lark?5to 7 years in a quarter cask (100 litres) seems to be perfect. Much longer andour whisky becomes too woody and looses balance, much shorter and our whisky istoo young and a little raw.Has Lark ever imported ingredients orcasks to experiment with, or are you keeping it an Australian/Tasmanianproduct?Wedo have a select number of barrels from outside Australia, for example someAmerican Oak bourbon barrels from the USA, but for the most part everything iseither Tasmanian or Australian.Part two of this exclusive interview will be up on Thursday when I ask Chris about being a Whisky Maker and learn some insights into many a whisky fan’s dream job! In the meantime if you are looking to try some Lark, you can find it in many an online retailer and comes in at around £90 per bottle. An extremely reasonable price for a single cask handcrafted spirit flown half way around the globe!Cheers,CraigIn my glass: Lark Single Cask Whisky Cask #205 -
Recipe: Craig’s Edible Peat
When was the last time you had a Whisky lunch?
Whisky and food matching is an extremely enjoyable thing to do, and one which can be terribly hit or miss. What I can say, is that the beauty in food pairing with whisky is the plethora of results and the diversity of opinions. The Adventuring, the Experimenting and the Experience of sharing these weird and wonderful delights is a joy to behold.Food pairing was probably the hardest part of my job, until I realised that my audience were far more interested in the story behind the choices than the choices themselves. As with everything in life, we all have an opinion and we are entitled to it. A pairing that gets some people singing, might encourage others to revisit their breakfast. You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can get them chatting about their experiences. This led me to the following rule of thumb:When food pairing with whisky, always try to Compliment or Contrast, and always be open to feedback regarding the marriage, expanding your experiences as you go. Here are a couple of my more triumphant pairings and their alternatives:A salty, briny, fishy whisky is incredible at taming a robust smoked fish chowder, yet the same dish can be exacerbated with a gorgeous and deep peardrop and vanilla flavour profile.orA full blown sherried whisky is the perfect compliment to a nice haunch of venison, yet it can also allow a blue cheese to blast off on the palate.But occasionally you will come across a whisky that does not want to play ball…
The difficulty generally comes from the peat monsters. These whiskies are generally too smoky and can easily mask a cuisine. (I did meet a guy from Texas once who glazed his roast with Lagavulin, but I found out that this was more a measure to keep others away from his red meat than to heighten any flavour expectations. Turns out his friends hated peaty whisky.) How can we get around this most intense of flavours? The answer is simple. Serve them up with a side of peat.Last year, I had the difficult task of matching Ardbeg to food. Everyone agreed that it was too overpowering for everything. But never one to back away from a challenge, I decided to put my apron on and get to work in the kitchen. I decided that the best thing to match a peaty whisky with was peat itself. Therefore I developed this edible version of our favourite fossil fuel:
It looks like peat, it can have the consistency of peat, and with enough Ardbeg it smells like peat smoke too. If you want to shock a group of 100 whisky enthusiasts, just explain all about peat with a piece of this in your hand finishing with the line “and what 99.9% of the world don’t realise, is that it is 100% edible…” Then chuck it in your mouth.Let me know how you get on, I’d love to hear your feedback and see your photos and tweaks to this recipe. You can share them with me on Twitter.Cheers,Craig
In my glass: Ardbeg Alligator and a chunk of Craig’s Edible Peat
Here you will find all interesting things I come across in the world of Scotch Whisky as I travel and spread the wit and wisdom over a dram or two...
