Lloyd Clark has spent 47 years in the hospitality industry and learnt a thing or two along the way.
Jack Lark is still young but is the son of Tasmanian whisky pioneer Bill Lark and a rising star on the distilling scene.
The two have combined together to produce boutique gin and whisky under the House of Lenna and Battery Point Distillery labels.
Their business is one that started when Jan Clark told her busy hotelier husband that he needed a hobby.
He had a chat with his friend Bill Lark - who offered some advice - and things snowballed from there.
Battery Point Distillery was officially founded in 2018 by the historic House of Lenna, in Hobart’s Battery Point. Owners Lloyd and Jan Clark first released a gin that still outsells all others in their hotel.
The distillery is located in a tiny former wine storage facility at the back of the Lenna Hotel and recently launched its first whisky. They commissioned Last Rights to brew their initial whisky wash.
Both men agree that all the spirits they release must be of high quality and appeal to a niche market of savvy drinkers.
“We’re a small team and so we’re not rushing to get things out," Lark says. "Everything is done by hand and we refuse to cut corners - we will only release the best quality barrels and the best quality spirits.
“With whisky you aren’t reinventing the wheel - it’s still all made with the same three ingredients, but we really took our time over selecting the best of those ingredients.”
Made using a specifically selected premium Tasmanian malt mash, a unique combination of yeast cultures and 100% Tasmanian water, Battery Point whisky is combining traditional Scottish double-distillation methods with small casks and barrel finishing.
The spirit is then aged in an apple brandy barrel before being finished in a muscatel barrel.
The end result is a serious whisky that will appeal to drinkers looking for a bold, full-bodied and rich drop. Lark liked my tasting note of an "assertive" whisky with complexity and treacle notes.
As will be the case with all future Battery Point offerings, the initial release is limited to just 200 bottles.
Future small volume releases will be available when they are at their peak.
The Battery Point Whisky retails for $325 per 500ml bottle and will be available via wholesale or direct-to-consumer. Visit www.batterypointdistillery.com
There are plans for future tastings in the atmospheric bar at Lenna Hotel, but the tiny distillery is off limits.
# For those he think Lark looks familiar, he first came to prominence in 2010 as runner-up in the first edition of TV show Junior Masterchef.
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