In 2018 KWA made a trip to Australia with Tasmania. On that trip, we visited eight distillers and many of them were fantastic and innovatively thinking regarding their whisky making and products but the distillery which made the greatest impact on us was Belgrove.
Belgrove is placed on Tasmania 50 km north of Hobart surrounded by an open and rolling farming landscape where sheep and livestock farming seems to be the main occupations.
When we arrived to Belgrove felt it like entering a small or medium sized farmyard. On site, we were first guided by Jerry who described to us how Belgrove works with their whisky making. After a while Peter Bignell the founder of Belgrove arrive and joined us.
One of the first thing Jerry said was: “Here grows our rye” and then he pointed out towards the fields. It’s just one of those many things that makes Belgrove so special; they are doing so much on site. Even the most of the processing equipment used for the whiskey production has been made by Peter on site.
Rye whisky is Belgrove´s main product. They have whisky made on either smoked or unsmoked rye or a mix of them. Even the whisky made on unsmoked rye has some toasted notes in the flavor which must come from the special still, built by Peter. The still is warmed from the bottom by an oil burner that is driven by bio-diesel (old frying oil is used). The still’s neck is also a special part that that we´ve never seen anywhere else. The neck is double walled and cooling water is floating in the gap between the walls, which also gives the neck the function as a condenser. It must be the still that gives Belgrove’s whisky the most of the fine flavors with the toasted notes that characterizes it and makes it so special. Another part of the process equipment that Peter has built is the malting-machine that he has made of an old clothes dryer.