Belgrove Distillery - Kempton Tasmania

This blog entry couldn't be posted until a family member, who reads this blog, received their birthday present we bought from this distillery.

 

While staying at Bothwell in the Highlands, we drove to the outskirts of Kempton in the Tasmanian Midlands to tour Peter Bignell's Whisky Distillery.

Peter distinguishes himself from other whisky makers by cultivating his own rye corn on his land. During our visit, he had a plentiful supply of rye and was waiting for a contractor to harvest his already sold field, which was prepared for loading onto a ship heading to the mainland.

He also developed his own copper, running on biofuel made from the unused cooking oil of the roadhouse we saw earlier. In fact, his forklift tractors and hot water systems are all powered by this used cooking oil. Thanks to the farm sheds on his property, Peter can also reuse the collected water for brewing and dilution.

We purchased two bottles: one was 100% Rye whisky aged in Pinot Noir casks, and I also bought a bottle of his Frankenstein whisky for myself, which contains grappa and remnants of leftover liqueurs and spirits that Peter produces.

Over the past four years, the globally acclaimed Jim Murray's Whisky Bible has awarded seven Belgrove whiskies as Liquid Gold, including naming it the best whisky in the southern hemisphere in 2019.