Belgrove Distillery - Kempton Tasmania

This blog entry could not be posted until a family member who reads this blog had received their birthday present that 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 is distinguished from everyone who produces whisky because he cultivates his own rye corn on his property. While we were there, he had an abundance of rye and was awaiting a contractor to harvest his field, which had already been sold and was set to be loaded onto a ship to the mainland.

He also built his own copper, which uses biofuel derived from the unused cooking oil of the roadhouse we passed just before his property. In fact, his forklift tractors and hot water are all powered by the used cooking oil. With all the farm sheds on his property, Peter can utilise the collected water for brewing and diluting.

We purchased two bottles: one was the 100% Rye whisky matured in Pinot Noir casks, and I bought a bottle of his Frankenstein whisky for myself, which includes grappa and bits of leftover liqueurs and spirits that Peter makes.

World-renowned Jim Murray's Whisky Bible has awarded seven Belgrove whiskies the title of Liquid Gold in the last four years, including the best whisky in the southern hemisphere in 2019.