Tasman Whisky Pinot Finish

Tasman Whisky Pinot Finish.

This whisky is absolutely superb! The Tasman Pinot Finish Cask was distilled in Iron House’s still in Tassie in August 2017. Initially matured in 100L Portuguese ex-port casks, then to further instil the ‘Iron House Touch’ those casks were disgorged into a 200l Iron House Vineyard French Oak ex-Pinot Noir cask to finish for 8 months…and its delightfully exclusive to The Single Malt Whisky Club!

The Iron House Vineyards 2018 Pinot Noir is a superb example of ‘farm to bottle’ production.  This wine is completely produced at Iron House – from growing the grapes to crushing, fermenting and ageing. Aged for around 12 months on the wood and then bottled and laid to mature until it’s ready to drink. The Tasman Whisky Pinot Finish was then finished in this cask for 8 months.

Two years ago we collaborated with Iron House to present a matched Whisky plus a Beer (or ‘Porter’ to be precise) that was aged in the cask the whisky came out of. The ultimate matched boilermaker from the same distillery/brewery…and what a hit it was!  This was so well received by the club that we’ve partnered up with Iron House Distilling in Tasmania to do it all again. This time with The Tasman Whisky Pinot Finish

Well… not the same thing again (that wouldn’t be very exciting, after all) but another ‘matched pair’ concept.  This time a whisky and a wine that are so linked together, they make the perfect dinner pair.  Or a big arvo on the veranda. Or a quiet drink with friends…

This time around Iron House are doing the opposite to the ‘matched boilermaker’ of 2020. Instead of maturing the wine in the cask the whisky came out of (like they did the porter two years ago) they are using the wine cask to finish the whisky – the Tasman Whisky Pinot Finish.

You see, Iron House Brewery in the North-East Coast of Tassie are a multi-talented outfit to put it mildly. They not only brew beer and distill whisky (as well as some other spirits), they also make wine as well. In fact, they not only make wine, they grow the grapes it’s made from.  What better outfit to partner up with for an ‘exploration’ of this type!

This is a fantastic opportunity for members to really investigate where the flavours you are tasting in your whisky come from! Not just in theory, but in actual practice. As a purely academic exercise alone, this is a remarkable opportunity. The fact that the whisky and wine are both such glowing examples of their type is an added bonus.  When you can sit and appreciate the connection between the two products – it’s really like levelling up in your whisky journey.

Aged for just a month shy of 5 years, this dram was housed in port barrels sourced from Portugal. Then transferred to a French oak barrel that once housed our very own estate grown cool climate pinot noir for 12 months, which has imbued the spirit with a gorgeous burgundy red hue and a unique red wine overtone to the palate.

This marriage of Tasmanian east coast grape and grain brings red wine currants and honied ripe plums on the nose. Hints of rose bloom, salted molasses, black currant, white pepper and sweet muscat wines on the taste. A juicy sweet hit of Tasmania pinot noir perfectly highlights our lovingly crafted single malt.

The Iron House Brewery is a central feature of the White Sands Estate. The Estate boasts a resort, brewery, distillery, winery, restaurant, bar, vineyard, trout lake, and boat ramp – not to mention the private McIntyre’s Beach that it sits adjacent to. Apparently, that boat ramp was the clincher when the current owner purchased the Estate back in 2003. As a keen boatie and fishing-tragic myself I thoroughly endorse, and commend, this logic.

The ‘Iron House Brewery’ is named after the first structure erected on the land the property sits on in the 1800’s – a tin roofed drover’s hut known as ‘The Iron House’ and is run by Michael Briggs. It commenced brewing operations in 2007. In 2015 a 1500L hybrid Kothe still from Germany, was purchased and once they worked out how it went together (it came with no instructions whatsoever so the story goes) they had a brewery/distillery!

The decision to add a distillery was a no brainer. They could easily make more beer than they could sell locally – so instead of looking to market outside Tasmania – they chose to add a distillery to use that extra wash! Beer’s loss – whiskies gain! These days the distillery is producing about 8000l of new make a year.