Stories from the Bond Store #001

“I am convinced extraordinary whiskies can be made from exceptional wine casks. We want to explore those wine varietals within the oak and highlight their subtle complexities and differences within our Spirit Thief whiskies.”

Our bond store currently holds over 350 casks, a majority of which have been sourced directly from award-winning wine producers. Our portfolio includes casks that have previously held tempranillio, shiraz, mataro, grenache, cabernet, pinot noir and more. We have eight different spirits maturing. We’re on a journey of discovery to find out which wine varietals work best with our spirits. Should we select French Burgundy oak or Bordeaux and how does it compare to maturing the same varietals in American oak? Does extended toasting and heavy charring of wine casks necessarily bring out the best flavours in our whisky? We’re excited to discover what’s inside the casks and at the same time honoured to share those whisky findings with you.  

A couple of weeks ago, right around World Whisky Day on May 16, we took a number of samples from a variety of our Independent Bottling casks in the bond store. The samples selected (shown above), displayed a myriad of rouge colours and have now been sent off to our first professional tasting panel in Melbourne, ready to be reviewed and their release strengths decided. We’re adamant a cask-strength release will be among them! 

Our first whisky for 2020 is already in the decanting vat. It is a New Zealand Single Malt whisky aged for five and a half years and is a marriage of eight casks, all of which were originally re-coopered here in Tasmania and then aged in New Zealand’s south island. It will be a unique whisky and is part of our Exploration Series. This marriage combines New Zealand Pinot Noir casks with a small addition of American oak Bourbon refill casks.

This year we plan to have 3 independent Spirit Thief releases; including a much-anticipated heavily-peated Cabernet finish release from Belgrove Distillery in Tasmania, the afore-mentioned New Zealand Single Malt (pictured), and we’ve hunted down a prized 11-year-old Speyside Scottish Single Malt matured in a Bordeaux cask, which we are eager to share with you later in the year.

Yours in spirit,

& THE SPIRIT THIEF TEAM.

Together, we are the Vanguard.