Hartshorn Distillery is a new Tasmanian micro distillery making boutique batches of Hartshorn Sheep Whey Gin and vodka from their own sheep whey. We are the first in the world to create this unique product.
We are proud to be one of the smallest distilleries in Australia making small 80 bottle batches using a 200L glass column still. Each bottle and label is hand painted by head distiller Ryan so you can display it proudly amongst your collection. All of our spirits are unfiltered meaning you can enjoy a spirit with more character and complexity.
Our Sheep whey Vodka this year won Champion Vodka of Australia at the World Vodka Awards 2017 in London. In 2017 we also won Australian Beverage of the year! Our Gin has only been released within the last 6mth however has been reviewed by the “Ginventory” app as a 9.5 out of 10.
Ryan and his family run Grandvewe Cheeses in Birchs Bay located deep in Tasmania’s south. When making cheese, the whey is often discarded and put to little use. Ryan has spent the last two years discovering how to turn the complex sugars held within the whey protein and convert them into basic sugars to then ferment into alcohol and eventually distil. The resulting distillate has a delicately sweet bouquet and extremely smooth finish, thanks to the dairy influence and traditional aging methods.
Grandvewe Cheeses is situated on 80 acres of pristine farm land overlooking the D’Entrecasteaux Channel & Bruny Island, 40 minutes south of Hobart.
The farm is perched 60m above sea level on land that was formerly part of the heart of apple and small fruits farms. Our climate is typically cool and dry and not typically suited to dairy. Although we received an enviable average rainfall of 1300mm, our soils are too heavy in compacted clay to hold sufficient moisture. In addition to this we receive the vast majority of our rain in the cooler months and very little at all in the warmer months which inhibits us from growing a great deal of grass. Our soils are poor, they are 165 million years old in parts and thus have no or little top soil. In essence, there is no way anyone could contemplate farming a heavy ruminant such as a cow on this land with these soils, a major reason why dairy sheep are actually a perfect fit for our geology and our geography.
Support Australian craft spirits and taste the Hartshorn Sheep Whey Gin and the full range of Hartshorn Distillery spirits.