Lark Distillery Tasting: Whisky and More!

3 of Lark's range: L-R: The Single Malt Whisky, Lark Pepperberry
Gin and the Pepperberry Bush (Soon to be rebranded!)

As a whisky lover, it's great to always find new whiskies from around the world and to enjoy the lovely creations that people are capable of producing. One new trend in distilling all over the world is the highly popular 'artisan' make of drinks, which focuses on small batch manufacturing to ensure top quality products. Lark Distillery is one such distillery that makes the Artisan Spirit their focal point.

Founded in Tasmania, Australia, in 1992 by Bill and Lyn Lark, Lark distillery is arguably one of The growing names in the world of whisky. Their Single cask and Cask Strength bottlings have garnered worldwide acclaim. Yesterday, I was privileged to be able to try a few spirits from the Lark range at Fine Spirits @ La Maison Du Whisky. It was also a great honour to meet Ross Dinsmoor, the Head of Sales for Lark, who was there to help share information about this distillery as we tried their products. 

As a Whisky lover, naturally I gravitated towards their Single Cask Single Malt Whisky. Like all of their spirits, the whisky is made from 100% local produce, from the barley to the peat, and Ross found it to be one of the most easy drinking whiskies he has tried. I tend to agree with that viewpoint! A Single Cask bottling simply means that all the bottles from a single batch are drawn from one cask of whisky. The result is that bottlings will differ slightly from each other as no casks are entirely different. Lark chooses to use 'quarter casks' that are first-fill Port casks. This means that the casks are significantly smaller than normal casks so a larger amount of whisky is in contact with the wood of the barrel, hence allowing for the influence of the Port Wine and wood to be stronger. Ross also highlighted how the extremities in weather in Tasmania allow for a very dynamic maturation with cycles of expansion and contraction for the whisky in the cask.

Name: Lark Distillery Single Cask Single Malt Whisky (Cask LD111)
Distillery: Lark Distillery
Age Statement: 6 Years
Type: Single Malt (Single Cask)
Alc/Vol: 43%
Vintage: Bottled Feb 10

Nose: Very intriguing and complex. Lovely sweet notes of brown sugar, maple syrup mixed with citrus notes of lemon and orange. A hint of tropical fruit (bananas maybe?), with the aromatic peat subtly influencing proceedings in the background with floral and heather notes. Interesting! (23)

Taste/Palate: The effect of the peat is more prevalent on the palate with a sweet smokiness from the peat along with burnt sugar and maple syrup. The port and wood influences also come out with a nice sweet wine note and a pleasant drying sensation. (22)

Finish: The maple sweetness carries at the end with a touch of spice which is slightly peppery and very pleasant (21)

Overall: A nice pleasant and quite complex dram that is well balanced and extremely easy to drink with no alcohol burn. Not really for those who love their whisky smokey and peaty, and slightly let down by the underwhelming finish, but the nose alone is to die for! (23) 89/100

Found at: La Maison Du Whisky, The Highlander Bar

Also available for tasting were two other of Lark's range of spirits, one was their Pepperberry Gin and the other was a Pepperberry Liqeur. I am no expert on these drinks but I will put some brief notes on them!

Lark Pepperberry Gin:

One little known fact about me is that my second favourite spirit to Whisky is Gin. I love the fragrance of the aromatics that are in Gin and the Lark Pepperberry Gin is extremely fruity and pleasant. This species of Pepperberry, which is indigenous to Tasmania, gives a nice spicy edge to the gin which is really intriguing! Watch this Gin as I think it can give most gins on the market a run for their money!

Lark Pepperberry Liqeur:

The Lark Pepperberry liqeur is a family recipe that has been perfected over the generations. Using the pepperberry as the base and coloured with burnt sugar, it is a sweet rich liqeur full of floral (Jasmine and Lavender) notes, burnt sugar notes (ok that's pretty obvious I know!) and a lovely hint of Gula Melaka. It is also slightly medicinal in flavour and aroma. I really enjoyed this one but it could do with a bit of toning down sweetness-wise so it would be better drunk with some ice, in a cocktail or even used in cooking!

(Note: I have also been told that Lark will be rebranding and repackaging this Liqeur in the coming months: The expected new name of this liqeur would be "TASI".)

All in all it was a great tasting experience with the wonderful expertise of Ross really helping me understand this Australian distillery better. Thanks to La Maison Du Whisky and Ross Dinsmoor for the wonderful afternoon!