Tin Shed Distilling Company strikes liquid gold

IT only took about six hours for the Tin Shed Distilling Company to sell out of its latest batch of Adelaide made whisky.

22/1/16. The Tin Shed distilling Company just sold its latest two Iniquity releases within hours. One listed by in Jim Murray's international Whisky Bible as liquid gold. They have a new still arriving to enable them to triple production and owners think SA could rival international whisky countries in a few years. Ian Schmidt with a glass of his liquid gold and bottle of Iniquity at the distillery. Pic: Keryn Stevens

IT only took about six hours for the Tin Shed Distilling Company to sell out of its latest batch of Adelaide made whisky.

On the back of another liquid gold rating from international whisky doyen Jim Murray, the third lot of single malt Iniquity to be released within three months cleared at $130 a pop.

Owner and distiller Ian Schmidt said the company had been overwhelmed by demand since its first release in November and would install a new $50,000 still within the next few weeks to triple production.

Its releases in November last year and January this year sold within hours, despite caveats limiting sales to one bottle per customer and all customers having to be registered as a Den of Iniquity member.

“Our problem is making enough, we’ve even got people from France chasing the booze,” Mr Schmidt says from the company’s Welland warehouse.

It’s been a tumultuous time for the business that was first started as Southern Coast Distillers a decade ago after its three original partners met through Rose Park Primary School.

Their first bottles were sold under the southern coast label in 2011 and Jim Murray described their single malt batch 002 as “one of the most astonishing whiskies it has been my honour to taste”.

When a falling out between partners saw its doors close in December 2012, fans kept a watch until two of the original distillers, Ian Schmidt and Victor Orlow, along with their wives, Jacqueline and Rosemary Harvey, began producing whisky again in 2013.

When Tin Shed’s first Batch No 001 was ready for sale in November last year they pounced, and all 100 bottles rapidly sold out.

Mr Schmidt said the demand was helped by a growing interest in Australian whisky. In South Australia alone two more small distilleries were now being established in McLaren Vale and Goolwa.

The Malt Whisky Society of Australia was also based in Adelaide and it was currently lobbying to win the rights to host the World Whisky Conference in Adelaide next year.

At the Tin Shed Distillery, Mr Schmidt said there were plans to one day challenge the famous whisky regions of Scotland with its sought-after drop that is made with distinctive South Australian grain, local peat and Mallee tree stumps for smoking.

First it would ramp up production and the company hoped to move operations to a more prominent regional tourist location during the next two years and to also establish a distillery with solar-powered stills.

And then Mr Schmidt is confident the quality of this new breed of Australian whiskies would shortly take the world by storm, with another release expected in April.

“Some years ago when Australian wine hit the United Kingdom it was seen as being a full-bodied flavour compared to those in Europe,” Mr Schmidt said.

“It’s the same with the whiskies, there’s a lot more character, a lot more body, a lot more punch, it’s got it in spades.”