Tasmanian whisky distillery Sullivans Cove won’t be rushed despite overwhelming demand
A Tasmanian whisky distiller has developed a ballot system to manage the frenzied demand for its award-winning product.
Hobart distillery Sullivans Cove may have received the award for the world’s best single malt whisky three times and sparked such demand that its whiskies sell out online in minutes, despite the fact that the least expensive bottle retails for nearly $300. The distillery only releases a few hundred bottles at a time, a few times per year, and its range of French oak and American oak whiskies are consistently considered the best in their class globally.
The whisky reseller market is currently the fastest growing there is – ahead of sneakers or cars. The trend has created an insatiable customer demand for Sullivans Cove products, with super-fans snapping up every new release from what is one of the nation’s oldest distilleries. But head distiller Heather Tillot will not be rushed.
“We’re not about speeding things up,” she says. “We’re not about slathering technology over everything to make things easier for ourselves. What we want is the ultimate flavour, and we’re happy to go slow to get there. In this day and age when everything is so instant, we are seeing a swing back towards authenticity and rawness and realness. And that’s how we do things.”
The distillery is caught in something of a tricky spot, both wanting to get its whiskies in the hands of the many people who will enjoy them – and out of the hands of scalpers and resellers – while maintaining an air of exclusivity.
Demand for Sullivans Cove whiskies has grown every year for the past decade, according to Melburnian Adam Sable, a former commercial lawyer and now Sullivans Cove chief executive. Sable took charge of the 30-year-old Sullivans Cove brand in 2017 amid its rapid rise in popularity and takes his stewardship of the brand very seriously.
“Every time we think things can’t get any crazier, they do,” he says. “It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem. We’ve tried a number of different methods of grappling with that ever-growing demand. In recent years we have limited sales to one bottle per person, and only to our mailing list members as well as the cellar door. We’re now using a ballot system in partnership with a technology company to weed out bots; there were some people setting up bots to try to buy as many bottles as they could and then selling them for four or five times the price. That stuff pisses me off.”
Sullivans Cove’s ballot system, developed in partnership with software company EQL, means that 80 per cent of sales go to unique individuals, and that less of the company’s whiskies are hitting the secondary market than otherwise would.
“We don’t make whisky to sit on the shelf, we make it to be enjoyed and appreciated,” Tillot says. “Of course it’s really lovely to see the whisky appreciated from the perspective of collectors, but the ballot system we have means as many people as possible are getting to try our whiskies, and then people who come to the cellar door can come here and enjoy that experience too.”
The rarity associated with other products, such as sneakers, is an artificial rarity, Sable says, given a company such as Nike could decide tomorrow to make 10,000 pairs of a rare sneaker drop, for example.
Sullivan’s Cove whiskies take on average 15 years to produce, giving the products an exclusivity that is very real.
“It’s not rarity for the sake of it,” he says. “It just so happens the ballot system is the best way for us to get our whiskies into the right hands, but it’s not about creating hype. Far from it.” Sullivan’s Cove shocked the whisky world in 2014 when it first won the title of world’s best single malt whisky. Its French oak was awarded the world’s best single malt at the World Whiskies Awards, and it is still the only Australian whisky ever to win world’s best.
“That award changed everything,” Sable says. “The spotlight was put on us in a significant way. We were gaining some accolades up until that point, but this was the big gong that everyone is going for. And it changed the landscape for us, and for Tasmanian, and Australian, whisky.”
The award came amid a global shift in understanding what whisky is, Sable says, from a spirit made in Scotland to something that could be made anywhere in the world, and in some cases be even superior to the spirits coming out of Scotland.
“It was like a tsunami was released,” Tillot says. “2014 was a watershed moment, not just for Sullivan’s Cove but for Australian whisky. And the fact we were able to win best craft distillery this year proved it wasn’t just a fluke. We are now undeniably in the conversation for the world’s best whiskies. We don’t make whisky for the awards, but it’s nice to have the global validation and for others to appreciate what we’re doing.”
As for what makes Sullivans Cove different, Tillot uses the word terroir, the term that encompasses the environmental factors that affect a crop’s phenotype, including unique contexts, farming practices and a crop’s specific growth habitat.
Tillot thinks of it in terms of the location, the practices, and the people that surround the whisky and are then represented in the final product.
“You can have two different winemakers walk into a vineyard and do the same thing and the wine will be completely different,” she says. “It’s the soul. It’s a human element, it’s how we are as a team and our culture, and how we interact with the liquid. “I know it sounds eccentric but you put a little bit of your soul into it, and all of the spirits, wines and cheeses in the world have that. When they’re made by good people and good teams who are happy and work well together and are invested emotionally and passionate, you can sense it. And I know that’s true for us too.”
Sullivans Cove treats its whisky on a barrel-by-barrel basis, in comparison to a larger distillery that might use food colouring to get each bottle to look the same, or chill filtering to rid their whiskies of a hazy texture.
Each of its whiskies are double distilled in Sullivans Cove’s Tasmanian-built pot still – affectionately known as Myrtle – before being aged in either 200L American oak former bourbon barrels, or 300L French oak barrels used to mature Australian tawny port-style wine, for a period generally between nine and 18 years.
In what is a decidedly unscientific process, after the first decade or so the distillery’s tasting team take sips from their various barrels every few weeks, not releasing a whisky for public consumption until each taster can unanimously declare it ready.
Despite the accolades and what might be a temptation to keep things as they are, the Sullivans Cove team have their eyes firmly on the future. They’re looking ahead to a new distillery site, which has just received a tick of approval from city council, with construction set to commence later this year.
The new site, designed by John Wardle Architects, will be far bigger than its current Cambridge headquarters, which opened in 2004, and will boast a new larger visitors’ centre and distillery room, along with a restoration of the 100-year-old Drill Hall. Myrtle will be somehow transported over there too.
“We’ve taken an approach that is not unlike the way that they make their whisky,” Wardle says. “Their process of making has been a constant reference throughout all of our design discussions. There have been many fascinating conversations that have caused us to know much more about whisky and the wonderful group at Sullivans Cove to become entertained by architecture.
“We were presented with an exciting proposition in a remarkable location – boasting history, landscape and expansive river frontage. The historic Drill Hall will contain the many visitor experiences, while a new companion hall of innovative timber construction will house all of the distillery processes.
“We imagine that this will bring new life back to Huon Quays.”
Sable describes the move as a homecoming. “It’s Sullivans Cove returning to Sullivans Cove,” he says. “It’s one of the closest buildings to where the brand started back in the old gasworks site almost 30 years ago. “When I got involved with the business it was always the vision that whenever we found the right site and had the right opportunity to relocate, it would allow us to create a brand experience that better reflects who we are, and where we sit from a global perspective as well. It helps underpin this next phase, the next 30 years or so of Sullivans Cove, and it is going to be somewhere that Tasmanians can be really proud of.”
For Tillot, perfection remains elusive, and that remains true regardless of the physical site in which she produces Sullivans Cove whiskies.
“We are Australia’s oldest modern-day commercial distillery, so we have the benefit of all of those years of experience that we can use to make better calls about fun exciting things in the future,” she says.
“What we’ve gone through in the past few years is a real maturing; in many ways, we’ve grown up. “Our barrels go through a maturation. We send them off to uni and kick them out of the house, and we’ve been through that process as well. We’re just continuing further down the path we’re on and pursuing this elusive, perfect single cask.”
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