Duckett’s key to whisky success is to keep it simple

TASMANIAN independent bottler Tim Duckett, maker of Heartwood whiskies, says keeping it simple is his guiding principle.

Key is to keep it simple

ALL brontosauruses are thin at one end, much, much thicker in the middle and then thin again at the far end. Those in the know will recognise this line from Monty Python. The sketch is a parody on how simple things can become unnecessarily complicated.

Tasmanian independent bottler Tim Duckett, of Heartwood whiskies, says avoiding that trap is his guiding principle.

Those in the know will also know Duckett is making some of the world’s best whiskies, each of them different, in highly limited releases (about 100 bottles).

The Hobart-based North-West farmer’s son has a day job in the environmental realm.

“So I don’t have a commercial driver and I can spend more time with my whiskies,” he says. “My driver is to produce whiskies that consistently score highly, although they are all completely different.”

Heartwood has six “liquid gold” ratings in the Jim Murray Whisky Bible, four of them this year. Heartwood is white-hot and eminently collectible.

Punters keep an eye out on social media for news of a release and then pounce. National and international buyers are regularly raiding Duckett for complete sellouts.

Imagine if you will, a great composer working in North Hobart, selling scores just for fun and you’ll get a whisky-world equivalent of Duckett and Heartwood.

Cartoonist and whisky fan Jon Kudelka drew the label for one of his latest expressions, Spiritual Journey, featuring a brontosaurus.

It represents Duckett’s key to whisky-making – body shape. “How it travels through the mouth,” he says.

“Brontosauruses are thin at one end, with a head and long neck leading to a big body that trails away to a long tail. When blending, bourbon barrels give the head; sherries and ports the body; and peat gives you the tail – and that gives you your brontosaurus. I’m a simple thinker.”

Of course, Spiritual Journey and its fellow new offering Dregs Volume 1, have sold out.

“Always carry a flagon of whisky in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.” —merc W. C. Fields

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