Only three bottles of award-winning Sullivans Cove whisky left

THE world’s best whisky is a sought-after tipple, with only three bottles of the Tasmanian liquid gold remaining.

Sullivans Cove Whisky distillery co-owner Patrick Maguire with team members Patrick Trent

THE world’s best whisky is a sought-after tipple, with only three bottles of the award-winning Tasmanian liquid gold remaining.

Sullivans Cove French Oak Cask has won World’s Best Single Malt Whisky at the prestigious World Whisky Awards in London.

“It’s a pretty major thing for a small Tasmanian business like us,” distillery co-owner Patrick Maguire said.

Just 516 bottles of the prized whisky were distilled in barrel HH525. Originally retailing at $160 a bottle, the remaining stock will not be let go at a similar price tag.

The World Whisky Awards are traditionally dominated by Scottish and Japanese distilleries. Mr Maguire said it was a pleasant surprise to take out the top prize.

“I would say, going by distilleries who have won this award in the past, there’s going to be a huge surge in demand, no question,” he said.

Mr Maguire said they used old-fashioned, tried and true distilling methods.

“From our barrels that we’re bottling from now, there are 300 litre bottles. They’ve taken 13 to 14 years to really mature well so we’re at a point where these barrels are peaking. They’re producing good flavours, they’ve lost their volatility. It’s just a beautiful, easy whisky to drink.”

About 20 per cent of Sullivans Cove’s sales are export.

“We’ve currently got about 14 different export markets and we’ve just this week signed up a German importer and we’re in the process of signing up a Russian one as well,”