Promising Tasmanian whisky maker moves after Redlands Estate sale

REDLANDS Estate Distillery has moved from the Derwent Valley to Dysart House in the southern Midlands.

26 Main Street, Kempton. Dysart House. Knight Frank.

REDLANDS Estate Distillery has moved from the Derwent Valley to Dysart House in the southern Midlands.

The famous whisky producer, to be renamed Redlands Distillery, last month announced that it would leave its home of eight years after the sale of the Redlands Estate Property near Plenty.

A spokeswoman for the distillery said they were given very little notice of the move and expressed their disappointment that they had to relocate outside of the area.

“Sadly we couldn’t find any properties that were suitable in the Derwent Valley at such short notice,” she said.

“We are very sad to leave the area as we have made a lot of friends in the Derwent Valley and we hope those friendships can continue even though we will no longer be located there.”

The Redlands Estate property was put on the market in March and sold last month for $3.7 million to an unknown buyer.

Derwent Valley Mayor Martyn Evans said the move was a great loss to the municipality.

“It’s disappointing obviously because the brand and the name had started to get noticed not only around the state but also throughout the world,” he said.

“Tasmanian whisky, being the premium product it is, has everyone wanting to touch and feel it and it’s a product that leads to good tourism numbers, so from an economic growth and tourism perspective it is disappointing that we couldn’t keep them in the Valley.”

Cr Evans said that despite the loss of the distillery from the area he was pleased they had retained the Redlands name.

“The product can still bring people to come and see where Redlands is no doubt for sure,” he said.

“The positives with the name still has people to come and spend days here because that’s where it was initially started and born from.”

He said that with the loss of Redlands the council would try and lure another distillery to the area.

“We will be actively looking to find and encourage people to set up in the Valley because it’s home to some of the cleanest water and freshest air in the world,” he said.