Furneaux Distillery

Ok, first off, I know the blog is called ‘Cory Loves Beer’. But fun fact, Cory also loves whisky. So just for this one time, and one time only, let’s just pretend the blog is called ‘Cory Loves Beer AND Whisky’. Trust me, Furneaux Distillery on Flinders Island is worth it.

In my last post, I wrote about the King Island Brewhouse. That one was a brewery that happened to be on an island I was going to visit which I figured would be a great stop. But I didn’t really know much about it beforehand. That’s not the case with Furneaux Distillery. I already knew their stuff well and had a bottle of their whisky in my cabinet at home. So I was well aware of how awesome they were and already had a tour of the distillery booked.

As with King Island, before I get into the actual visit, I just want to take a moment to talk about Flinders Island itself. Holy crap is that place amazing. Jagged mountains shooting up from the ocean. Wild waves crashing onto giant orange rocks. It has such an ends-of-the-earth type feel to it. And I absolutely love it. Go if you ever have the chance. I will definitely be back.

Anyway, on to the distillery. Flinders Island only has about 900 people on it. And only a couple of actual towns. And Furneaux Distillery is not in either of those. It’s off on it’s own about halfway up the west coast of the island. So at about 2pm on a Friday afternoon, we drove into the gravel driveway on the windswept coast and pulled up to a large metal building.

I’m not gonna lie, I was a little bit giddy walking in. Furneaux Distillery is a place that makes something I love, in a rugged, beautiful place way off the beaten track. And I was walking in the front door.

When you walk in that door, you’re greeted by a gorgeous tasting room that’s all wood paneling with a great bar. There’s also huge windows looking out over both the farm where they grow their grain, some of the nearby outlying islands, and the Bass Strait beyond. Sitting at that bar, looking out over that wild landscape, sheltered from the howling winds outside, with a series of great whiskies in front of me is just about as good as it gets.

But before we got to sampling time, we had a tour to do. We were greeted at the door by the inimitable Cass. She took us around where all the magic happens and enthusiastically explained how everything works. Which was awesome because my whisky knowledge (much like my beer knowledge) resides solidly on the ‘demand’ side of the equation. I have (or had) very little knowledge of how the supply works other than that is involved a bunch of cool looking equipment that resembles giant brass chemistry sets.

It was a pretty cool process. And it was great to be able to wander around their awesome new set up. The Furneaux Distillery had only recently relocated from their previous location at the wharf in the island’s main town of Whitemark. The new digs aren’t only really cool, but now they’re actually on the farm where the grain is grown. In fact, they’re working on bringing the entirety of the whisky producing process onto the property. From growing the grain, to distilling the whisky, to aging in the barrels, to peating the malt (more on that later). They’re even looking at being able to do their own coopering on site.

But now, most importantly, it was time for the tasting. I’d had the non-peated Sawyers Bay whisky before and loved it (that’s what’s currently sitting in my cabinet at home). But I hadn’t tried the gin or the peated varieties.

In general I’m not a huge peat fan. I love all the subtleties of a nice whisky but I find that sometimes the peat can conceal a lot of that with a mouthful of smoke. But the the Flinders Island Peated whisky is brilliant. The smokiness is not overpowering and compliments the flavours of the whisky rather than becoming the flavour of the whisky. And even cooler is the fact that the peat they use is actually found on Flinders Island itself. It’s from the eastern side of the island so technically not from the farm itself, but I think that still counts.

They also have the very cool ‘Smoky Wedding’ whisky that has malt peated with both Flinders Island peat and Scottish peat. They actually ship their malt over to Scotland to be peated there as it’s illegal to ship soil (which is essentially what peat is) internationally.

I still favour the non-peated whiskies myself. But the Flinders Island and Smoky Wedding were easily my favourite two peated whiskies I’ve ever had. The tasting overall was awesome. Even the gin was top notch. And we got to sample some that was from the archives and no longer for sale. Which was a bummer because that stuff was absolutely brilliant.

And through the process, Cass talked us through not only the whiskies we were drinking, but also the plans for future non-whisky drams like limoncello, grapefruitcello, basically all the cellos. Which she can experiment with because she’s living the dream and working at a distillery!

After the tasting, one of the brewers Haydn arrived back and offered to tack us up to see the bond store. We didn’t need to be asked twice. So we walked up the gravel path to a metal shed. And Hayden opened the roller door to reveal a whisky wonderland.

Inside were barrels of all sizes from wall to wall. All of the future generations of Furneaux whisky lined up, slowly but surely maturing in their barrels. It was a really cool thing to see. Hayden even offered to let me sample some of the whisky that was almost ready. I did my best to play it cool and not shout out ‘Yes please!’ before he had even finished his sentence. As per the photo below, I think I handled it pretty well.

It was so cool just to be in that room, surrounded by barrel upon barrel of future whisky while sipping a sample of the golden liquid. And all of that on the grounds of an awesome distillery on an island with wild, ends-of-the-earth vibes. It was one of my coolest experiences I can remember.

There was still more to come though. Hayden took us around the side of the bond store to show us a batch of malt that was currently mid-peating. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not the hugest fan of peated whisky, but getting to see the process happening behind the scenes was awesome. And I’m not gonna lie, the smell was amazing.

Eventually we walked back to the main building and tasting room, still glowing from the overall experience (as well as the whisky consumed). And to cap off an already amazing visit, when we got back to the tasting room, there was one more highlight in store. My good mate and master of all things whisky Mitch had got in touch with Furneaux Distillery ahead of our visit (because of course he already knew them). And he had arranged for a special surprise for it. I won’t go into the details of it, but suffice to say, Mitch is awesome.

The trip to Flinders Island was absolutely phenomenal. And the visit to Furneaux Distillery kicked it all off. It was the perfect start to an amazing trip. I know Flinders Island is a bit off the beaten track. But if you have the chance to go, I can’t recommend it highly enough. And make sure that if you do, Furneaux Distillery is on your list.

But if you can’t make it that far but you do like a whisky, ordering yourself a bottle of Flinders Island’s finest is a pretty good consolation prize.