The thing about Robbie Gilligan, is that it’s never just a quick chat. So over a dram of his outstanding Botrytis Cask, we unpack his proper origin story: a chance meeting on the Gold Coast, a Burns Night haggis in Hobart, and a walk-up introduction to Bill Lark that ended with a job offer.
From there, the conversation moves through Robbie’s apprenticeship at Lark, the grain-to-glass years at Redlands (later Old Kempton), and the batch of botrytis casks nobody else wanted that became his signature release — the one Tash brought home from her last Tasmania trip and now uses as her benchmark for the style. They get properly into the science of it too: why a wine barrel behaves nothing like a spirit barrel, what “the Jerry” (the fog rolling off the mountain behind Derwent’s bond store) is actually doing to alcohol content day to day, and why Robbie thinks the 80/20 barrel-versus-spirit flavour argument has always been the wrong argument.
There’s a proper detour into the history most drinkers don’t know: Tasmania and the mainland states issued the first commercial distilling licences in the English-speaking world under the 1823 Excise Act — years ahead of most of what’s now considered “heritage” Scotch — before Westminster shut the whole industry down in 1838 to protect export sales back home. Robbie picks up that thread as a founding-brand story for Derwent Distillery, named for the second licence ever granted in Tasmania.
Robbie is one of the third-wave of Tasmanian whiskymakers now. Someone who apprenticed and has worked in some of Tassie’s most well regarded brands and is now elevating the category, building on top of everything he’s learned along the way. Robbie’s take on second and third-fill barrels, sustainability certification, and why he thinks Australia and New Zealand deserve their own category on the world stage rounds it out.
Be sure to come back for Pt.2, as we go further into an industry that’s finding it’s legs and building on history.
In this episode:
How a Burns Night haggis and a walk-up meeting with Bill Lark changed the course of Robbie’s life
Grain-to-glass distilling at Redlands/Old Kempton, and what “Team Red” learned the hard way
The Botrytis Cask release: why nobody was using botrytis barrels for whisky, and what nearly went wrong
Texture and mouthfeel as the real signature of a spirit, not tasting-note flavour lists
“The Jerry”: how daily fog cycles at Derwent’s site are doing the maturation work usually credited to “terroir”
Tasmania’s forgotten first: the 1823 Excise Act, the world’s earliest commercial distilling licences, and the 1838 shutdown
Robbie’s case for Australia and New Zealand as their own recognised whisky region
100% recycled glass, rainwater, solar power, and winning Australia’s Clean Conscience sustainability award two years running
