22-05-2025
'Malty richness': Tasmania's first ever bourbon 'whiskey' released, as well as sought-after Kentucky tipple
An American investment banker who was raised in a winemaking family in California has released Tasmania's first bourbon-style whiskey at Rosevears in the Tamar Valley.
Justin Turner had planned to build his whiskey distillery in the US, but all that changed when he fell head over heels in love with Taswegian Sarah-Jayne Hall.
Ms Hall was working as a corporate lawyer in New York when their paths crossed on St Patrick's Day in 2012.
Mr Turner, a financier and German language scholar, was working at the big end of town valuing multi, multimillion dollar assets like ports, water utilities and transport infrastructure when he proposed.
He said he had his 'epiphany' when visiting Ms Hall's parents in Tasmania.
Overcome by its raw beauty of the southern state he decided to exit the hurly-burly of high finance where he spent 14 years.
A quieter life newlyweds made their headquarters, Turner Stillhouse, in a disused barrel room beside Tamar Ridge winery, 18km northwest of Launceston, in 2018.
They installed a 3,000-litre copper hybrid still they imported from Oregon and began making gin under the Rosevears label to pay the Mr Turner says his first love remains whiskey.
He spells it with the 'e'.
Here is a good time to point out that whiskey in America and Ireland is spelt with an 'e' and while Australia, Scotland, Canada, and Japan spell whisky without the 'e'.
'Whiskey is my passion. That is why I started the distillery,' he said.
He has just released Rosevears Tasmanian Three Grain Whiskey and Rosevears Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky (each $179).
The Three Grains is made from corn, rye and barley, all grown in Tassie.
The corn delivers the sweetness, the rye the spice and the barley the malty richness.
Mr Turner said the firm's Three Cuts Gin ($80) remained the distillery's flagship brand.
More than 15,600 km away in Kentucky, another special bourbon was released.
Wild Turkey Jimmy Russell's 70th Anniversary eight-year-old bourbon ($135) pays homage to the man they call the 'Buddha of Bourbon', said to be the longest-tenured and active master distiller in the world.
Jimmy Russell is 91 and still turns up at the distillery at Lawrenceburg Kentucky (population 12,112) to offer advice and welcome tourists.
'He still comes out to our visitors centre at least two or three days a week to talk to our visitors, swirl and sip, and sign bottles," said his son Eddie Russell, 65, also a master distiller.
'He doesn't get around too good anymore, but you cannot keep him away from the distillery.
'All up, one and a half million tourists visit Kentucky each year to taste bourbon. We do over 100,000 tourists at our distillery.'
There are 35 distilleries producing hundreds of bourbons on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
The Buddha of Bourbon said in a statement he has not lost his passion for bourbon.
'I've never worked a day in my life,' he said. 'The day I do, I'll retire. Until then, I'll keep making the bourbon I love.'
Australia has overtaken Japan as Wild Turkey's biggest export market, Eddie Russell said in a phone interview.
He is a regular Down Under, hosting bourbon dinners in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adalaide.
They invariably sell out.
'There is an Aussie Wild Turkey Collectors' Club, and they are a great bunch of people,' Mr Russell said.
I found the new Wild Turkey release one of the best bourbons I have tasted and I'm sure bourbon aficionados will swoon over it.
It is a fandango of aromas and flavours.
It begins with fragrances of honey, oak, cinnamon, and tobacco and is followed by flavours of vanilla, butterscotch, sweet cream, cherries, spice and rich chocolate.
Don't drink it, sip it, says Jimmy. Slowly.
