The Year That Was and Our Best Wishes For 2016

We look back on 2015 (with Martini in hand) with great fondness. The start of that year had us pouring over business plans and gin recipes; debating bottle designs and labels.  We were also often standing on a vacant site, waiting for the distillery building to be erected.  

When we weren't doing those things we were haunting the talented team at Knapp Lewer who were working on our still or asking questions of two of the most generous blokes around, Bill Lark and William McHenry.  Although busy with their own distilleries they were always there with a word of encouragement or a bit of invaluable assistance for which we will forever be grateful.

Brad Grattidge at Rayburn Farm where we are situated managed to instil a farmer's patience into us as we became frustrated with delays.  (We are looking forward to letting you know about some exciting things happening on Rayburn that will add to the experience of visiting us.)

With the building done and our shining copper still (affectionately named Pandora) in place and all the other equipment moved in we then chewed our nails to the quick waiting for our Licence to Manufacture Alcohol to be granted.

From that date it has been exhilarating (and at times terrifying) as we firstly released our Sloe Gin to wonderful reviews and comments.  

Then the 2015 Sloe harvest was upon us so there was no time for anything other than making the gin needed to be infused with that fruit.  

July, and being a part of the Sorell RSL's fund-raising for Give Me Five For Kids was great as was our participation in another local fund-raiser held at Rayburn Farm.

October saw us take Nonesuch Distillery 'on the road' to the Bream Creek Farmers Market. We really enjoy this once a month event and have been overwhelmed by the interest in what we do, how we do it and of course the interest in sampling the products too.

November saw the release of our exclusive and amazing Sloe Malt. 

We rounded out the year with the release of our Dry Gin which, like the other products, has been praised by those who have tried it.

We have been visited by lovely people from all around Tasmania and all the other States and the ACT as well as from USA, Canada, New Zealand, India, England, Ireland, The Philippines and Poland.

It has been a wonderful year that saw us go from that vacant site at the start of 2015 to a fully functioning distillery at the end of it, and we thank you for your interest in Nonesuch Distillery.  

We are going into 2016 full of excitement as we start the process of filtering and then bottling our next batch of Sloe Gin.

Batch 1 has been a great hit and we are almost a bit sad watching the last few bottles leave the distillery.  However we are equally impressed with the quality of Batch 2.  

There will always be some slight variation in batches as the sloes will differ slightly depending on the weather conditions during their growth.  But as we carefully select the sloes, pick at the optimum time and from the same localities the variation will be minimal. 

The taste profile continues our commitment to celebrate the fruit in this drink.  Batch 2 again has caught the dryness and slight astringency from the sloes while embracing the smoothness and creamy mouth-feel of our Dry Gin. 

The potential harvest of sloes in 2016 is looking good.  There was an initial proliferation of flowers and the mild spring weather saw the buds set well.  Now the small green fruit is appearing and the quantity and quality appear on par with 2014; a year that delivered excellent fruit.

We hope you have a great 2016 and we look forward to bringing you more of the products you enjoy now, along with an exciting new product in early 2016.