The Rise & Rise of Hellyers Road

Hellyers Road Distillery has had an incredible journey since its somewhat unorthodox beginnings as a dairy co-operative. The foresight of the distillery’s founders means they were soon hitting the ground running by putting down a constant stream of casks in the early years; their bond store is home to the lion’s share of pre-2015 whisky in Australia today.

Hellyers Road has followed in a similar vein to its peer, Sullivans Cove, which was established in 1994 and – to the shock of the world – took out World’s Best Whisky in 2014. Scrupulously perfecting their craft over the past two decades, Hellyers Road is finally in full bloom.

Sullivans Cove has held Australia’s title for ‘most awarded distillery’ at the World Whiskies Awards for almost a decade, but this year Hellyers Road stole the show – and the mantle. Hellyers' barnstorming performance brought home four category gold medal wins, proving that there is a clear contender in town, and Tassie single malt is no one-stop shop.

Arriving on the global stage and producing consistent, award-winning whisky is only possible with a number of years of practical knowledge, methodical learning and meticulous corrections.

The truth is, Hellyers Road has truly charted its own course over the years. Its spirit simply doesn’t reflect the quintessential Aussie style of single malt and never has. Hellyers has never been inclined to emulate its contemporaries. Nestled all the way up on the northwest coast of Tasmania, the natural isolation and little crossover with other distillers and whiskymakers has granted Hellyers Road the ability to make whisky at their own pace. It’s easy to see how everything crafted by them is quite different from the rest of the nation’s whisky industry – while other Aussie distilleries are perfecting the NAS whisky, Hellyers has long been intent on mastering age statement releases.

Even the way the whisky is matured is a point of difference, in proper Scotch-style casks that are full-size to intentionally encourage a slow maturation. Without the heavily malted backbone that Aussie whisky lovers expect to find in their locally made malts, Hellyers is often mistaken for Scotch in blind tastings.

Another real point of difference, however, is the stills. Some might say size doesn’t matter but Hellyers' 60,000L still is one of the biggest in the world; nearly twice the size of any in Scotland. Unusually this is only charged at 40% volume (24,000L). The resulting amount of headspace is enormous, and the slow distillation of 50 hours encourages extreme reflux. These unique points keep the spirit super light and clean with its distinctive notes of tropical fruits. The wonderful top-end, fruity notes produced are exactly what work well in American Oak, Sherry and Port casks over a long period of time, and these higher notes break down in cask superbly over time. Knowing this, it’s easy to understand Hellyers' natural inclination towards releasing age statement single malts.

Slow and steady has been the race, but now the awards are really raking in.

And now, Hellyers have created an incredible batch release exclusively for The Whisky Club.

This is the future of Australian whisky: a landmark vintage release from one of the four founding Aussie distilleries, who just cleaned up at the World Whiskies Awards 2024. Receive this and you could win a luxury Tassie whisky trip, including a 20-year-old bottle to take home.

Hellyers Road Vintage Triple Cask Created Exclusively for the Whisky Club is a vatting of two parcels of casks laid down in 2014 (Sherry and Port) and 2016 (American oak and Port), bottled in 2024 at 48.2% ABV, non-chill filtered and natural colour.

The 2014 portion carries the Hellyers Road orange blossom true-line, while 2016 adds Port-rich nuttiness and cigar box. The nose opens into marmalade, beeswax, plump sultana and nutty nougat. A beautifully balanced palate follows, with seamless flavours of toffee, gingerbread, cinnamon-stewed apricot and a little toasty oak. A waxy drive brings all those rich fruits, spicy oak and savoury sweetness tumbling along wonderfully into a building, white fudge finish.

Members, get extremely excited for Hellyers Road Vintage Triple Cask to hit your doorstep as April’s Whisky of the Month, and start training your index finger to hit the Double Up button fastest on Friday 5 April, as these are served on a first-in, first-served basis.

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