AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST EVER RYE WHISKY
July 2026
Belgrove 10 Year Old Ex-Heartwood Cask Burgundy Finish
Created Exclusively for The Whisky Club
This history-making single cask is Australia’s oldest rye whisky release ever; a phenomenal feat from Tasmania’s fully paddock-to-bottle distillery. Belgrove and The Whisky Club are proud to bring this exclusively to Club Members.
Australian
Colour
Polished teakNose
Fresh peach and nectarine with orange blossom and buttery biscuits.Palate
Red berries, caramel and white chocolate at first, then sweet spice, orange and apricot cover the palate.What makes this whisky so special
Australia’s oldest rye release EVER just landed. This is Aussie whiskymaking history.
Arriving at full throttle, Belgrove’s first 10-year-old also smashes the record for oldest Australian rye whisky ever – and what a whisky to do it with.
An explosion of red berries, caramel and orange blossom intermingle with buttery biscuits and a long, sweet spice that goes for lightyears, it’s much too delicious to just be a collector’s item.
The initial maturation was in an ex-Heartwood cask (from their Port-heavy ‘The Lost Convict’ release) for six and half years, before then being given a full four-year second maturation in a 2nd-fill French oak Burgundy barrique. Finally bottled at a colossal 64.6% ABV – non-chill filtered, no colour added – at 10 and a half years old, this 100% rye single cask is not holding back.
For those not familiar with Belgrove’s unorthodox whiskymaking practices, this distillery is founded and run by Peter Bignell from his farm in the Tasmanian Midlands. Peter grows all his rye on the farm, hand-built his own custom copper pot still, and processes all his own grain on site in various home-made contraptions. There’s nothing this man can’t do.
A decade-old single barrel rye would see a price tag of over $400 here in Australia if it’d been made in the United States. Luckily, this local Aussie 10-year-old landed at the Club for good value: only $195 for a 500ml bottling.
Created exclusively for The Whisky Club, there were only 200 bottles available as a mid-month surprise for Club Members.
If you’re not a Member yet, join FREE today.
The Specs
- Price
- $195.00
- Age
- 10 Years Old
- ABV
- 64.6%
- Maturation
- Initial maturation in an ex-Heartwood cask (The Lost Convict) for six and half years, with a four-year second maturation in a 2nd-fill French oak Burgundy barrique (Chênes De Bourgogne).
- Country
- Australia
Belgrove’s History
Tasmania’s Belgrove Distillery is truly a special place, and Peter Bignell is a very special whisky maker. Bignell built the world’s greenest distillery in 2010, but what makes it the greenest in the world, you ask?
The distillery is zero waste and operates on a closed-loop system. In fact, the only thing that Bignell brings into the process is used cooking oil to make biofuel - but even that comes from the roadhouse just next-door to the distillery.
The biofuel plays a big part at Belgrove Distillery; it direct fires still, heats the water and also runs the tractors, forklift and other machinery on the property. Cooling water comes from the dam, and water waste is used for irrigation—often on the rye crop (of course he grows his own rye). And the spent mash is fed to the sheep.
Belgrove’s grain is grown on-site, and then it’s harvested and stored late in the summer. From there, the grain’s malted, mashed, fermented and double distilled in his handmade and repurposed equipment. Malting is done in a repurposed laundromat tumble dryer, and the 500-litre copper pot still was built by Peter himself.
For Bignell, making whisky is a hands-on process - one that requires the senses to manipulate every step of the way, as he monitors and tweaks according to his eye, nose and tastebuds.
A visit to Belgrove should be on every whisky-lovers bucket list, a remarkable distillery run by a remarkable man.
Distillery Facts
- Region
- Tasmania
- Origin
- Belgrove Distillery - 3121 Midland Hwy, Kempton TAS 7030
- Founded
- 2010
- Water source
- Rainwater
- Stills
- 1, hand-built from scratch
Member reviews
Here’s what’s coming up for Members
THE OLDEST EVER 100% ISLAY BARLEY BATCH
November 2026 Whisky of the Month
Bruichladdich Islay Barley Unpeated 14 Year Old, Club Exclusive Batch
The oldest ever 100% Islay barley Bruichladdich batch is coming, and Members of the Club get it before anyone else in the world. “This is Bruichladdich at its absolute peak.” Unpeated, 14 years old, made entirely using the rare remnants of 2011’s vintage stocks.
