Originally posted by No Boundaries, below is a launch update on a limited release collaboration with Waubs Harbour Whisky and Lawrenny Estate Distillery. 

Batch 1
500ml | 50.4% ABV | Tasmania, Australia
Only 212 bottles produced.
Non chill-filtered and natural colour.
Port Cask matured.

We have a magical marriage of two distinctive Tasmanian single malt whiskies: one is 100% distilled and matured on the sunny East Coast at Waubs Harbour Distillery, just metres from the ocean and covered in salty air. The other one is 100% distilled and matured in the Central Highlands at Lawrenny Estate Distillery, metres away from the River Ouse, governed by its dry oceanic climate.

Each of these distilleries produce a single malt whisky that has its own unique character that is influenced by its micro climate during maturation, their distilling methods, and their selection of oak casks. Fans of both Lawrenny Estate and Waubs Harbour whiskies will love this blend – the signature styles of both distilleries are immediately recognisable and their flavour profiles completely compliment each other in this marriage.

From Waubs Harbour Distillery:

As Joe from Lawrenny mentioned, I first met him when I was working at Overeem, and we started working together closely. What I liked about Joe’s style is his professional approach to distilling. He is methodical yet balanced in his craft. That’s what makes it so easy to work with Joe as I feel I have a similar approach to the game. It’s pretty easy for us to bounce off one another collectively and not worry about ego to deliver on something great. This led to us to seamlessly working together and forming the No Boundaries project release.

The casks selected: Joe and I chose two amazing, complimentary casks, but what we haven’t mentioned are all the casks we left out. That in itself is a story. Simply put, we aren’t hacks having a go, we both have a lot of bond store experience and can identify key features to whiskies quickly and also understand how two casks may affect one another positively and negatively. I think the proof is in the pudding on this. I know that Todd wouldn’t have bet that we were thinking about two port casks! Neither were we when we started looking. In fact Joe brought up some excellent peated expression and virgin French oak cask amongst others to look at. But it was obvious to us straight away what represented us the best examples for a great blended whisky.

Understanding that this brand encourages something from us both that’s exciting, yet hallmark, that was our aim. Not just a slap together 50:50, a thoughtful balanced experienced approach to whisky making. Once we found the right Lawrenny cask it was all about that accompanying Waubs cask. Again we didn’t think “tawny Port”, we trialled, we found bourbons, we found rich ports, soft ports, ALL the ports. But it worked out that there was one cask type that worked. I think but has a lot to do with complementary mouthfeel, but also it needed to balance the fruit, not overpower it. Joe is correct in his description of the 50;50 ratio where one way to the other overshadows the other. I love the natural ratio because I think it represents the respect that both of the distilleries have for each other, as much as in the whisky as well as in real life.

The DNA of both distilleries: Joe’s spirit at Lawrenny is different to ours at Waubs, structurally, and flavour wise. The barrels were treated differently too. We are using our our experience to overlay the way we approach our normal day to day operations. The best part is how that actually comes across in the final spirit. I think that Joe’s whiskies often have a heightened bouquet, and the spirit we looked at had an amazing profile of mixed berries, and know that it’s not just the cask influence. We can get similar casks at Waubs but we don’t get that level of elegance around those mixed berries. This is attributed to Joe’s techniques. Waubs is different again, aiming more at the classic “Tassie hallmark” of raisins, but focusing our new make spirit (NMS) and barrel choices to favour some coastal brininess with those wood sugars – brown sugars that develop into that salted caramel profile. You have to look closely at the NMS recipe, cask choice and maturation to understand it. Both of us work hard to replicate the sense of province as distillers, that’s for sure The combination of both of our whiskies is an exemplary masterclass of how blending should be done.

Rob Polmear | Head Distiller/Co-Owner at Waubs Harbour Distillery