Shene Estate Distillery

In the Derwent Valley, twenty-five kilometres north of Hobart, the Shene Estate spreads across land that has witnessed two centuries of Tasmanian ambition. Here, where convict-built stone walls still mark property lines and the Southern Ocean's winds carry salt across rolling paddocks, David and Anne Kernke saw possibility in 2006. Their vision extended beyond the historic homestead to something Tasmania had never attempted: triple-distilled single malt whisky.

When Damien Mackey arrived in 2015, he brought Irish heritage to Tasmanian terroir. The merger of his Mackey brand with the Kernke's estate created something unprecedented—a distillery that would honour Celtic tradition while embracing the island's fierce climate and pristine water. The estate's own spring, filtered through ancient Tasmanian rock, would feed four copper pot stills arranged in ascending precision: a 4,500-litre wash still giving way to a 2,000-litre first spirit still, then a 1,100-litre second spirit still, with a compact 300-litre gin still completing the quartet.

The brewing hall houses eight 7,500-litre stainless steel fermenters alongside a 5,000-litre mash tun, equipment scaled for Tasmania's boutique approach to whisky-making. Here, in a land where extreme temperature swings accelerate maturation and the Southern Hemisphere seasons flip tradition upside down, triple distillation creates something distinctly Antipodean yet unmistakably Celtic in its bones.

The stillhouse hums with controlled intensity, copper gleaming under Tasmanian light that seems sharper, cleaner than anywhere else. Steam rises from the stills in precise rhythm, each distillation stripping away impurities while building complexity. This is whisky-making with an Irish bent but Tasmanian soul—patient triple distillation meeting the island's urgent climate.

When Lark Distilling Co. recognised Shene's potential in 2021, paying up to forty million dollars for the operation, they weren't just acquiring stills and fermenters. They were investing in Tasmania's expanding reputation, in the island's ability to produce world-class whisky that speaks of place as much as process.

The estate continues its patient work, triple-distillation creating spirits that will mature in warehouses where Antarctic winds and summer heat conspire to age whisky at nature's own accelerated pace.