Van Diemen Distillery belongs to a special order of
oddities.
Our status in the Australian distilling industry is something
akin to the black sheep: unabashedly peculiar and driven by all
manner of bizarre and whimsical notions. We have an inkling this
has something to do with our homeland, Van Diemen's Land, now known
as Tasmania.
During the most recent ice-age (a mere 10,000 odd years ago)
Mother Nature saw it fit to wrench Tassie from the mainland. This
cleaving of the continent had a profound effect on the inhabitants
and landscape. While the rest of the world busied themselves with
an industrial revolution or two, Tasmania remained pristine in its
isolation.
In Tasmania, the air reaches a purity unattainable anywhere else
on the planet. Time (when occasionally observed) unravels at a
snails pace. Pristine rain water collected from the zenith of Cape
Grim, in the remote north east falls abundantly. Van Diemen
Distillery owes its namesake to this untainted and often eccentric
isle.