Lark Distillery Single Malt Whiskies - Wine & Spirits Magazine

Spirits Reviews

Lark Distillery Single Malt Whiskies

review by lbustamante • January 16, 2013

While enjoying a glass of Scotch whisky surrounded by Georgian buildings, barley fields, peat bogs and the so spring water of the Clyde River in the highlands of Tasmania, Bill Lark wondered why no one was making single malt whisky nearby. The climate and natural resources were all there, so in 1992, Lark opened a distillery. The barley is lightly peat smoked, with both grain and peat harvested in Tasmania. Aged for about eight years in 100-liter used Port barrels, the Single Cask blooms with green pears, brown sugar and pecans, while the Distiller’s Selection leans more rum-like with caramel and walnut sweetness. The Cask Strength, complex with floral vanilla and mineral molasses aromas and full of dark fruit and yeasty flavors, inspires the question, “Why am I just now tasting Tasmanian whisky?”

Spirits Type:

Whiskey

ABV:

Single Cask Malt Whisky, 43%; Distiller’s Selection, 46%; Cask Strength, 58%

Importer:

The Marsalle Co., Franklin Park, IL

Price:

$150 (Malt Whisky); $170 (Distiller’s Selection);
$220 (Cask Strength)

This story appears in the print issue of February 2013.
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TAGS Spirits Reviews W&S February 2013 Whiskey

David Paradela
Associate Editor

David joined Wine & Spirits in 2021 after immersing himself in the world of wine at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally from Boston, he graduated from Boston University with a degree in English and completed a master’s degree in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College in 2021. Prior to working at the magazine, he served as an editor and staff writer for the music blog Sound of Boston and worked in scientific publishing. Aside from wine, he loves basketball, arguing about Taylor Swift’s best album, and everything Greta Gerwig touches.

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Tastings Editor

Corey Warren moved to New York in 2015—fifteen years too late to join The Strokes—after earning a degree at Cornell in Comparative Literature. He started polishing glasses at Betony and threw himself into the restaurant world. Later, while a captain at Aquavit, he began working part time in the Wine & Spirits tasting department. Now, in addition to running tastings, he serves as critic for the wines of the Loire, Southern France, Argentina and South Africa. Corey likes almost anything bubbly, from Miller High Life, the Champagne of beers, to Champagne, the Champagne of Champagne, but he’ll drink anything once, and loves finding unique wines.

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Senior Correspondent

After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.