Redlands Distillery

Our second day in Hobart, I surprised Drew by taking him to a distillery just outside of town. I had dragged him through enough vineyards and wine tastings on this trip to deserve at least one distillery tour. This place was particularly nice, as it was originally a barley farm run by an English royal, a 3rd illegitimate son or something who had no inheritance rights, so they gave him a farm in Australia to run instead of a country. The buildings were all very old and interesting, and the grounds were quite stunning. 

A clay tennis court! There were a far bit of weeds to disturb play though now. 

Walking around the grounds. 

More roses! They grew in reckless profusion. 

Back in the day, the farm was, of course, run by prisoners. This was one of the prisoner's rooms. Small and dirty, but at least it had a fire place! Beats a cell I suppose. 

Row of prisoner rooms. 

This was a large warehouse where they dried the barely. The circular window held a giant fan to assist in the drying process. 

This was the kitchen (oven), where bread is still baked fresh every morning. Apparently it's one of the oldest kitchens still in use in Australia!

This is the actual distillery. This is one of the few distilleries in the world where everything is done on site, from the growing of the grain, distilling, bottling, aging, everything. The only thing that is brought in is the peat from a different part of Tasmania. They gave us the full tour, letting us try the whiskey at different parts of the process, before aging, after aging etc. The before aging stuff (called white spirits) is knock your socks off strong, but the flavor before you get kicked in the teeth from the high alcohol percentage is actually sweeter (and in my opinion better) than after it is aged! But that's just me. 

All of this alcohol discussion reminds me about another part of the trip. Back in Melbourne, while driving on the Great Ocean Road, I got stopped for my first breathalyzer ever! EVER! I hadn't drank a single thing, but probably still looked very suspicious with my wide eyes of nervousness. It was 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon. They are super serious about drinking and driving in Australia. We got stopped again for another breathalyzer only 3 days later in a different part of Melbourne. No drinking and driving for me!