Shene Cognac Release Whisky Review!

A very tasty cognac cask-finished single malt from one of Tasmania's lesser-known distilleries, that along with the entire Shene Estate is now part of the "Lark Distilling Co." empire since its sale (for $40-million AUD) in October 2021. 

Shene Distillery, a.k.a. Shene Estate, is a relatively small distillery located in the small town of Pontville, Tasmania, which is around 35-minutes north from the state capital of Hobart. The distillery may be small, but as you can see from the above photo the estate's main building looks more like a medieval castle than a distillery - although funnily enough that main building pictured was essentially the estate's stables! While some casks are being stored in the lower levels of the main building which now mainly serves as a wedding & function venue, production takes place in a purpose-built timber-cladded barn adjacent to the main "castle", with the visitor's centre and shop located in a smaller but much older sandstone barn, all on the grounds of the estate in Pontville. The original buildings date back to 1851, when the estate itself - which is even older than that - measured a whopping 22,000 acres or roughly 89 square kilometres. It's now a more modest 40 acres. Like many of the early colonial buildings in Tasmania - known as Van Diemen's Land at the time - they were built by convict labour using local sandstone. The distillery itself was only established in 2013, and initially produced the Mackey brand of whisky named after founder & distiller Damian Mackey, who had first begun making whisky in northern Hobart in 2007 before joining forces with the then-owners of the Shene Estate, and expanding and shifting operations to the Pontville site roughly five years later. The main point of difference with Mackey's whisky is that it was triple distilled, and to my knowledge this is still the only Australian distillery to date that has released a 100% triple distilled single malt whisky. Supposedly this point of difference stemmed from Damian Mackey's Irish heritage, but more importantly it also gives the brand an actual point of difference in local terms, where many of the Tasmanian distilleries are still using (or outright copying, in some cases) the blueprints first laid out by the great Bill Lark, the godfather of the Tasmanian whisky industry, over twenty years ago. Further to that difference, Mackey whisky is also made using Brewer's yeast, and is using Tasmanian barley which is milled, mashed, fermented and distilled on-site at the distillery - which unfortunately is not a requirement for Australian single malt whisky, and many other distilleries in Tasmania are sourcing their wash from local breweries rather than fermenting at the distillery - a practice referred to by some as "beer boiling". 

Fast-forward to late 2018 and the Shene Estate now has its own cooperage, founded & owned by Sydney property developer John Ibrahim who is heavily invested in the industry in Tasmania, was also involved with Old Kempton Distillery, and has since built his own operation, Callington Mill Distillery. Known as Tasmanian Tiger Cooperage, the cask company imports and re-coopers casks into various sizes that are then either sold to the wider Australian whisky & spirits industry or are used by Shene Distillery and Callington Mill which is located in Oatlands, north-east of Shene Estate. Speaking of which, Ibrahim's new operation at Callington Mill is reportedly planning to be massive by Australian malt whisky standards - with a maximum capacity of over 400,000 litres of spirit per annum, which is inline with the production at Melbourne's Starward, one of the country's biggest players. **Edit: apparently that figure is out of date and Starward's output is considerably higher now** But somebody else has plans to eclipse both of those outputs. Lark Distilling Co. has plans to build a 1-million litre distillery, also in Pontville - right on the grounds of the Shene Estate, in fact. Which brings me to my next digression. As mentioned above "Lark Distilling Co.", the ASX-listed corporation previously known as Australian Whisky Holdings and the Australian whisky equivalent of the Galactic Empire, has now added the Shene Estate and Shene Distillery to its list of conquests. I wonder if they're going to call that massive new distillery "The Death Star"? Might as well! As far as I can tell their purchase of the estate & distillery did not include the aforementioned cooperage, which I believe is still located at the estate post-sale, although I could be wrong there. Interestingly, if you care to read some of the press releases regarding the Lark Distilling Co purchase of Shene - many of which include a direct quote from their CEO (who is quite possibly a Sith lord) about how much money they make by buying mature whisky at $49 AUD a litre and then re-selling it for $216 AUD a litre. Will they then be selling Shene / Mackey whisky under the Lark label in the very near future, like they already do with their stock of Nant and Overeem whisky? I hope I'm wrong, but after reading those quotes I'd all but guarantee it. I've written plenty about those practices here, as have others such as this article from Whisky & Wisdom, so I'd encourage you to read those posts if you'd like more information on this & other recent dark side tactics from the Empire. Sorry, I mean Lark Distilling Co.! 

Now you may notice from the title & description above, and the photos above & below, that this particular whisky is only labelled as Shene, not as Mackey. That's because this bottling is a mix of both double-distilled spirit (which is a new venture for Shene) and triple-distilled spirit, and the Mackey brand is currently reserved for the distillery's triple-distilled whisky - this particular whisky is still a single malt though since it was produced at the one distillery. Speaking of Mackey, Damian himself left the Shene Distillery in 2018, and is now back to producing under the name New Town Distillery - presumably since the rights to the Mackey brand name remained with Shene when he departed - although he's also involved with the aforementioned Callington Mill. Interestingly Mackey's new operation will be making a whisky that is similar to the definition of an Irish pot still whiskey - meaning it'll include both malted and unmalted barley and another unmalted grain, so despite being made at one distillery it will not be a single malt whisky or a malt whisky (see here for more information). That move is another first for the Australian whisky industry, although I'm told others are in the works, so it'll be one to watch. 

On to the whisky at hand! There's no age statement on this Shene release, but the Mackey releases are, or at least were originally, all 5-6 years old and aged in 100-litre casks. I'm not sure if that has changed since they started selling the Mackey spirit that was distilled at Shene, or indeed since Damian left. Since the double-distilled component of the spirit is a more recent change of / addition to their production we can assume that this is a relatively young whisky overall, particularly since it was matured in small 20-litre Apera (Australian sherry) and Tawny (Australian port) casks before being finished in larger ex-Cognac casks that were imported from France. And aside from the mix of double-distilled and triple-distilled spirit that cask finish is really this whisky's main point of difference, since there have only been a few Australian whiskies so far that have spent time in Cognac casks. We also don't know how long this single malt was finished in those Cognac casks, but based on smell & taste they certainly had an effect. Cognac of course is essentially a brandy but can only be produced in the Cognac region of western France, and it must be double-distilled and aged in virgin French oak for at least two years. Cognac casks seem to work very well with malt whisky, and we'll be seeing more & more of these & other different cask types as the price of sherry casks continues to rise in the years ahead.

Bottling strength on this one is 49% ABV, and all of the Mackey and Shene whiskies are natural colour and non-chill filtered, which is printed on the labelling and is great to see. At the time of writing this Cognac cask finish is still available from the distillery's website, and this bottle was purchased from the cellar door on our whirlwind trip to Tasmania in late 2021. One minor gripe before we get to it: I don't like the wording on the label - "Cognac Release" should really have been "Cognac Cask Finish", or at least "Cognac Cask Release" or just "Cognac Cask". Maybe I'm being pedantic there, since there are certainly far bigger issues from elsewhere when it comes to labelling standards in Australian whisky... But that's enough moaning!   

Shene Distillery Cognac Release, NAS, 49.0% ABV. Pontville, Tasmania, Australia.

Mix of double-distilled and triple-distilled spirit from 100% malted barley, matured separately in 20-litre Apera & Tawny casks, vatted together and finished in French Cognac casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour.

Colour: Dark bronze. 

Nose: Sweet & wood-driven, with brown sugar toffee, freshly sawn wood and a touch of eucalyptus. Sweet dried stone fruit - apricot, nectarine, and a touch of caramelised banana with cinnamon sugar. Juicy sultanas and dates. Warm orange zest and some vanilla essence. 

Texture: Medium weight. Sweet & syrupy. There's some numbing spirit-y heat showing some youth, but it's not unpleasant, the richness & sweetness carries it well. 

Taste: Sweet toffee, more sultanas and dates, nutty, fresh timber and orange - but it's orange rind this time, not just the zest. Sweet juicy sultanas, vanilla, black pepper and furniture polish. The stone fruit is there but it's fresher & sweeter now, thinking of tinned fruit in syrup. 

Finish: Medium length. The sweetness is drawn back a little by a touch of astringent wood and that mild but numbing spirit-y heat. Then the wood and orange rind return, alongside more black pepper, dates and toffee. 

Score: 3 out of 5. 

Notes: Nice sweet & rich whisky with a noticeable youthful 'zing' to it. And the cognac finish has certainly been effective with those sultanas, fresh wood and orange rind, plus the influence of the wood itself although that could also be coming from the initial maturation in those tiny 20-litre casks. Most likely a bit of both, actually. It still has that eucalyptus note that seems to be present in many Tasmanian whiskies and also some Australian whiskies, and the slight numbing spirit-y heat does show the youth behind the cask influence, but it's not too distracting or off-putting. This is a rich & sweet dessert dram of a whisky, which is typical of most of the Australian producers, but the cognac cask and the wood influence does help to slightly temper that. It's certainly a welcome change from the onslaught of small wine/apera/tawny cask Australian whiskies that seem to be never-ending lately, and I hope we see more cognac cask whiskies in future - as I understand it they're not exactly cheap here when compared with the easily-accessible wine and fortified wine casks that are almost everywhere. But they also provide a key point of difference which is becoming more important with every new distillery that pops up in our still-growing industry. 

As for Shene's main point of difference, that triple-distilled spirit, well I'm not sure what the proportions were between the double-distilled and triple-distilled spirit used in this vatting, but I'm not sure that it shows itself here. Although that's not surprising since it's a lighter spirit by default, which generally means that it's more susceptible to heavier cask influence as a result - and it doesn't get much heavier than 20-litre casks, let alone 20-litre casks being followed by a first-fill cognac cask finish, in the warmer Australian climate. But the casks seem to have been managed quite well here, and it's certainly worth a try!

Cheers!