Lark

On a trout-fishing trip in the Tasmanian highlands, Bill Lark and his father-in-law shared a dram and wondered why an island with superb barley, soft water and ancient peat bogs made no whisky. The answer was an 1838 prohibition still on the books — so Lark petitioned to overturn it, won his licence in 1992, and became the first legal Tasmanian distiller in 153 years. Every Australian distillery that followed walks through the door he opened; the industry calls him, simply, the godfather. Lark's malts are matured in small casks and seasoned with peat cut from the family's own highland bog.