Furneaux Distillery

About the distillery

Furneaux Distillery is on Flinders Island in Tasmania, all the way out in Bass Strait, where wind, sea spray, and the island’s own peat are part of whisky’s identity. It’s a small farm distillery that both grows grain, uses rainwater, and bottlestops on site. The result is maritime single malts with clear local grounding, ranging from pure unpeated malt to smoky expressions with island peat and an islandic mineral edge.

History

Furneaux was born from childhood friends and business partners Damien Newton-Brown and Howard McCorkell, both of whom grew up with summer holidays on Flinders Island. The idea came during a tough bushfire season, when firefighters battled flames in the peat-soaked soil along the island’s east coast. That sparked the notion of a whisky that could express the island through local raw materials and peat. Later, Damien and Howard traveled to Islay to draw inspiration from the peated whisky tradition and returned with a clearer direction for their own style.

In 2019 came the next crucial step, when Tom Ambroz and Nicole Kennedy met Damien and Howard on the beach at Killiecrankie, and shortly after moved to the island. Tom was responsible for commissioning the new lantern-glass copper stills, built in Tasmania by Peter Bailey. On December 13, 2019, the first single malt was bottled, and the early whisky reached the world in small quantities, including via an unpeated French ex-sherry cask. Since then, the distillery has grown from a small room into a farm distillery with its own stillhouse, bond store, and dunnage warehouse—and in 2023 the first harvest of own-grown barley came into place with 10 tons of grain, an important step toward greater self-sufficiency.

Raw materials and production

The production is built around a distinct paddock-to-bottle philosophy. The distillery grows its own barley on the coastal farm and works with local peat, which is hand-harvested on the island. The peated malt is made from grain that is smoked on site, and the peat comes from saline aquatic herbland, where vegetation such as saltgrass, succulents, tussocks, and melaleuca create a distinctive maritime and aromatic profile. Only water, malt, and yeast are used in the single malt production, and the water comes 100% from rainwater storage tanks.

Mashing is described as roller milling, and fermentation is designed to produce a fruity, floral, and complex spirit with a good mouthfeel. Distillation takes place in electrically heated copper stills with high copper contact and shell & tube condensers. The stills are shaped like lantern glass, creating less turbulence, more reflux, and a cleaner spirit. A relatively tight cut is applied, but tails are respected, so the whisky retains texture and complexity. After distillation, the whisky is slow-proofed over days, so water and spirit integrate gradually. The entire process is supported by a 57 kW solar system, closed-loop condensers, and minimal water filtration.

Maturation and cask types

Maturation takes place in a dunnage-style bond store with an open-earth floor, where humidity and temperature are kept stable by the maritime environment. The distillery chooses old oak for maturation and works with tawny quarter casks, bourbon casks, French oak Apera casks, and Topaque puncheons. The individual expressions show how cask composition steers the balance between fruit, sweetness, spice, and smoke. In the peated whiskies, bourbon casks bring clarity, vanilla, and a smooth oak character, while Apera casks add depth and dried fruit. In Sawyers Bay Distiller’s Cut, a Topaque finish adds yet another layer of richness and complexity on top of the tawny maturation.

Whiskies

The core range centers on three single malts available in both 700 ml and 200 ml formats: Sawyers Bay Unpeated, Flinders Island Peated, and Smoky Wedding Peated. In addition, there is Sawyers Bay Distiller’s Cut, a more distinctive limited unpeated release. Sawyers Bay is the textured, balanced unpeated whisky, while Flinders Island Peated shows the local peated malt’s fruity, maritime smoke. Smoky Wedding is the most pronounced maritime in its expression and blends local peated malt with Scottish peated malt. The range is rounded out by Untamed Gin, but the whisky profile remains clearly tied to the island’s own supply chain and maturation.

Whisky style and flavor profile

The whisky ranges from musk, red apples, and cinnamon in the unpeated Sawyers Bay to dried fruit, muscatel, dates, and caramelized sweetness in the tawny-based expressions. The peated bottles open up another side with bright cherry, fig, fruitcake, licorice, tropical fruit, melon, and a clear, oily smoke. Across the entire range, vanilla, creamy oak, brine, salt, mineral notes, and burning, iodine-driven sea smoke also show up again—so the style comes together around both sweetness and maritime smoke.

Visit the distillery

Furneaux Farm is open to visitors, and you can drop by the working distillery, get a tasting, take a walk around the facility, and enjoy light snacks or a drink on the deck. A guided tour lasts about an hour and ends with a tasting of the three core range single malt whiskies as well as gin. Bookings are not necessary, but production can affect the day’s rhythm, so it’s possible to call or email in advance to arrange something. The Winter 2026 information states opening Monday to Friday 12–3 PM, and guided tours cost $40 per person including tasting, while guided tastings cost $20 per flight of four samples.

The stated opening hours are Winter 2026: Mon-Fri 12-3PM.

Philosophy and craftsmanship

Furneaux is built on a clear belief in place, simplicity, and patience. The distillery says it directly: they want to do simple things well, with respect for ingredients, process, and provenance. Self-sufficiency is not a slogan, but a necessity on a small island—and that’s why they grow their own grain, use rainwater, and produce on site as much as possible. Long fermentation, slow distillation, and slow proofing are deliberate choices because the whisky needs time to develop texture and integrate the flavor.

Sustainability

450kL rainwater storage onsite.
57kW solar system on the roof.
Electric heated stills.
Closed-loop condensers.
Barely filtered water; sediment and UV only.
Growing own grain to reduce reliance on the mainland.