Sullivans Cove: Australian whisky could be as big as wine
Scotland’s rich distilling history can be traced back for centuries, but on the opposite side of the world in Tasmania, Australia, the sector is merely decades old.
“Single malt whisky really only came of age globally in the early 1990s, and certainly around the 2000s is when single malt whisky really sees this big growth and becomes the pinnacle of whisky that we all now see,” says Andy Gaunt, CEO of Tasmanian whisky distillery Sullivans Cove.
“Single malt whisky distilleries in Scotland, predominantly, were effectively creating ingredients for the blenders to buy and blend into their whiskies. It was only really the downturn of the 1970s/1980s where you saw brands like The Glenlivet, The Macallan saying, ‘Hang on a minute; we’re selling a bit less to the blenders. We can actually market our own products as standalone single malt whisky brands’.
“Diageo finally got involved in the early ’90s and put some serious investment into building a category through the ‘Classic Malts of Scotland’ concept.
“So, in the mid-1990s in Tasmania, not only is single malt whisky still actually quite young as a global category, there is really no understanding in Australia or Tasmania of the sort of whiskies we will be making. But what the founders knew back then was that the environment was going to be well suited to making great products. We have a wonderful wine industry, incredible beer industry, fantastic barley surrounding us, incredible pristine environment – the air quality, water quality is so pristine.”
Raised in Cornwall in the UK, Gaunt has worked in the drinks industry for around 26 years, beginning as a bartender before spending approximately 13 years at Johnnie Walker owner Diageo. Post-Diageo, he can be credited for establishing tonic and mixer brand Fever-Tree in Australia, and overseeing the business across the wider Asia Pacific region. Fascinated by the emergence of the distilling scene in Australia, Gaunt took up the position of CEO of Sullivans Cove in 2025.
Tasmanian whisky: finding its identity
Sullivans Cove was one of the first single malt whisky distilleries in the region. Gaunt says in the mid-2000s, there were approximately 10 distilleries in Tasmania. But the whisky-distilling scene there has grown substantially over the last few decades, and even hosts an annual Tasmanian Whisky Week every August.
Today, Gaunt notes: “We have several hundred distilleries making whisky and gins and other things, but most of these have started up in the last 10 or 15 years. So the sorts of whiskies that they are making are still generally figuring out their own identities.”
Sullivans Cove celebrated two significant milestones in 2025, launching Australia’s oldest single malt – a 24-year-old whisky finished in Apera casks – then beating its own record with the launch of a duo of 25-year-old whiskies that became the country’s new oldest single malts.
But for Gaunt, age isn’t everything. He explains: “For us, it’s about getting the right balance between age, maturation, and other things. We all age at the same rate, we have a birthday every year, but we mature at completely different rates. Maturity is actually the most important thing for us here. That’s an education job for us.
“At Sullivans Cove we’re proud that we played a role in bringing Australian and Tasmanian distilling to the forefront of whisky culture. We’re a very young industry that’s still figuring out some fundamentals and that’s everything from compliance and warehousing, and local councils figuring out what this could mean for the future.
“Not one of our whisky distilleries is owned by a major global or regional corporation. So our funding is, as a result, going to be a different story, and as a result we’re trying to figure out how best we sort of think about how we promote and build the story of Tasmanian whisky, or Australian whisky.”
The rise and growth of the world whisky category has been exciting to watch for Gaunt, and he’s keen to see Sullivans Cove play an active role in furthering the category’s progress.
“We do think Tasmania has a role to play in putting world whisky on the map and actually making it an opportunity for whiskies from other parts of the world to be seen as credible,” he adds. “Our wine industry has about 3.5% volume share of world wine – why wouldn’t our whisky industry be comparative to that over the next 20/30 years? I think that’s our opportunity to work together as an industry of individual distilleries to achieve a rightful fair share of world whisky opportunity.”
Sullivans Cove hopes to take its current markets from strength to strength, while expanding mindfully to new regions in the next year or two. During this period, Gaunt notes Sullivans Cove will have more casks reaching the maturity levels needed for bottling. As it stands, Sullivans Cove works on strict allocations with its whiskies, as the company doesn’t yet have the stocks to meet demand. But now, with stocks reaching maturity “it’s allowing us to really go on the front foot with how we think about our allocations”, Gaunt notes.
“Our first focus area will be the closest region to us, which is the mainland of Australia, making sure our Australian business is strong. From an export point of view: Hong Kong, Southeast Asian regions, China. ‘Brand Australia’ is very reputable and very strong in those regions and interest in whisky is very exciting in those parts of the world,” Gaunt says.
“In parallel, making sure that we have availability and presence in the UK and Northern Europe markets, predominantly France to start with, where one of our long-term partners is La Maison du Whisky, is important to us. The centre of gravity of global whisky culture still sits [in the UK and Europe] and it’s important for us that we’re in that conversation. So in the next one to two years, they’re the focus areas for us. We are also looking at North America. We want to make sure we have the right whisky, the right portfolio and the right availability. Opportunity is very clear for us.”
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