Exclusive Interview with Tarrant Derksen, Founder and Director of New Norfolk Distillery

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Q: What is your full name, title, company name and company location?

My name is Tarrant Derksen, I’m the Founder and Director of New Norfolk Distillery located in Tasmania, Australia.

Q: What inspired you to get into the spirits industry and why rum?

I grew up in the hospitality industry with my parents being publicans of several pubs in Victoria, Australia. After I finished school, I joined the Australian Army where there is a deep history with rum, and this where I began my appreciation of the spirit. It was a couple of years later when I had my first glass of Diplomatico Exclusiva Reserva and finally realised the great potential that rum has. Since this time, I’ve had numerous different rums from across the world and have seen how under appreciated rum has been and what great potential the spirit has. 

Q: Where did you gain your knowledge about the spirits industry and in particular, rum? 

During my research for New Norfolk Distillery, I travelled to numerous distilleries across the world, including rum distilleries in Thailand, Barbados, Cuba and the USA. I attended Moonshine University in Kentucky where I completed Rum University’s 5-Day Rum Course. This course gave me a greater knowledge base and understanding of rum, especially about how best to develop our distillery’s spirits and approach the market. 

I also visited a lot of distilleries within Australia itself, and by speaking with a lot of different distillers, I learnt about how they set their distilleries up and what pitfalls to avoid while getting established. So there was a lot of self-teaching and experimenting on my own behalf to learn about the process of distilling. 

Q: I understand you are the first rum distillery in Tasmania in the past 200 years. Congratulations! You were approved to have your micro-distillery in Willow Court.  Can you tell us a bit more about Willow Court?  Why did you choose this location?

Definitely! Willow Court was once a mental asylum known as the Royal Derwent Hospital. Buildings in the precinct date back to 1827. After the wards closed in 2000 it was left derelict and is now a heritage site.

My family and I live in the town of New Norfolk, where Willow Court is located, and we drive past the old buildings daily. Seeing them abandoned but imagining the potential that lies within them inspired us to apply to the local council to transform them into something new. 

Being a former asylum there is a dark and sad history associated with the site, but we hope that by locating our distillery there, we’ll allow new visitors to enjoy themselves there whilst also learning about the site’s history.  Hopefully the memory of the buildings can evolve with the new positivity occurring in and around them.

Q: Rum played a big role in Australia’s history, there is even a board game (Rum Rebellion) depicting one chapter of it.  What is the perception of the modern rum consumer and how would you like to change it? 

A big part of our distillery’s mission is to recapture the love for the spirit in our country because, unfortunately, rum has lost a bit of its standing in recent history. Due to its sweet taste, a lot of Australians drank rum when first going out to bars and sometimes drank this to excess. This resulted in a degree of a negative association towards the spirit.

We see our modern rum consumer as a trendsetter, someone who is willing to try something new, and challenge mainstream thinking. They appreciate the finer things in life but also the workmanship that goes into creating them. Modern rums not only have the complexity of some of the world’s greatest whiskies, but they also have an added level of versatility which I feel has been underestimated and under-appreciated for a long time. 

Q: How was the distillery application process? How long did it take?

The distillery application process took us about a year. In Tasmania and Australia, we are required to get approval from three levels of government:  local government approval for development of the distillery itself and to change the zoning of the site, state government for liquor license approval and federal government for permission to have a still and to manufacture alcohol. Overall, the application process for us wasn’t particularly onerous, it is just that there were mandatory waiting times and even though we’d like for things to be done yesterday this is never the case. 

Q: You are now open and producing, what is next?

Well, now that we have our distillery operating, the next step is for us to set up our cellar door so that people can come and visit us at Willow Court for tastings. Following this, we want to create an events space and restaurant to encourage visitors to spend more time in and around the town and the surrounding region of Derwent Valley, so they experience all it has to offer.

Q: What have been some of the toughest challenges you’ve overcome and are there additional ones that keep you up at night?

The recent changes following COVID-19 have been particularly trying considering how quickly things happened. Before COVID-19, we relied on sales from events and tourism at these events a lot (not having our own cellar door), so when they got cancelled, we really needed to find different ways to keep generating income. Like many distilleries we have switched to the production of hand sanitizer in the short-term and we have been supplying it locally. Following the closure of weekend markets, we’ve also been working with other distilleries, vineyards and food producers in the area. We set up a pop-up providore inside a local bar (which can no longer serve drinks due to government restrictions) so businesses can continue selling their products and locals can keep accessing fresh food and drink from boutique local brands.

Q: What rums are you currently producing?

At the moment we have two products available which are Near Horizon Spiced Rum and Misty Valley Silver Spirit. 

  • Our Near Horizon Spiced Rum is our Australian interpretation of the classic spiced rum, so we have orange, vanilla and cinnamon in there with native Australian botanicals and spices. 
  • Our Misty Valley Silver Spirit is a new-make spirit which is a rum but can’t be called that in Australia due to a requirement for the spirit to be aged at least two years before it can be called rum. This one has floral and citrus notes with a hint of green banana. 

Q: Aside from rum, do you have other spirits in your portfolio?

We are currently also producing two liqueurs, one is a coffee liqueur with our own local twist on it along with another quintessentially Australia flavored liqueur.

Q: Where are your products currently available for purchase?

We currently sell through our website (newnorfolkdistillery.com) and from local bottle-shops in Tasmania and we are working on sending our products overseas. 

Q: Do you have plans to produce additional rums?

We do, we are working toward our aged products, which have to be in a barrel for at least two years here in Australia. I also want to release different variations of spiced rums that are inspired by traditional foods from around the world, as Australia has great cultural diversity.

Q: Are you at the stage where you are offering tours? If so, are reservations recommended/required?

We don’t offer tours of our distillery yet, but interestingly are working with a local business, Tasmania’s Most Haunted, who offers paranormal investigations at Willow Court. These tours operate in the buildings where we will be establishing our cellar door and our planned larger distillery in the future.

Q: If people want to contact you, how may they reach you? 

They can feel free to contact me via email hello@newnorfolkdistillery.com or via our Facebook or Instagram pages @newnorfolkdistillery. 

Q: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

I just hope that everyone is staying safe during these challenging times so that we can share a rum when it’s over!

Margaret: Again Tarrant, thank you so much for this interview and I wish you and your team much success.