Hartshorn Sheep Whey Vodka 500ml

Brand: Hartshorn Distillery

Release Name: Sheep Whey Vodka

Spirit Style / Type: Whey-Based Vodka

Composition: Distilled from Sheep Whey (Byproduct of Grandvewe Cheeses)

Age: Non-Vintage

Volume: 500ml Bottle

Alc / Vol (%): 40.0%

Country: Australia

Region: Birchs Bay, Southern Tasmania

Production Method: Double-Distilled, Unfiltered; Small Batches Using a 50L Glass Column Still, Only the Best 10% of Each Distillate Used

Limited Edition: No (Hartshorn's Standing Flagship Sheep Whey Vodka Release — Though Produced in Genuinely Tiny Batches)

Award Winner: Yes — World's Best Vodka, World Vodka Awards 2018; Best Varietal Vodka of Australia, World Vodka Awards 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 (Five Years Running); Beverage of the Year, Food & Beverage Industry Awards 2017

Hartshorn Distillery is a micro-distillery based in Birchs Bay, deep in southern Tasmania, run by head distiller Ryan Hartshorn alongside his family's Grandvewe Cheeses fromagerie. Widely regarded as one of the smallest distilleries in Australia, Hartshorn pioneered the world-first technique of distilling spirits from sheep whey, turning a cheesemaking byproduct into an award-dominating product line spanning vodka, gin and the rare, only-every-three-years "Whey-sky." Every bottle is hand painted and signed, reflecting the distillery's genuinely small-batch, paddock-to-bottle ethos and its remarkable, sustained run of Australian and international vodka awards.

This is a genuinely unrepeatable story: Ryan Hartshorn and his family run Grandvewe Cheeses in Birchs Bay, and rather than discarding the whey left over from cheesemaking — as most fromageries do — Ryan spent two years working out how to convert the complex sugars in whey protein into fermentable sugar, eventually distilling it into vodka, making Hartshorn the first distillery in the world to create this product. The distillery takes only the best 10% of each distillate, rather than the roughly 50% most distilleries use, resulting in tiny, genuinely artisanal batches of double-distilled, unfiltered spirit — some releases as small as 10 bottles at a time using a hand-built 50-litre glass column still. That obsessive selectivity has paid off in a genuinely remarkable trophy cabinet: World's Best Vodka at the World Vodka Awards 2018 (the first time an Australian distiller had ever won that trophy), plus Australia's Best Varietal Vodka five years running from 2017 to 2021, and Beverage of the Year at the 2017 Food & Beverage Industry Awards. Each bottle is individually hand sprayed black and hand-signed by Ryan Hartshorn himself, making it as much a collector's object as a drinking spirit. Best enjoyed straight at room temperature in a large aromatic glass, or in a vodka martini with quality green olives — a genuinely unique, award-dominating Tasmanian product with real sustainability credentials behind it.