It may have been a rollercoaster year, but Adam's Distillery is on a new high - taking out a prestigious international whisky award.
The Perth distillery took out Southern Hemisphere Whisky of the Year for its Tasmanian single malt whisky cask strength by Jim Murray's 2021 Whisky Bible.
It also took out Australian Whisky of the Year. Adam's Distillery began as the passion project of friends Adam Pinkard and Adam Saunders, and it had been a project invested with blood, sweat and tears.
Mr Pinkard said the pair had sacrificed a lot to follow their dreams, but this accolade put the icing on the cake.
Adam Pinkard and Adam Saunders with business partner Berni Einoder.
"There's only one word for it - validation," he said. "It shows us that all we've done for the past five years has been worth it."
Mr Pinkard wanted to acknowledge the contribution of retired Launceston Surgeon Berni Einoder, who supported the distillery as an investor.
Adam's Distillery has a unique malting process - they only half fill the barrels to increase the liquid-wood ratio.
Mr Pinkard said he came up with the idea while he was cooking a sauce, and thought it would apply to whisky.
"After a few experiments we found that it worked well, and we believe we're the only distillery to use this technique," he said.
The COVID-19 pandemic had affected the distillery as much as other tourism operators, and Mr Pinkard said they had to pivot to continue operations quickly.
Since they had won the award, interest in the product has grown exponentially, with international inquiries coming from the United States, Canada and Japan. Mr Pinkard said they had only supplied the domestic market, in Tasmania and on the mainland before.
The distillery has undergone some significant renovations and now has the infrastructure to produce 500,000 litres of whisky per year with this years production pushing 60,000 litres.
Previously they were only producing 5000 litres.
The Whisky Bible judging process scores whiskies from across the world. It's open to everyone, but only the whiskies who reach a certain score get included in the book.
Mr Pinkard said the win had buoyed their hopes this year for the product, which is less than three years old.
The Adam's single malt whisky cask strength is also in the running for the International Whisky Awards, which will announce its winners in November.