Old Hobart Overeem - Port Cask - Batch OHD-029 - Cask Strength

After obtaining his distilling licence in 2005, Dutchman Casey Overeem built the Old Hobart distillery at his home just south of Tasmania’s capital, Hobart, with distillation commencing in 2007. Old Hobart’s single malt whisky (sold under the Overeem brand name) used wash sourced from the excellent Cascade brewery, and was matured mainly in heavily toasted and charred resized 100-litre barrels (quarter casks). The first Overeem single malts were released in 2012.

When Casey Overeem retired in 2014, he sold Old Hobart distillery and the Overeem brand to fellow Hobart distiller Bill Lark. The Lark company was itself taken over subsequently by Australian Whisky Holdings, who retained the distillery equipment but sold the Overeem brand and a parcel of Old Hobart stock back to Casey Overeem’s daughter Jane Sawford and her husband Mark in 2020. Old Hobart's stills are now part of the Lark distillery in Cambridge.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.