As Lark Distillery expands across Asia, CEO Stuart Gregor is betting that provenance, authenticity, and Tasmanian wilderness will define the future of Australian whisky
What does it take to bring Stuart Gregor out of retirement? The man who helped build Four Pillars into one of Australia’s most celebrated gin brands answers the question with characteristic humour. His golf game was going badly and his wife wanted him out of the house, he jests. In all seriousness, though, the new CEO of Lark Distillery is clear about what drew him back.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Gregor, “and I did not expect it to come along.” The lessons he brings from Four Pillars are specific: an understanding of what it takes to build an Australian spirits brand internationally. But he is equally clear that these are different propositions. Four Pillars occupies the high end of the gin market, whereas Lark is another step up entirely. “People have a good understanding of Australian gin, but Australian whisky is different. We have work to do before people think about it the way they think about Scotch, Irish, or American whisky.”
Lark is the original whisky of Tasmania and, in effect, the original whisky of Australia. Founded in 1992 by Bill and Lyn Lark, who overturned a 150-year distilling ban to make craft whisky legal, it launched a new portfolio of four whiskies in a redesigned bottle that draws on Tasmania’s wild landscapes earlier this year. Fire Trail is the entry point; Devil’s Storm is a bold, intense mid-range; Ruby Abyss is super-luxury and aged in century-old Seppeltsfield port and sherry casks; and Cinder Forest is available only through global travel retail.
With Chris Thomson running production as master distiller and Gregor charting the global course, Lark is pushing into Southeast Asia and beyond, all without losing what Gregor calls its Australian swagger.
What does luxury mean in today’s spirits industry?
I’m not sure any of us know exactly. Traditionally, luxury was a price point. I think now it’s more about uniqueness, craft, and authenticity. We have the best maturing whisky bank in Australia, we have the only peat bog, and we have Bill Lark still working with us. If there were a checklist for what luxury and authenticity look like, I think we’d tick every box.
How would you describe the character of Tasmanian whisky to someone who has never tried it?
Non-conformist. Tasmania is, by its very nature, a bit roguish. It’s intense, luscious, and complex, but also approachable. People who say they don’t know much about whisky or that they’re not really a whisky person, taste it and say, ‘Oh my god, I love it’. There’s something very Australian about that, actually. We’re approachable.
Is the whisky maturation process in Tasmania different to Scotland’s?
Very different. In Scotland it’s pretty much always around 10 degrees—constant, cold, slow maturation in old stone buildings. Our whisky matures in tin sheds. It gets really hot, then really cold. Hobart can be sweltering one day and freezing the next. That temperature variation accelerates maturation and creates a different kind of complexity.
What is it about Tasmania that makes it such a unique place for whisky production?
You can’t fake it. Tasmania is Australia’s great wilderness: raw, beautiful, slightly crazy. Your brand has to fit that place; you can’t make that place fit your brand. Bill Lark understood that from the beginning. He was fishing in central Tasmania in the 1980s, drinking Scottish whisky with his father-in-law, and he said: why can’t we make this here? His father-in-law said it felt like Scotland. Bill went and changed the law—there had been no whisky made in Australia for 150 years—and became the godfather of Australian spirits because of it.
How do you balance storytelling with what’s in the bottle?
They’re one and the same. Without a story about the ingredients, the place, the water, the people, it’s just another generic drink. With Lark, you’re drinking something that most people in Singapore, most people anywhere in Asia, have simply never encountered before. You’re drinking wilderness. You’re drinking the genius of one of Australia’s great distillers. You’re drinking the beauty of that place. The story and the liquid are inseparable.
Where does Singapore fit into your global strategy?
Singapore is, in many ways, the cultural hub for spirits and cocktails in Southeast Asia right now. The evolution of the bar scene here over the last 15 years has been phenomenal. We started selling in Singapore with Four Pillars around 2014 and what’s happened since is remarkable. For us, everything in Asia begins here. Singapore is where you build credibility.
What does success look like for Lark in the next 12 months?
Honestly? I’d still be in a job. But beyond that, more people in Singapore are ordering Lark at a bar without having been told to. More people understand that Tasmania makes world-class whisky. And more people realising that when they order a glass, they’re not just getting a drink. They’re getting a place. They’re getting a story.
