Sullivans Cove has done it again. The Hobart distillery has been named World’s Best Single Cask Single Malt at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards, making it the only distillery in the competition’s history to have claimed the top title four times.
The winning whisky is Single Cask No. TD0112, an 18-year-old matured in a French oak ex-white wine cask. It is already sold out, but the win puts Australian whisky back at the top of the global conversation. Previous world titles for Sullivans Cove came in 2014, 2018, and 2019.
White wine cask maturation is increasingly explored across the whisky category, but rarely at this age. The format brings brightness, tannin, and structure that demands careful management across its full lifespan.
Director of Whisky Creation, Heather Tillott, said the process is anything but passive.
“Decisions are made incrementally, with a long view, allowing the whisky to develop without ever losing balance or clarity of character. To see that tension resolve so completely at this age is deeply rewarding.”
For bartenders with an interest in Australian whisky, the result reinforces Sullivans Cove’s standing as a reference point for the category. The distillery’s approach, sensory-led bottling decisions, full-size casks only, and no fixed age statements, continue to produce results that stand up against the best whisky producing regions in the world.
CEO Andy Gaunt said the fourth title speaks to process over product.
“To be recognised again at a global level speaks less to any single whisky, and more to the philosophy that underpins everything we do. With patience, discipline, and clarity of purpose, new benchmarks can be set from outside traditional centres of production.”
The World Whiskies Awards also handed Sullivans Cove two Icons of Whisky titles: Heather Tillott as Global Innovator Manager of the Year, and Supply Chain manager Marcelo Viapiana as Global Warehouse Manager of the Year. Current wine cask releases are available at sullivanscove.com.