- Tasmanian whisky distillery Waubs Harbour has announced ‘Maritime Sherry’, its oldest whisky to date.
- The limited release is crafted using spirit from the Bicheno producer’s inaugural distillation, including casks #4 and #12, which were first laid down in 2019.
- Matured in 100L casks for over six years, the Maritime Sherry is characterised by a light, fruit-forward texture that finishes with the label’s signature salinity.
- Waubs Harbour Limited Release Maritime Sherry Whisky will be released on 11 February 2026. Members of the distillery’s email list will receive access at 7pm AEDT, with the remaining bottles to be released to the public at 8pm AEDT.
In the sleepy seaside town of Bicheno in Tasmania’s mid-east coast, a slow revolution is taking place. Since 2019, the coastal outpost has been the home of Waubs Harbour, a family-owned and operated distillery committed to doing things their own way. Here, spirit is crafted using more than mere barley, oak and time, but with salt air, seawater and a slower rate of knots.
Founded by family trio Tim, Bec and Rob Polmear, Waubs Harbour is a unique premise. The distillery is housed within a former oyster hatchery right on the edge of the mainland and follows a simple mantra; make refined maritime whisky. Each expression subverts the oily, fruit-forward characteristics that dominate the domestic industry, instead championing a distinctly sharper profile rich with natural salinity. In many ways, Waubs Harbour is Australia’s answer to Islay, Skye, or Campbeltown, but it’s not a case of reproduction or emulation.
“The vision that we had on day one for this entire journey was to create a world-class maritime whisky,“ co-founder Tim Polmear tells me. “There’s not too much we’ve deviated away from that. We are sticking in our lane and not trying to emulate others.“
“We’re not trying to become the biggest or the craftiest, we are just doing our thing how we want to do it.“
Six years after the first Waubs Harbour casks were officially laid down, Polmear and his tight-knit family of co-founders are seeing the hard work pay off. Limited releases sell out within hours, allocations are perennially exhausted and, perhaps most impressively, the business is bucking the spirits industry‘s global downturn. Yet for all the momentum and acclaim, Polmear remains anchored to the moment where it all began.
With Waubs Harbour now firmly established, the co-founders are toasting the origins that set everything in motion, announcing a heritage release that harks back to the distillery’s early days. The Tasmanian whisky distillery has announced ‘Maritime Sherry’, a limited release crafted using spirit from the Bicheno producer’s inaugural distillation.
Waubs Harbour Maritime Sherry
The oldest whisky ever released by the label, Maritime Sherry is drawn from good stock. As Polmear explains, “it comes from some of the first casks we ever laid down; cask number four and cask number 12.” Predominantly matured in long-held sherry casks, balanced with a touch of American oak bourbon, the result is a lighter, spirit-forward expression that speaks to the burgeoning Aussie label’s remarkable evolution.
According to head distiller Rob Polmear, Maritime Sherry employs a marriage of predominantly French Oak Apera Sherry casks, balanced with American Oak Bourbon casks. Matured in 100L casks for over six years on the edge of the ocean, the limited release is the very embodiment of the Waubs Harbour philosophy.
“I’m very proud of this. Such an elegant spirit,“ he says. “It’s really light and there’s lots of lovely fruits like apricot, apple, pear. Kitchen spices from some of the Bourbon casks but also the oak profile and the age of it.. It’s really nice and refined.“
Bottled at 52% ABV and limited to just 619 bottles worldwide, Maritime Sherry is an exploration of restraint. The strong sherry notes are matched by the subtle influence of American oak, adding a lightness and spirit-forward complexity, while the natural salinity, which has become a signature for Waubs Harbour, expands the finish rather than overpowering it. As head distiller Rob Polmear explains, it’s a delicate balancing act between temperature, humidity and pressure.
“They change everything,“ he reveals. “The temperature here by the ocean is very stable which means slow and steady maturation and with the whisky here in this environment for many years, you get higher ABVs and the weather pressure pushes the spirit in and out of the casks, extracting the oak differently to anywhere else in the world. And the influence of the salt that sits on the tops of our casks, paired with the way we make our spirit, we get that nice, salted caramel note.“
Realising the Maritime Dream
For the co-founders themselves, Maritime Sherry represents milestones, both in and out of the bottle. While the release is crafted using casks from the label’s very first distillation, it also marks an evolution of practice. The latest release is matured in a very similar fashion to the much loved Preview Series Apera Bourbon whisky from 2022. That fan-favourite release was distilled by Rob at another prominent Tasmanian distillery, and then matured at Waubs Harbour, while the label awaited the installation of its own equipment. With Maritime Sherry, the vision is complete.
“Our ‘Maritime Sherry’ whisky absolutely pays homage to our Preview Series Apera Bourbon whisky, but with a greater depth of character and complexity that can only come with longer maturation in larger casks,“ co-founder Bec Polmear says. “When we first filled these beautiful Sherry casks in 2019, we were still very much unknown and had a big road ahead of us but now, today, to be recognised and enjoyed all around Australia and beyond, receiving awards and selling out of our Limited Releases within an hour to our incredible email community, is quite the privilege.“
For the Polmears, Maritime Sherry feels like a full circle moment. Much like the Bicheno distillery itself, the limited release has quietly gone about its business, maturing and evolving over time. Six years after the foundations were first laid down, the vision has never been clearer.
“It’s one of those whiskies that I keep going back to, it is an exciting one for us,” Tim admits. “In our case, maturing for longer gives a kind of mineral-heavy salinity that’s become a bit of a character trait. You can’t replicate it, that’s the good thing about whisky.“
The Waubs Harbour Limited Release Maritime Sherry Whisky will be available to order on 11 February 2026 via the label’s official online store. Members of the distillery’s email list will receive access at 7pm AEDT, with any remaining bottles to be released to the public at 8pm AEDT.
Waubs Harbour Limited Release Maritime Sherry Whisky
- Brand: Waubs Harbour Whisky
- Expression: Limited Release Maritime Sherry Whisky
- Style: Maritime Single-Malt
- ABV: 52%
- Availability: Limited to 619 bottles
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