A Tasmanian whisky has been named best single malt at the prestigious World Whisky Awards in London.

Tasmania Distillery's Sullivans Cove French Oak Cask took out the honour, judged against more than 300 other whiskies.

It is the first time a Tasmanian distillery has won the award, which has been dominated by Scottish and Japanese distilleries.

The distillery's Patrick Maguire says the award means everything to him.

"It's probably the world's biggest award you can win for whiskies," he said.

"The World Whisky Awards are run by the Whisky Magazine out of the UK; what they do is whisky, everything they do is whisky.

"If you can win that, you've made it. There's no doubt about it."

Mr Maguire says Sullivans Cove has been winning local and international awards for several years.

Previous winners: 2013: Ardbeg Galileo (Scotch)

2013: Ardbeg Galileo (Scotch) 2012: Yamazaki 25 year old (Japanese)

2012: Yamazaki 25 year old (Japanese) 2011: Yamazaki 1984 (Japanese)

2011: Yamazaki 1984 (Japanese) 2010: Ardbeg Corryvreckan

2010: Ardbeg Corryvreckan 2009: Highland Pak 21 year old (Scotch)

2009: Highland Pak 21 year old (Scotch) 2008: Yoichi 20 year old (Japanese)

2008: Yoichi 20 year old (Japanese) 2007: Talisker 18 year old (Scotch)

But he says this one will put the product firmly on the map and will be good for the entire Tasmanian industry.

"Tasmania is now is becoming recognised as one of the better whisky producing countries or areas, so it is a pretty major thing," he said.

"We are all very small producers, we are boutique producers and we have the luxury of being able to tweak things personally.

"So when we are running the still, they are not automatic systems, we actually run it from the heart if you like.

"So we cut our runs, manage our runs on the way it smells, flows, tastes. There is science behind it but we are not running computers that turn things on and off."