Spirits
Advance Australia Fair QUICK POLL: HOW MANY HAVE BOUGHT AUSTRALIAN WHISKY IN THE LAST 12 MONTHS? ARE YOU A REGULAR PURCHASER OR WAS THIS A ONE-OFF (A BIT OF PATRIOTISM)? WHERE DO YOU THINK AUSTRALIAN WHISKY SITS IN COMPARISON WITH THOSE FROM SCOTLAND, IRELAND OR JAPAN? DO YOU THINK THEY ARE FAIR VALUE OR OVER-PRICED (AND IF SO, ARE YOU PREPARED TO PAY THE EXTRA)? DO YOU LOOK FOR AGED BOTTLES? PERHAPS ALL OF THIS CAN BE SUMMED UP IN JUST ONE QUESTION – HAS THE AUSTRALIAN WHISKY INDUSTRY ESTABLISHED ITS OWN STYLE OF WHISKY OR IS IT STILL SIMPLY AN ECHO OF SCOTLAND (NOT THAT THERE WOULD BE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT)?
Of course, it is far too early to make any definitive statements about styles of Australian whisky. That will come in time. Indeed, there is also the question of whether there are, or will be, significant differences between whiskies from Tasmania to those from the mainland. Whatever your thoughts, one thing cannot be ignored. In the last decade or so, local whisky has gone from a rarely encountered curiosity to, perhaps not mainstream but certainly a level once unimaginable by most of us. Of course, if the quality was not there then curiosities they would have stayed. Instead, our whiskies have stunned the world and aficionados around the globe have been keen to sample them.
14 drinks trade
It is not that dissimilar to what happened in Japan, a few decades earlier, when we saw Japanese whiskies start to make an impact. They were little more than exotic oddities, but have now been elevated to near mythical status in some cases – one example from many: the Ichiro Malt Card series, a limited edition of 54 different malts (two jokers for the pack), which gathered dust on the shelves for years and are now some of the most valuable and sought after bottles on earth – a set going for a million plus! Look to Sullivan’s Cove. They brought Australian whisky to the attention of the world, winning the World’s Best Single Malt at the World Whiskies Awards in 2014, and a lot more bling since then. Heather Tillott, head distiller at Sullivan’s Cove,
notes that they are selective in their choice of competitions, not least because with a production under 20,000 bottles last year, they simply don’t have the whisky to enter them all. The awards do provide validation of what they are doing, and also justification for the prices, seen by some as excessive. David Vitale, founder of Melbourne distillery, Starward, sees awards as a way to “help us to showcase our new way of thinking and crafting and our dedication to using quality Australian ingredients, particularly Australian wine barrels, to bring to market a distinctively Australian whisky for everyone.” It is early days for Aussie whisky, but they are fast headed to that cherished mainstream status. While there will no
