the That's Spirit

It’s not uncommon to return from an overseas trip brimming with enthusiasm for making life-changing decisions. Most of those decisions fade into memory, but Michael Samootin, owner of Daylesford’s newest craft distillery, Daylesford Spirit, is an exception to the rule.

In 2010 Michael and his wife Kathryn took a trip to Scotland that included visiting whisky distilleries in the north. It was a lightbulb moment.

“I was astounded by the whole set-up,” he says. “The history and the whole process of making and aging whisky appealed to me and I immediately wanted to get into it.”

Like the process of making whisky, Michael’s revelation took some time to come to fruition, requiring another life-changing decision to make it happen. Michael and Kathryn had been regular visitors to Daylesford for nearly 20 years and, during lockdown, decided to buy a property, sight unseen, just outside of Daylesford in Mount Franklin. Shortly after, they relocated from Melbourne permanently.

“There was no thought of opening a distillery initially,” says Michael. “We moved here because we loved Daylesford. But when we set about rejuvenating the property –including designing and building a new shed – I suddenly thought: why don’t I design it so that it could house a distillery.”

The can-do attitude was probably helped by Michael’s background where his prior very successful 30- year career iin the IT industry. Michael built his distillery-ready shed, joined the Australian Distillers’ Association, bought a 10-litre copper pot still and hired Jace Yendall, former whisky distiller at Starwood Whisky in Melbourne, to help him turn the dream of making great whisky, a range of classic gin and highquality grain vodka into reality.

“Jace and I came from the same place in where we wanted to place Daylesford Spirit,” he says. “We wanted to take the distilling back to the core basics and make products that were made with the same focus as I saw in those distilleries in Scotland.”