FROM VAT - All hail theChief’s Son

Out the back of Somerville, down the back lane of an industrial estate, is a stairway leading to a hidden jewel box of a room. A beautifully lit room of dark royal blue walls and gleaming glass cabinets lined with shining bottles of single malt whisky sits above the machinations of a working distillery. This is the cellar door to a deceptively large, family-owned single malt whisky distiller called Chief’s Son.

Husband and wife team Stuart and Naomi McIntosh are the distillers producing modern Australian whisky and achieving global acclaim in an industry founded in ancient traditions. And theirs is not a traditional story. “We entered a competition run by Chivas Regal to visit Scotland,” says Naomi. “A few of us entered, including Stuart’s dad, who filled his 25 words or less with, ‘My grandparents passed the love of whisky through my parents to me, and I want to make sure my children pass it onto their children’.” Soon Stuart was on the plane with his father to Scotland to visit the historic Strathisla distillery at Keith in the Speyside region, along with a tour of many other distilleries, cooperages, malting houses, and so on. Naomi stayed behind with their small children. On the plane back to Australia, Stuart started running scenarios of distilling back home. Both he and Naomi were financial advisers, so they knew their way around a spreadsheet, plus Stuart had a military background and Naomi was a scientist – a variety of skills that align with the arcane art of turning grain into liquid gold.

They hunted around on the internet and found a 40-litre still in Portugal that they imported as a ‘garden ornament’. For several years they experimented with making different styles of whisky using different styles of malted barley and seeing what different types of oak did to the distilled grain. For years they experimented before they were convinced they had perfected their recipes. In 2016 they commissioned the 4000-litre copper still built by Burns Fabrication in Griffith. “Stuart designed the still to make sure it helped us make the whisky we wanted,” says Naomi. “It captures those rich oils that give our whisky its rich mouthfeel and flavours.

“We use a mix of old American and French oak barrels. Most of our sherry barrels are sourced from our local wineries, whilst the American oak barrels have been used by such distilleries as Savage & Cooke and Buffalo Trace.”

The barrels are tested and tasted throughout their ageing. “Barrels are handmade from a natural product, and they vary from cask to cask,” says Naomi. “They all produce excellent whisky, and sometimes we strike gold. The whisky from those casks go into our 900 Standard Single Cask range.”

To understand the range, it is important to note the branding of the Chief’s Son whisky. In Gaelic, the McIntosh family name is Mhic An Tóisich, meaning ‘son of the chief’. This was awarded to the family 900 years ago for undying loyalty in battle to the Chiefs of Alba, as Scotland was then known. The ‘standard’ was the flag they fought under, so 900 Standard refers to years of loyalty and the fighting flag of the McIntosh family. And they are beautiful whiskies. The 900 Standard Single Cask 121, for example, has fine cedar notes and rosewater aromas, with flavours of honey, malt and stone fruit on the palate and a rich smoothness on the mouth. The entry-level whisky is called The Tanist, meaning ‘second in command’, and is a wonderful blend of whiskies aged both in French and American oak. It is a smooth-drinking whisky with aromas of honey, vanilla, nutty sherry, toffee and oak, and is very, very approachable.

You can try the whisky at the cellar door. Visitors are poured flights of four whiskies – 7.5ml each glass. Staff at the counter talk whisky-lovers through each whisky, giving them guidance on what they are tasting and smelling and describing how each whisky is made. Visitors can then purchase the whiskies, each bottled in brilliant flint whisky bottles. The number of local and international awards these whiskies have won in the past years is vast, and one gets a sense of pride that a local family business can bring so many global accolades for their endeavours. Whisky tragics can book into Chief’s Son tours held by Stuart and Naomi. This is a true behind-the-scenes look at how whisky is made, and participants get to fill their own 100ml bottle of whisky directly from the cask. “It is an honour to share our passion with people who appreciate great whisky,” says Naomi.

CHIEF’S SON DISTILLERY 25/50 Guelph St, Somerville www.chiefsson.com.au

RICHARD CORNISH