Australian Craft Spirits

WORDS ASHLEY PINI

Not since the early days of the “rum colony” has there been such interest in Australian spirits, with a seemingly insaitable appetite for new and distictly original tastes coming out of stills across the country.

Australian craft spirits are the flavour of the month. It’s no longer the sole domain of Tasmanian’s to be stooped over a copper still and creating some fantastic liquids. Australian spirits are now the peer of many a drop with a few hundred years under their belt. You can taste, visit and get to know whiskies, gins, rums and vodkas in most corners of the country and Australian’s are embracing this opportunity, spending $11million more in 2018 than in the previous 12 months.

Aussie craft spirits have almost trebled in just three years - the last year alone accounting for a 71 per cent increase, proving us Aussie’s love an excellent local drop.

Pop into your local retailer and see what’s on the shelves. They are usually positioned in the ‘hard to reach’ space just behind the counter (you can thank shoplifters for that), but fear not, the whole craft spirits sector is becoming far more attainable.

Down the road at my local, (Tom’s Cellars in West Pymble) the Aussie spirits range mirrors what the stats are saying. Tom Mazzei has been quick to make sure he has the range to offer the locals, particularly in gin.

“It’s an exciting time! There are so many new producers of gin from traditional gin houses to new distilleries and whisky distilleries. Even breweries are making gin. Gin consumers are unique because they are not devoted to a brand, they are wanting to explore different styles, countries and distillers and truly learn about the product that they consume,” said Mazzei.

“Just a couple of years ago I stocked 6 gins. Now I range 65 different gins, and it’s growing.” So what’s driving this interest? And when will there be too many options that it becomes unsustainable for the craft spirit maker. Possibly an issue some craft breweries are already facing. When is too much?

Sacha La Forgia of Adelaide Hills Distillery first started making spirits when he was 18 years old in his laundry, but at the time a market for independent spirits didn’t really exist in Australia.

“Today there are so many (distilleries) opening. When I started, there was just one or two, and now there are 15 in just in Adelaide.”

“But you know it’s an exciting time, I think there are brands out there that people want to be a part of. Brands with stories that are unique and have a point of difference,” said La Forgia.

“I think consumers are looking for that. In particular they are looking for local products, so they can support locally. I think this has become important in the buying decision.”

David Vitale from Starward Whisky in Melbourne agreed; “I think the other thing too is that the propositions have become differentiated. For a long time, take whisky as a good example, some producers will openly promote that they are producing their product made in other peoples traditions. I think it’s important that we continue to make out own style and by doing that we want to captivate people’s imaginations. It’s not by doing something that other people are doing very well. It’s by doing something that only we can do very well. I think that what’s really ignited the category has been this modern approach to distilling.”

“We call it Modern Australian Whisky and Modern Australian Gin,” continued Vitale.

Australia is booming, but this could be the beginning for the successful craft distillers.

Tom Baker, the founder of Mr Black Spirits, predicts that the revolution here in Australia is about to take off with spirits most significant opportunity being overseas. Baker predicts the Australian love of his Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur will take off in the USA over the next 12 months.

“It’s not just about Espresso Martini’s any longer, Australia has a reputation for quality coffee, and more and more people are looking for a boozy coffee in the evening,” said Baker. At the Distillery Botanica, where Mr Black is made, people can come in and see where all the magic happens.

“While we do produce at Distillery Botanica, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, and people can see how the sausage is made (so to speak)…it’s not our only home. We made the decision really early on that getting our brand in front of people at food, and wine shows is really important. The small local show through to hosting our own 5000 person festival (that we do every year), was always a massive thing for us. If we don’t have our home, we’ll always create it.

“The distillery is obviously our spiritual home (excuse the pun), but we are most at home in the bar. That’s where the majority of consumers get to taste and interact with our products,” concluded Baker.

Crafting fine spirits and adding uniquely Australian botanicals has clearly worked for many producers here - but if history has told us anything, brands with a great story often start with the purity of the water at its source; and when producing vodka, this becomes more important than most. Especially for Tasmanian brand, 666 Vodka.

Produced by craft spirits maker Dean Lucas, founder of 666 Vodka, who, while working behind the bar himself, started to question why Australian spirits weren’t better represented behind the bar.

“We launched in 2008, and the Australian craft spirits makers didn’t really exist. It was tough to find an Australian spirit besides Bundaberg Rum, so when we launched people didn’t really understand what an Australian Craft Vodka was.”

666 Vodka’s first run was exactly 666 bottles - and the brand was born. Today, the brand sells over 40,000 bottles.

“Australian’s do extremely well in the wine and beer category, so there is no reason we can’t do the same with spirits,” he says. “Over the years we have evolved, and we have now gone back to calling ourselves a craft spirit as everyone understands it now, so we have ridden that wave.”