australian distilleries promotion
DOWN UNDER DISTILLING W
ith more distilleries in Australia than ever before, it’s no exaggeration to say that Aussie spirits are in a boom time. From leading brands like Four Pillars, Starward, Lark and Archie Rose, to small, single still start-ups that seem to be popping up every few weeks, there’s certainly no shortage of Australian spirits to choose from in 2018. According to figures from Nip of Courage, more than 150 distilleries are now open around the country – a statistic that is all the more impressive when you consider that as recently as 2013, there were less than 50. And while it’s all about gin at the moment, Nip of Courage’s Kathleen Davies predicts “exciting times ahead” on the whisky front, as liquid that was put in barrel two years ago (or even longer) reaches maturation. “With over 80 Australian whisky distilleries predominantly producing quality drams… 2019 is the year to look out for reasonable volumes of Australian whisky becoming available,” Davies told BARS&clubs. “The best thing that venues can do is to get on board now and start stocking their back bars with Australian whisky as it is considered an emerging category globally,” she adds. “There is huge interest 36 BARS&clubs
at the moment in the premium spirits category in general, and it generally offers great margins for venue owners.” STARTING YOUR OWN With all of this growth, it’s little surprise that a number of bartenders and drinks industry figures have forged a path on the distilling side of the equation in recent years. Two of the most prominent are Sean Baxter (Never Never) and Sebastian Reaburn (Anther), who have parlayed their experience behind the stick into their very own spirit labels. So, if the idea of opening your own distillery starts creeping into your mind, what are the main things to consider? “If you want to start a spirit brand in Australia today you need to be
Kathleen Davies
fearless,” Baxter says. “There will be so many things that will try and beat the crap out of you along the way, so you need to be able to take a hit and have the strength to keep on moving forward.” Reaburn would certainly agree; as part of a panel discussion at the recent Drinks Collective Show in Melbourne, he described the path to opening his own spirit brand as “not a process of genius, but a process of perseverance.” “There’s that famous quote: ‘do something you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life’,” Reaburn told the audience. “Well, we thought it appropriate when discussing how to start a small brand, to add a little bit of reality to that: ‘Do something you love, and you’ll work every hour you’ve got in terrible conditions, for no pay, forever.’ That’s the bad news…”. There’s also the wait time for getting your hands on a still. “What you’ll see is that a lot of the premium producers of equipment are up to their eyeballs in orders at the moment,” explains Baxter. “You can purchase stills ‘off the shelf’ reasonably quickly, but if you want something customised and built to specification, there’s huge waitlists at the moment. For stills manufactured in the UK, you’re probably looking
