From experimental bottlings to hyper-local whiskies, Australia’s distillers are celebrated far beyond its borders. Here are four flavour-forward whiskies to wrap your taste buds around today.
Australia has a fascinating distilling history. Whisky was first made in Tasmania as far back as 1820 – but this initial flourish was short-lived. For what he described as ‘morality reasons’, Governor John Franklin outlawed distilleries with his 1839 Distillation Prohibition Act. His wife had proclaimed that whisky made men “act like pigs” and he listened. The move was devastating for the local community – it took more than a century for the law to be repealed and for spirit to flow from Tasmania’s stills again.
What happened instead was a double standard driven by big business and underpinned by the hangover of colonialism. Up until the 1930s – and Independence – there were two big operators making whisky: the Warrenheip Distillery in Victoria and the Federal Distillery in Melbourne.
Then the Brits arrived. The Distillers Company of Edinburgh, now part of Diageo, set up production, and after World War II, so did Gilbey's of London. Up until the 1960s, 40% tariffs were levied heavily on imported whiskies. These two businesses saw it as an opportunity to undercut their Scotch competitors and churned out lower quality, much cheaper products. While it was good for both their bottom line and market dominance, this downgrading was immensely damaging to the reputation of Australian whisky.
The tide turned with the abolition of the tariffs in 1960. This created a more even playing field and drinkers could afford quality imports again. By the 1980s, both the distilling behemoths had shut their doors as better options became available to the masses and people voted with their wallets. After all, quality comes first.
While people were drinking better, this led to a drought in Australian distilling. You couldn’t just set up a small distillery. The British Empire-era Distillation Act of 1901 meant that makers were prevented from getting a licence unless their wash stills were bigger than 2,700 litres in volume. In effect, craft distillation was banned. For context, Lark, one of the first and largest of the Australian whisky pioneers, has an 1,800-litre wash still. It would have been near-impossible to get going with a larger set-up.
All that changed with Lark’s founder, Bill Lark. In 1990, he started lobbying the Australian government to get this archaic rule overturned. His success paved the way for a new wave of distillers from all across Australia to fire up their own stills – of all sizes – and create some astonishing whiskies.
With quality concerns long-banished, Australia is at the forefront of an increasingly diverse global whisky category. Some makers are doggedly pursuing flavour creation on their own terms, freely crafting whisky outside of the legal requirements of, say, single malt Scotch or bourbon. Others are taking a hyper-local approach, making their whiskies using grains grown on their doorstep and casks from nearby wineries.
Whatever the philosophy, the spectrum of styles coming out of the country is remarkable. Not sure where to start exploring? These are the whiskies to give you a taste of Australia.
Image credit: Starward Distillery
