Australia beats world’s top distiller of the year

Australia is well above its weight despite being a relative newcomer to the industry, despite the fact that the recent global whisky awards season has been anything to go by.

Victoria-based distiller Starward won the distillery of the year at June's 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and was the latest Australian craft whisky to wow the world.

Starward was the first Australian distillery to take the top honour in the event's 22-year history, beating almost 5,000 of the world's most famous spirits.

Australian Distillers Association boss Paul McLeary said Australian craft whisky distillers should be proud of how far the industry had come.

It's the first time an Australian spirit producer has won this category, which means that they were the best in show for the whole of the most prestigious spirits competition in the world, McLeary said.

McLeary was part of a thirteen-strong Australian delegation of industry representatives who attended the spiritsEurope Congress for the first time this year.

The event, held in Dublin last month, brought together industry leaders to discuss solutions to issues that affect the spirits sector.

The Australian group toured major distilleries in Ireland and Scotland on a fact-finding mission to help whisky distillers tap into the global whisky market.

Australia had been producing whisky for the past 30 years and was now attracting the attention of the world's best spirit connoisseurs.

The success of the country came down to the passion or craft distillers, according to McLeary.

Australian whisky is a real farm to glass story distillers will tell you exactly which farm the grain came from, what drop of water went into it, and exactly which barrel it was matured in. They can tell you the provenance, something the global giants can't, he said.

Tasmania's Sullivans Cove distillery manager Heather Tillott was still buzzing this week after winning the prestigious craft distiller of the year title at the World Whiskies Awards in March.

Ms Tillott said modern methods based on extensive knowledge and distillation techniques derived from 300 years of Scottish distilling were part of the product's success.

However, I think that the current modern era of distilling in Australia is that typically Australian, '' have a crack attitude. More than two-thirds of Australian distilleries are located in rural and regional areas, a number that has grown from just two, 30 years ago to 350 today.

Steve Timmis is the head of Fossey's, a boutique gin, whisky and vodka distillery in Mildura, Victoria, and said Australian whisky was at the same time the Australian wine industry was 40 years ago.

The global spirits and wine brands were required to adhere to strict regulations and world geographic indicators.

Champagne is a perfect example of this, which can only be used to describe sparkling wine produced in the Champagne wine region of France.

Scotch whisky must only be distilled in Scotland.

Mr Timmis said that Australia was just at the beginning of the journey and there was a need for Australian distilling regulations.

He hoped too much regulation would not curtail the Aussie spirit, but by the same token, if it has the Australian whisky on it, we need that to be of a certain standard.

With Australian whisky punching above its weight on the world stage and local consumers getting a taste of the unique flavour and craftsmanship that goes into Australian whisky, the future of our local craft distilleries is bright.