Top Shelf International’s ambitious agave plans for farm near Bowen
A sprawling agave farm south of Bowen will deliver its first bottles to the Aussie market in just a few months, tapping into our changing love of the drink that was once reserved for challenges
Mackay
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A uniquely Australian spirit will enter the market in just a few months showcasing the flavours and innovation of the Whitsundays in the first of several steps of a major project.
Top Shelf International has revealed its new agave spirit will be market-ready in September, marking the major milestone for the Eden Lassie farm south of Bowen.
It will deliver a uniquely Whitsunday product to the Australian market which has proven to be among the largest consumers of tequila behind only the US and Mexico.
And all projections show that trend continuing, a factor Melbourne-based distiller Top Shelf International is keen to tap into, adding to its Ned Whisky and Grainshaker vodka product range.
CEO Drew Fairchild and his team have the runs on the board to make the agave farm a success, and that is not including long-term plans to make the entire operation carbon neutral at a minimum.
It is undoubtedly a big, bold plan and one Top Shelf International will deliver to the market in September.
"We wanted to build the business at scale and to do that, you needed a farm that was capable of talking to that," Mr Fairchild said.
"In order to achieve that ambition, there was no point doing it by half. But you need the right people and the resources in order to be able to do that."
Plans for the farm were first revealed in 2019 but the concept remained almost in the realm of impossibilities for both the aspirations of the spirit and how it could be successful in Australia.
Now, with 420,000 agave plants planted and growing, and plans to have one million in the ground by 2023, Top Shelf is preparing to take its initial product to market in September.
"Now, of course that won't necessarily talk to large volumes but we will have brand and product in the marketplace," Mr Fairchild said.
"In some ways it's no different to our whisky.
"For example, our whisky, we've only got $10m annual revenue available to us in terms of whisky we're maturing, and next year that's $30m and the following, $50m.
"So you have to be a little patient but we will have product for people to try."
The plantation's scope and Top Shelf's intentions to scale up at Eden Lassie could potentially put it in the top 25 of producers in the world and plans to majority export the end product.
Each agave plant can produce about nine to 10 bottles of distilled spirit which, in Australia, has experienced a surge of consumption.
Aussies are the third biggest consumers of tequila per capita, behind the US and Mexico.
"When we launch the brand, I think people will be very excited but you've got to be a little bit careful you don't overreach and excite the market - there's no question about that," he said.
"We won't do it in halves. We have actually registered a number of sub-brand names.
"We know where it is going, we know the brand elements and attributes, and we're just going through the process on the master-brand because we will have blanco and presado and a seltzer.
"But we're just working on the master-brand and that needs to talk to the brand essence."
Appellation laws, like those around champagne and sparkling wine, mean the spirit produced at Eden Lassie cannot and will not be called tequila despite close climactic conditions between the Bowen farm and the agave-growing region in Mexico.
Strict processing rules and restrictions surround tequila, from when it is grown throughout the year to how it is harvested and distilled, resulting in a tightly controlled end-product.
Top Shelf's plant is the blue agave, with the blanco distilled in the company's whisky barrels giving it a sweeter, smokier edge than the presado, or white agave.
The company's master distiller Sebastian Raeburn said each bottle would be able to be traced back to individual rows of plants grown at Eden Lassie, giving full accountability to the spirit and transparency for the end consumer.
It is an exciting element to the project and one that, should other farmers in the region plant agave, would ensure traceability and quality control through to the end product.
"It is a very broad project but I think the key thing is that it is not an idea, it is in action," Mr Fairchild said.
"You can see the plants growing, you can see the way things come together in terms of the relationships and capabilities.
"It will be interesting to see how we build out the opportunity for others to grow agave.
"At the end of the day, we think the highest and best use is a spirit and as Chris (Monsour, grower) said, the plant itself allows for other products to be produced by it, and that will be an exploratory phase.
"We would love to be in a position where other growers grow agave and we are effectively buying that and processing that.
"That's part of the next phase, you need to keep an open mind."
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