Australia's best 15 spirits of the year
Today there’s no excuse for a boring liquor cabinet. Try these world-beating rums, gins, mezcals, and whiskies.
Today there’s no excuse for a boring liquor cabinet. Try these world-beating rums, gins, mezcals, and whiskies.
The special edition of The Weekend Australian Magazine featuring James Halliday's Top 100 Wines is out Saturday, November 19. See the best beers, according to Peter Lalor, here.
There’s such an irresistible momentum in craft spirits distilling that it seemed remiss not to include a selection in this annual roundup of the nation’s best drinks. So, for the first time, here is a snapshot of contemporary distilling, with its diversity and excitement on full display.
Australia’s craft distilling scene is in hyper-drive, creativity and innovation in abundant supply; the Scottish stranglehold on whisky has yielded to compelling New World options; there’s amazing stuff coming out of Mexico, and enough rum to inebriate several navies. The list includes some long-lost traditional beverages revived, excitingly, for the modern age.
Today there’s no excuse for a boring liquor cabinet.
Nusa Caña's Godfather
This is a portal back to the time when Dutch trading ships brought barrels filled with a fiery liquid distilled in Java from red rice and sugarcane – the “godfather” spirit for countless rums to come. Re-imagined for a modern age, but adhering closely to its historical origins, this complex spirit delivers flavours of cut cane and wild grass, dried mango and Sarawak pepper.
Only 1000 bottles made.
Batavia Arrack 60% alc, 700ml
$115
nusacana.com
Ron Prohibido's Reserva Rum
The most famous Mexican distillates are made from agave, but sugarcane should not be discounted. Here, the juice of sugarcane grown in Veracruz is slowly fermented and double-distilled before maturation for three years in old oak casks. Panforte, dry fig and warm spice aromas lead to a sweet, supple palate with a vegetal dryness tapering the finish. A deliciously distinctive rum.
40% alc, 700ml
$75
agavelux.com.au
Furneaux Distillery Co Sawyers Bay's Single Malt Whisky
Whisky has always found comfort on rugged islands, but this graceful spirit from Tasmania is a long way from the peat-fired malts of Islay and Skye, which can be like sipping through a fisherman’s pipe. Furneaux’s drop uses unpeated pilsener malts, which gives a delicate, approachable whisky layered with flavours of toffee and dried peel.
163 bottles produced.
43% alc, 700ml
$200 furneaux
distillery.com.au
Lark's Rare Cask Series Seppeltsfield Tokay 100 Single Malt Whisky
Seppeltsfield in the Barossa has a treasure trove of old oak – casks that have housed some of the world’s greatest, and oldest, fortified wines. Lark’s strategic partnership with Seppeltsfield pays off big time here, in a mesmerisingly complex whisky finished in casks drawn from a Tokay solera containing material pre-dating the Great Depression. Glorious.
57.5% alc, 700ml
$1000
larkdistillery.com
Morris' Australian Single Malt Whisky Sherry Barrel
Morris’s place in the pantheon of great Rutherglen fortified producers remains unchallenged. It’s shrewd, then, that it housed its foray into distillation within those walls. A great collection of old casks provides exciting maturation options; this one, finished in casks that once held dry Apera and bristling with notes of grilled nuts, dried peel, toffee and coffee cream, is outstanding.
46% alc, 700ml
$145
morriswhisky.com
Westward's Stout Cask American Single Malt Whisky
It’s no surprise a distillery in the craft beer capital of the world – Portland, Oregon – has a distinctly beery vibe. All Westward whiskies are born from an American Pale Ale mash, then double distilled before barrel maturation. In this case it’s in stout casks, resulting a rich, deeply flavoured whisky with hints of coffee, grilled nuts and roast quince.
46% alc, 700ml
$140
westwardwhisky.com
Starward's Nova Single Malt Single Malt Whisky
Sources of interesting casks in which to finish whisky are becoming more diverse; many Australian distillers are investigating red wine casks. Starward sources casks from a range of winemakers and varieties for this bottling, resulting in a whisky with a broad aromatic spectrum touching on red berries, dark chocolate and salted caramel that is bright and supple in the mouth and tapers to a fine, drying finish.
41% alc, 700ml
$96
starward.com.au
Artillery's Oolong Tea Gin Liqueur
Modern life is full of things we never knew we needed until someone decided we did. Here’s another one. A tea bolstered by gin rather than a gin using tea as a botanical, this gently floral, beguiling liqueur fills a hitherto non-existent gap for tall, cool drinks built on tea that give you a gentle buzz. Next time a craving for Pimms hits you, consider this instead.
15% alc, 700ml
$35
artillerydistillery.com.au
Contratto Fernet's Amaro
Nothing will ever threaten my abiding love of the greatest of all Fernets, the brutish Branca, but sometimes you just want to be cuddled, not rogered half to death. This intriguing digestive haunts the same dark realms but navigates them with a lighter footfall. Distilled from barbera grapes and infused with more than 30 botanicals, it’s a gentler but no less satisfying take on the Fernet template.
30% alc, 750ml
$90
citycellar.com.au
Never Never's Dark Series Oyster Shell Gin
This is the gin for salty sea dogs, those who stand at the bow of the boat to taste Neptune’s bracing kiss. A distillation using Kangaroo Island oyster shells, Tassie kelp and other coastal botanicals delivers a saline- scented spirit with a vibrant citrus punch. This is screaming to transition into a dirty martini, or step in for anonymous vodka in a beach house Bloody Mary.
42% alc, 500ml
$79
neverneverdistilling.com.au
Archie Rose's Lemon Scented Gum Gin Harvest 2021
Smell is our most nostalgic sense, the one with the greatest capacity to instantly park us in another place and time. This is a wormhole to my childhood summers, but boozier. The scent of lemon gum leaps from the glass, backed up by a bucketload of freshly squeezed lemons, just-ripe mangos and a rapidly melting Pine-Lime Splice.
44% alc, 700ml
$89
archierose.com.au
Ester Spirits' Strong Gin
A page from the gin textbook, in bold print and all caps. Juniper’s doing the heavy lifting in this classical London Dry style from Sydney’s Ester Spirits, with hints of warming spices such as cardamom and coriander seed nestled alongside a punch of lemon gum freshness. Bottling at higher strength turns everything up to 11, delivering an emphatic and energetic gin of great definition and class.
57% alc, 700ml
$119
esterspirits.com.au
St Agnes' Xo 15 Year Old Brandy
Agnes is the saint who blessed a million front bar brandy and dries, but the Angove family also produces several exceptional brandies of various ages. This is the first step on a ladder to 20 and 40-year-old bottlings, the ideal place to renew a love for this beautiful spirit. Laden with fruit cake spices, dried stone fruits, poached pear and quince.
40% alc, 700ml
$125
stagnesdistillery.com.au
Sotol Onó
Sotol is both a plant and the drink it produces. The plant, also known as Desert Spoon, produced a fermented ceremonial beverage for centuries before the Spanish colonisers began to distil it. It flowed freely over the border during Prohibition but after a backlash its production was outlawed and the culture around it forced underground. Now it’s back and the smoky, softly herbaceous, peppery spirit is winning fans worldwide.
44.6% alc, 750ml
$99
agavelux.com.au
5 Sentidos' Espadin-Tobaziche Mezcal
A traditionally produced mezcal of real depth and detail. Tio Pedro built a tiny distillery at his home in Oaxaca where he roasts two species of agave before hand crushing with mallets, fermenting in pine and double distilling in clay pot stills. The result is complex with elements of celery leaf, pickled jalapeño, grilled fennel, buttermilk, and smoke. This would make a mezcal drinker out of a Methodist minister.
48.4% alc, 750ml
$159
agavelux.com.au
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