The best Australian Spirits of 2025 includes an historic collaboration

A 40-year-old brandy, a bottle of Irish moonshine, an historic collaboration and one of the best ever releases from Tasmania’s Sullivan’s Cove whisky. This is our list of world-class Aussie spirits.

To rejuvenate his family’s old Red Mill rum brand - which has been around basically since the days of Governor Bligh - Sydneysider David Fesq joined forces with Fraser McKinley at Barossa winery’s Sami-Odi.

Now, anybody who knows anything about Australian wine can tell you Sami-Odi is a label as about as cultish as Australian wine gets. These wines are incredibly special and among some of the finest wines of the world.

If you want to get a hold of these wines, you’ve got to write to Sami-Odi and get on Fraser’s waiting list to join a queue now about 15 years long.

But this collaboration between Fesq and McKinley is part of a special cask release that has only just hit the market. This is part of a cask maturation series that Fesq does by maturing the rum in a bunch of different vessels.

In what may be the only time a Red Mill rum and a Sami-Odi cask are paired together, the run is a mere 128 bottles, priced at $225.

If you’re serious about your rum, this is very special stuff. Great Australian rum with real provenance.

Find out more about the Red Mill and Sami-Odi collaboration, as well another nine of my picks of Australia’s best spirits of 2025, including a 40-year-old brandy, an old Irish moonshine and one of the best ever releases from Heather Tillott, at the helm of Tasmania’s Sullivan’s Cove whisky.