The Story

Adelaide-based David Pearse and Steven Griguol are the founders and distillers behind 5Nines. The longtime friends entered into the distilling partnership after Pearse decided he’d had enough of his IT job with a major bank, which saw him commuting to Sydney every week.

Over a whisky one night, Pearse mentioned to Griguol, a cabinet-maker by trade, that he was starting up a distillery. ‘Get out. You’re not doing that without me,’ argued Griguol. So began 5Nines Distilling.

The pair went to Tasmania and completed the distilling course at Redlands (now Old Kempton Distillery). Pearse then began setting up the distillery in his garage on his Greenhill property in the Adelaide Hills.

Sourcing a still presented an early road block. Knapp Lewer, one of Australia’s only still makers at the time, was backed up with a two year waiting period

‘We’re weren’t waiting two years. So we thought, let’s get on and do this, and then designed and built the still ourselves,’ Pearse tells us.

A local engineer assisted with the design, and then Pearse and Griguol got to work constructing the 1000 litre pot still in their spare time.

With the distillery set up, the next step was sourcing the grains. They started with pilsner malt from Joe White Maltings but then developed a relationship with specialist malsters Yorke Premium.

‘Even though Joe White malt was grown and malted here in South Australia, we wanted to build a relationship with someone local, rather than a multinational,’ says Pearse.

‘Yorke Premium have been fantastic to deal with, and the farmer we’re working with is also developing a breeding program with about five different heritage malts as well. He’s tapped into the University of Adelaide’s seed bank and is now propagating a whole bunch of different heritage grains that we’ll look at in future.’

Traceability is clearly important to the distilling duo. Intricate production details are made available with 5Nines whiskies. You can see exactly where the malt was sourced for each bottling, as well as the fermentation time, filling and decanting dates, even the precise yeasts used.

Being so close to South Australia’s world renowned wine regions meant easy access to a plethora of different cask styles (the cooperage for each whisky cask is also listed in the production notes). Currently, spirit has been filled into tawny, apera and ex-Bourbon casks, but chardonnay, shiraz and a number of ex-dessert wine barrels have also been filled, including ex-liqueur verdelho and frontignac barrels as well.

5Nines Distilling’s first whisky releases were unveiled in August 2020: Vatted-Lightly Peated, a marriage of four 100 litre casks, and two single cask bottlings matured in ex-tawny and ex-Bourbon. The current ‘vatted’ and single cask bottlings will eventually be joined by these one-off ‘Select Cask’ expressions, diluted to an optimal ABV and priced between the flagship single malt and cask strength bottlings. The broader plan is to relocate the distillery to its own site nearby in the Adelaide Hills and offer a cellar door experience where 5Nines’ successful gin range will also be on show.

Whiskies Reviewed:

5Nines Vatted Slightly Peated Single Malt Whisky 

5Nines Pinot Noir Cask Single Malt Whisky (5NDO60)

5nines Cola Finish Cask Single Malt Whisky (5ND310)