What makes Australian whisky… Australian? It’s a question that’s niggled at Australian whisky makers in recent times, because the reality is, there’s nothing indigenous about whisky made here. All of the ingredients originated somewhere else: the grains from the Middle East, Asia and America, the yeasts derived elsewhere, and oak from the U.S. and Europe.
Of course, the reality of whisky making is more complex than that. Grain grown in Australia will give you a different character to grain grown overseas, just as water here may contribute subtle intricacies of flavour. The casks used to mature Australian whisky, most of them previously housing Australian wines, will clearly impart a unique character to our whiskies. While distillers around the country that open and wild ferment, like Peter Bignell at Belgrove, introduce local yeast into the whiskies they create.
But as producers around the world strive to create whiskies that standout and say something about where they’re from in a very crowded market place, Australian distillers are looking to push the envelope further.
Some distillers, like Sacha La Forgia at Adelaide Hills Distillery, have found success using native grains to inject definitively local flavours into his whiskies.
The next frontier for Australian whisky makers – wood. With wood type, maturation and cask treatment contributing so much character to the overall flavour of a whisky, distillers are now asking – can we add an Australian dimension to this equation?
Old Kempton’s red gum cask single malt whisky
A handful of whiskies released over the last few years have progressed that idea (see our review of them here). One of the first was Old Kempton Distillery’s Red Gum single malt whisky. Red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is an iconic and endemic Australian tree that provides welcome shade against the harsh Australian sun, and is renowned for its brilliant crimson timber.
Old Kempton’s whisky was matured in a 20 litre cask coopered from red gum staves that had been seasoned with McWilliams apera. A minuscule 20 bottles were pulled from the cask and made available to the public via a ballot.
But from the few who tried it, the reviews were unflattering. ‘It tasted shithouse,’ one former Old Kempton worker told us. As a result, it was easy to ride off the experiment as exactly that – a bit of quirky fun that would never amount to anything.
But then reports started to surface about other Australian distilleries maturing spirit in casks coopered from Australian hardwoods.
In 2019, Sullivans Cove revealed they had two casks of spirit made from a Jarrah vat reclaimed from winemakers (Jarrah is another native species of euchalyptus: djarraly in Noongar language or Eucalyptus marginata). Other distillers on the mainland were also maturing spirit in red gum casks.
In October last year, the concept was further promoted with Applewood Distillery’s Jarrah Whisky release.
Image – Applewood Distillery
Applewood is run by Laura and Brendan Carter. Gin and wine are their main games, but the pair have created a range of progressive spirits and liqueurs utilising Australian ingredients. With the Jarrah Whisky, they set out to produce an indigenous Australian whisky, as their lengthy YouTube video on the project explains.
Despite Applewood’s campaign, it was, once again, a one-off single malt, matured for four years in a 100 litre Jarrah cask coopered by A. Stiller Coopers in the Barossa. The price was crazy – $500 for 500ml, and the 100 bottles released were quickly snapped up by collectors.
A few months later, Robbie Gilligan added a stringybark finished single malt to the conversation through his Derwent Distilling Co. label in Tasmania. Incredibly, the stringybark barrel (another species of eucalyptus) had been aging Australian tawny since the 1920s, and for Gilligan, who’d also been involved with Old Kempton’s red gum release, a finish was the ideal approach.
‘Even though it was only finishing in the stringy bark barrel for a couple of months, it had a huge impact on the flavour,’ Gilligan says.
‘I didn’t want a big wood punch in the whisky and for the finish to then be really dry. When I made my spirit, I also deliberately made it with a bit more length and sweetness. So combining all those elements, what you have is a whisky that’s familiar, there’s the sherry cask influence there, but then it keeps going, and it’s got this length and sweetness to it that wasn’t there with just the original cask.’
Derwent’s stringybark malt was well-executed and received, but again, a one-off release.
Then in March of this year, Backwoods Distilling Co. in Victoria entered the frame, bringing a more focused and thorough approach to maturing spirit in native wood casks.
Backwoods inagural red gum whiskies – Backwoods Distilling Co.
Since starting Backwoods in 2017, Leigh and Bree Attwood have been determined to use native woods to bring a more identifiably Australian character to their whiskies.
Their recent red gum single malt and rye releases, both matured in 100 litre red gum casks again coopered by Andrew Stiller, have excited a number of Australian whisky enthusiasts and distillers. It’s also not a one-off, as the Attwood’s have numerous red gum casks in bond, and plans are underway to procure more from A. Stiller Coopers.
‘We had trouble to start with,’ Leigh Attwood tells us. ‘Finding the right wood was really tough, and cracking that code took a fair while. We were trying to use red gum that was maybe three or four years old air dried, and you just often get this horrible astringency from Australian wood.’
A. Stiller Coopers
‘But we kept working with Andrew Stiller in the Barossa. He does a lot of woodworking and he ended up finding a whole heap of wood that was destined to be fence posts that had been left by his dad in the cooperage. He said he’d turn that into red gum barrels for us to see how it goes. And because the red gum must’ve been sitting up in the shed for 40 or 50 years slowly air drying, that was the trick – that astringency was gone with these, and you started to get that really interesting sweetness take over.’
There were 300 bottles released from the first two Backwoods red gum single casks. They sold out almost instantly. ‘Red gum is just so Aussie. It’s really appealing to people,’ says Attwood.
Backwoods red gum casks among more traditional oak whisky casks – Backwoods Distilling Co.
These first two whiskies are just the start of a larger program Backwoods will develop in coming years. All of the red gum casks decanted will get a second fill, predominately with single malt (rye is likely to remain first fill), and Attwood also has spirit maturing in an old cask made from sheoak, a native Australian hardwood popular among woodworkers.
But now, Backwoods aren’t alone. Goodragibee Distillers are currently maturing malt spirit in jarrah and ironbark.
Even Australia’s largest whisky producer, Archie Rose, are playing with native woods. Earlier in the year, Dave Withers showed us a collection of red gum barrels that are quietly maturing Archie Rose whisky until the team thinks they’ve hit their optimal point (likely in the next year or two).
So, are we looking at the beginning of a new style here? And are consumers interested in drinking spirit matured in Australian hardwood casks? Leigh Attwood thinks punters are starting to warm to the idea, but there’s a long way to go.
‘It’s been great fun pouring the red gum whiskies for customers and seeing their reaction to something so different. There’s a lot of ideas and techniques we’re looking at, and it’s all learning – there’s so much to learn from these timbers. Some people just can’t handle that it’s not oak, and that’s fine. But either way, it’s a good conversation starter.’
