‘Sitting there on the balcony sipping whisky in the rainforest, I thought, this is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in my life.’
Jim McEwan, one of the world’s most respected and admired distillers, a legend of the Scottish whisky industry and one of its greatest story tellers, is famed for his ability to tell a yarn. And yet, when you hear McEwan speak about Cape Byron Distillery, its surrounding subtropical rainforest, its pristine location near the coast, and the whisky he and Eddie Brook have created there, you can tell there’s absolute sincerity in his words.
‘Eddie has the passion, the integrity and the honesty – I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that, you understand, I’d be back in Scotland,’ says McEwan, accent broadening and halting with emphasis. ‘The reason I’m here is because of Eddie and his family, their honesty and integrity. I know that Eddie will give the same love and respect to this whisky because you see how the family care for their land.’
Cape Byron Distillery
The land McEwan speaks of is a property located about 10 minutes inland from Byron Bay, the boho surfer town that’s more recently morphed into a mecca for Insta influencers and Hollywood A-listers.
Eddie’s parents, Pamela and Martin Brook, bought the 96 acre property in 1988 when it was a rundown dairy farm. Gradually, they set about regenerating the land that was once surrounded by the largest subtropical rainforest in Australia, the vast majority of which was destroyed within ten years of white settlement. But under the Brook’s, over 35,000 subtropical trees have been planted, completely transforming the site and reviving many of the native trees and plants that once spread across the ancient forest.
‘One day, Jim asked about my parents, who we are as a family and what we do, and I told him about our farm,’ Eddie says. ‘I told him about how passionate we are about giving back to the land, about regenerating native vegetation and having a positive impact on our region.’
This was back in 2015, when Eddie was the Australian brand manager for Bruichladdich whisky and Botanist Gin. Eddie organised a Jim McEwan rockstar whisky tour across Australia and New Zealand and it was here that the two formed a close friendship.
‘That was really where the idea for the distillery started. Jim turned to me at one point during the trip and said – Eddie, we were meant to meet and start a distillery. And that’s we did.’
Oz Whisky Review
Like Jim, I’ve had Eddie show me around his family’s remarkable property. It’s a place that makes you stop, listen and slow down.
But we’re a long way from the Brook farm when I sit down to talk to Eddie and Jim. We’re in a hotel restaurant in Melbourne and we’re tasting through the just-launched Cape Byron single malt whisky range.
I’m playing it cool, but I’m excited by what I’m tasting and hearing. Jim’s hilarious chat is starting to unravel the interview and suddenly we’re mainly laughing and sharing stories about whisky and life.
‘This is what happens when you drink good whisky!’ Jim exclaims.
I attempt to get things back on track by asking if he can remember when he first visited Australia.
‘It was back in the 90s, it would’ve been with Morrison Bowmore. This was just an emerging market then. A lot of fun. But I can’t even believe how many distilleries are making whisky here now.’
Jim remembers trying some Tasmanian whisky in the 2000s, but can’t remember which one and what he thought of it. In fact, Tasmania feels a long way away when talking about Cape Byron whisky and the approach Eddie and Jim have devised.
Spirit and fruit-forward and matured in large format ex-Bourbon casks, the flagship Cape Byron ‘The Original’ is, in many ways, the opposite to what you see being produced in Tasmania. It’s unavoidably become a statement whisky about the evolution of the Australian industry in the last ten years, something I push Eddie on.
‘You’re right, to some this might seem like a statement whisky. We never thought about it like that. I guess in a way we’re producing a more traditionally Scottish style of single malt whisky, and that’s come from working with Jim and the generations of knowledge behind the old ways. I mean, he’s been distilling for over 52 years. Sometimes, you don’t need to mess with tradition.’
Cape Byron spirit still – Oz Whisky Review
Eddie adds that paring back the influence of the cask has also been crucial.
‘The basis of every good distillery is that ex-Bourbon release, because that’s where your spirit shines. And for us, we worked so hard on the quality of our spirit, we don’t want our spirit to be overly dominated by oak. We’ve got this beautiful fruit character, very similar to what you see in the spirit of Bruichladdich, however, you’ve got this distinctive tropical nature that comes through with our spirit.’
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I come back at both of them with the style and flavour that Australia is becoming known for internationally: rich, wine cask driven whiskies. This hooks Jim.
‘You’re not making fruit juice, okay. Look, I’ve used all the best wine casks under the sun: Lafite, d’Yquem, Margaux, you name it. Wine casks can make brilliant whisky but you’ve got to a have a foundation, and that’s the spirit. Your spirit is your foundation, and you don’t want the cask to get in the way of that.’
Cape Byron’s, and Australia’s, method of single malt production is our next talking point. The production of Cape Byron single malt starts with wort supplied by Stone & Wood Brewery down the road.
‘We’re so lucky to have one of Australia’s greatest breweries down the road, who we as a family regard as some of our closest friends,’ says Eddie. ‘They’re very ingrained in our community, and we just loved having the opportunity to work closely with them… One of the Stone & Wood head brewers, a big burly guy, was in tears when he tried this whisky at our launch, so that partnership means a lot.’
Stone & Wood Brewery
Sourcing wort from external breweries is a common practice in Australia, but a strict no-no in Scotland, where the entire mashing, fermentation and distilling process has to occur at the one location to wear the ‘single’ malt badge.
I mention that the Scotch Whisky Association is applying pressure to Australia to tighten up its looser whisky regulations. I even ask Jim what he thinks about the practice being allowed, and how he feels about Cape Byron not producing its own wash. But he doesn’t bite. He’s heard all the pesky questions before.
‘The passion they have at Stone & Wood shines through in everything they do and it shines through in this whisky. The quality of beer they’re doing there is stunning. To get brewers of that calibre supplying us to make whisky is just fantastic.’
The Highland Toast with Jim McEwan at Cape Byron Distillery
As you might expect, peat smoke is another element that Eddie and Jim are keen to inject into Cape Byron whiskies. A sample of 1.5 year old Cape Byron peated malt was presented alongside the first release Bourbon cask and chardonnay cask bottlings (and the sample was very good).
But so far, the peated malt used hails from Scotland.
‘To create a peated style, I’d love to be able to source all of that grain from maltings in Australia,’ Eddie says. ‘But through testing and trialling we found that we just don’t have the pedigree of peated maltings in Australia yet. I’m really hopeful we’ll eventually get there, but that’s why we imported Scottish peated malt from Simpsons.’
In the interim, Eddie is working on a fascinating new process to inject locally smoked flavours into Cape Byron whisky using ingredients from the Brook’s macadamia farm.
‘As part of our regenerative farm practice we had to take out a certain amount of our macadamia trees to let more light into the orchard floor. So we’ve seasoned that macadamia timber, got the sap out of the wood, and we’re then sending that wood to Voyager Craft Malt.
‘Voyager are then chipping it and using the macadamia wood to smoke the barley in the malting process. For us, it’s so important that it’s in the malting process that the smoke is entering the barley, not after, so we get that smoke into the heart of the kernel. We’ve done a few small trials, the barley by itself is sensational. The story’s going to be great, and I’m sure the whisky’s going to be even better.’
The more Eddie and Jim talk, the more impressed you become by what they’re achieving (Jim is also a part-owner of the business). The whole project is a coming together of different knowledge bases, different ingredients, different distilling traditions and cultures. The us and them mentality, the David and Goliath contest between the small but emerging Australian industry and the exalted behemoth that is Scotch slowly falls away in the face of this unlikely partnership.
‘Eddie’s got exactly the same passion I have, and that shines through in everything they do at the distillery. It’s a great story and I feel very privileged to be involved.’
