The South Australian distilling industry is flourishing. Over 100 distilleries can be found in South Australia today and at least 16 distilleries are releasing their own whisky. Several independent bottling labels including 3 Souls, Anthropocene and Le Fevre Spirits Co are now on the scene, and the likes of Tarac are producing significant volumes of contract whisky.
Iconic South Australian names like Coopers will release whisky in coming years, and they’ll be joined by a slew of producers large and small over the next decade. However, unbeknown to many, the wine state has a rich, complex and largely forgotten history of whisky making that pre-dates the current scene.
Much of this history, as you might expect, is tied to the making of wine and brandy. Fortified wine was the dominant style produced in Australia as recently as the 1950s, and the distilling of rectified spirit closely followed the development of the South Australian wine industry. Brandy making was another logical extension of the wine industry’s growth. South Australia has long been recognised for its high quality brandies, with the likes of St Agnes becoming one of Australia’s greatest aged spirits producers (they’re also making whisky now, too).
But many of South Australia’s leading brandy distillers, and even some of its iconic wine brands, produced whisky in former eras. In fact, whisky production in South Australia stretches back to the colony’s earliest days.
Adelaide’s Union Brewery in James Place in 1890, originally Primrose’s Distillery – State Library of South Australia
Unlike the convict colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemens Land (Tasmania), South Australia was established as a free colony in 1836 and it didn’t take long for breweries and distilleries to emerge in the capital of Adelaide.
One of the earliest distilleries, Primrose’s Distillery, was erected by John Primrose on Rundle Street in Adelaide in 1841. Primrose hailed from a Scottish distilling family and learnt the trade in both Scotland and Ireland before emigrating to South Australia. He would have produced something approximating whisky when the distillery became operational, as did other fledgling distilleries and breweries in Adelaide throughout the 1840s.
But operating a distillery became problematic at this time due to the settings installed by the South Australian government. ‘Internal’ spirits production was largely unviable owing to pressure from the powerful shipping industry. Bills were enacted setting the duty paid on locally produced spirits to the same rate as imported spirits, making it difficult for fledgling distilleries to establish themselves.
The temperance and ‘total-abstinence’ movements were also powerful forces in the respectable free-settler colony. Spirits were targeted over and above wine and beer as it was feared that intoxicating liquors would result in a ‘dangerous increase in drunkenness’. John Primrose found these settings unworkable and refocused his distilling business into the Union Brewery in 1844, which continued successfully through ownership changes until the early 1900s.
As Adelaide’s pioneering winemakers firmly established themselves in the 1840s and 50s, distilleries began to concentrate on producing rectified spirit for fortified wines. South Australia became a self-governing colony in 1857, and to assist the wine industry Parliament passed an act in 1858 ‘… to encourage the culture of the vine in South Australia by permitting distillation of the fermented juice of the grape’.
The Phoenix Distillery at Stepney, 1880 – State Library of South Australia
One of the early movers was the East Torrens Winemaking and Distillation Company, which was set up in 1858 following the passage of the act. The company was poorly managed in its early years and was taken over by Swedish-born stillmaker Hakan Linde, who’d become a major manufacturer of stills since arriving in South Australia in 1847. The Phoenix Distillery, Linde’s poetic renaming of the business and premises at Stepney, operated successfully until it was purchased by Tolley, Scott & Tolley in 1888. Following the purchase, reference was made to an ‘Old Tom Whisky’ being produced at the Phoenix Distillery which ‘tasted as good as anything imported’.
Distilleries followed the vineyards, wineries and breweries that spread out from Adelaide to other parts of the colony. One of the more fascinating operations following this movement was Engelbrecht’s Pioneer Distillery in Mount Gambier.
Before founding the distillery, Carl Engelbrecht travelled to England, Scotland, Ireland and across America researching distillation and spirits production and purchasing equipment for the new distillery. The Pioneer Distillery was officially opened in March 1886, constructed on the site of an old flour mill. Engelbrecht then began releasing whisky and other spirits into the district surrounding Mount Gambier that were, according to locals, ‘superior at least to most of that imported’. But the venture was short-lived. The Pioneer Distillery ceased operating in 1898 and the premise was later used as a cordial factory and brewery until it was closed for good in 1911.
Engelbrecht’s Pioneer Distillery, approx. 1890 – State Library of South Australia
During the 1890s, established wine and spirits firms began to assert their dominance with the construction of substantial wineries and distilleries. But whisky was still Australia’s favoured aged spirit by consumption, and many distillers dabbled in producing their own brands.
Thebarton Distillery, constructed in inner Adelaide in 1892, became one of the most prominent producers of brandy and malt whisky during this period under the stewardship of Milne & Co (see our profile for the full Thebarton story). Several other distilling firms and winemakers, many of them with names still recognisable today, also began to produce whisky at this time.
The aforementioned Tolley, Scott & Tolley made whisky from the late 1800s alongside vast quantities of its flagship ‘T.S.T’ brandy. Seppeltsfield Distillery was also producing malt whisky during the same period. The incredible photo below of the pot still in use at Seppelstfield shows how similar many of these early South Australian stills were to those used in Scotland for malt whisky production.
Seppeltsfield Distillery pot still built by A. Bergstrom, 1896 – State Library of South Australia
Unlike the Charentais stills used in cognac, the stills created here for brandy and spirits making were unique. European and British stillmakers, like Linde and A. Bergstrom, the latter another expert Swedish maker, designed pot stills that allowed South Australian distillers to create a range of different spirits in larger volumes through the one apparatus.
There was also the brilliant coppersmith and inventor William Nitschke. He arrived in Adelaide in 1848 from Germany where he was a celebrated coppersmith. In addition to designing industry-leading stills, Nitschke even created his own whisky and spirits at the Hackney Distillery he operated with his family.
Following Federation in 1901, South Australian distillers were governed by the Distillation Act 1901 and brandy steadily became the dominant aged spirit produced. Château Tanunda, Thomas Hardy & Sons and Tolley, Scott & Tolley began to dominate the brandy trade, but Milne & Co maintained its position as a notable maker of fine aged spirits. The old family firm continued to produce brandy and whisky into the 1920s and 30s, finding success at the Melbourne Royal Show awards when Milne’s won the whisky section four years in a row from 1931. After Milne & Co was acquired by W&A Gilbey in 1946, several blended whiskies were released by the firm targeting the South Australian market, including the popular Milne’s Well Matured and Gilt Edge brands.
Old South Australian blended whiskies, Gilt Edge and Tolleys – Oz Whisky Review
Hamilton’s Ewell Vineyards also produced a successful range of Hamilton’s blended whiskies during the same period from their distillery in Glenelg. Hamilton Special Gold Label Whisky sold well before the family company was eventually purchased by Mildara Wines Ltd in 1979 and whisky making ceased.
Penfolds, one of Australia’s most famous winemakers, also produced and marketed a whisky of their own at two different stages. In 1921, Penfold’s Selkirk Whisky hit the market, likely a blend, although its origins are unclear. Selkirk Whisky receded from view within two years of its launch, but not before, or maybe due to, 19 year old James Kirgin, a Penfold’s employee at the time. In 1923, Kirgin was charged with having stolen a staggering 2184 bottles of brandy and Penfolds Selkirk Whisky valued at £1444 (a little over Au$200,000 in today’s currency!).
Penfolds Hyland Whisky advertisement, 1963
The second attempt at making a competitive whisky came in 1963 with Penfolds Hyland Whisky, a blend named after Thomas Francis Hyland, the son-in-law of Penfolds founders Christopher and Mary. It’s not clear whether the components were all produced in house or sourced elsewhere, but the brand continued before it was wound up in the mid-1970s well before Penfolds Grange became the icon it is today.
South Australia’s oldest family-owned winery, Yalumba, also has serious heritage in whisky. Brandy was produced at the Hill-Smith family’s distillery at Angaston from the 1920s to the 1970s, and the family sold a product called Smith’s Whisky or Smith’s Liqueur Whisky from the early 1950s to the 1970s, later titled Imperial Vat. It was frequently pitched as the ‘Sportsman’s Choice’ whisky, something you shared after a round of golf or a day spent watching test cricket.
Smith’s Liqueur Whisky advertisements, 1954
Australian whisky historian Chris Middleton believes the original Smith’s Whisky was a blended malt made at Milne’s Thebarton Distillery in Adelaide. Hill-Smith family records indicate grain was also distilled at Angaston from the 1930s, so it’s possible that whisky from the distillery found its way into the Smith’s Whisky brands.
In 1997, production director at Yalumba, Peter Wall, decided to run a charge of wash through the winery’s 1931 copper pot still. Further distillations were carried out in following years, and this led to the creation of Smith’s Angaston Single Malt Whisky. If whisky making is found to have occurred at Yalumba on and off since the 1930s, this would make it Australia’s oldest intact whisky producing site still in operation, as whisky is now being distilled there most seasons.
In 2005, the arrival of Adelaide’s Southern Coast Distillers, now Tin Shed Distilling Co, ushered in the industry’s modern chapter. Now, there are more distilleries making whisky than at any other time in South Australian history, and a thriving scene of specialist whisky bars and retailers has emerged. Far from being a new development, South Australia has successfully made whisky in a variety of styles for over 130 years, and hopefully this next phase of the story is here to stay.