Looking down the barrel - Melbourne Whisky Week cheers the local drop

By Patricia Maunder August 14, 2021 â€" 4.00pm

When the annual Tasmanian Whisky Week concludes today, the state will mark another year as the byword for Australian whisky. Since Lark opened in 1992, becoming the nation’s first new non-mass-production spirit distiller in a century, Tasmania has led the way in production â€" currently two-thirds of Australian craft whisky â€" and reputation.

Victoria is, however, catching up. Since selling its first bottle in 2013, Starward has been a notable exception to our southern neighbour’s dominance. And the inaugural Melbourne Whisky Week which, lockdowns permitting, begins on Friday, highlights that we have more than one horse in the race. A coming of age for Victoria’s whisky scene, this series of masterclasses, tastings, tours and more enables the state’s lesser known distillers to showcase their wares.

M chatted with three of Melbourne Whisky Week’s local participants: all family-owned distilleries experiencing growth spurts, years after starting in circumstances worthy of tales told over a wee dram. It’s been a remarkable 21 years for the mainland’s first craft distillery, Bakery Hill (bakeryhill.com). Even more astonishing is founder David Baker’s admission that “when I started making whisky I’d never drunk it in my life”.

David and Andrew Baker of the Bakery Hill Distillery.Credit:

The then chemistry teacher had perused the odd whisky magazine, though. “They all had the premise that the only place in the world you could make whisky was Scotland, because of air and water,” recalls Baker. “As a chemist I said no, it’s a process. If you modify for local conditions it’s possible ... I’ll prove you wrong.”

The whisky virgin “bought every bottle I could lay my hands on, read the reviews, read the articles so I could educate myself,” and started Bakery Hill in Bayswater North in 2000. While embracing his venture’s Australian origins, including naming his distillery after the Eureka Stockade protesters’ meeting place, Baker wanted to make Scottish-style whisky â€" particularly the Speyside style.

Unlike most Australian distillers who mature their whisky in former wine barrels made of French oak, Baker went the Scottish way: American oak bourbon barrels. However, unlike Scotland, where Baker says it’s either “cold or bloody cold ... in Melbourne we have high ambient temperatures and ... daily fluctuations. That means our whiskies mature at twice the rate.”

In 2005, Baker’s first batch was named Best Small Distillery Whisky of the Year by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible, a prestigious international publication. So, why is Bakery Hill still so little known? “Quality is the most important thing we do … not volume,” says Baker. “The demand for our whiskies is so intense we can’t advertise.” Little known outside whisky circles then.

Production has increased over the years, but Baker is running out of room for a product that’s stored for five-to-eight years. This, plus being inconveniently located for tours and tastings, means Bakery Hill is relocating to larger, more welcoming premises in Kensington next month.

Meanwhile, there’s what Baker’s son and offsider Andrew calls an “impromptu welcome-to-Kensington event” for Melbourne Whisky Week. The August 28 Boilermaker Degustation pairs Bakery Hill whiskies with host venue and imminent neighbour Bonehead Brewing’s beers.

The story of Mornington Peninsula distillery Chief’s Son (chiefsson.com.au) began more conventionally, with a love of whisky, but there were surprises too. Stuart McIntosh gave his father what turned out to be a competition-winning bottle that took them both to Scotland. The prize included a tour of the origin distillery, which instantly convinced McIntosh that making whisky “would be a great hobby”.

Barrels in Chief’s Son distillery.Credit:

In 2013, that hobby became a commercial enterprise after his intensely rehearsed, 11-word pitch to his wife. Their financial-advice business bankrolled Chief’s Son while the first barrels matured. “The tasting room was the office,” says McIntosh, whose three children â€" including 10-year-old twins born months before that life-changing trip â€" “grew up in the distillery … When they got to school they were surprised not everyone had a distillery.”

A year after Chief’s Son’s first release in 2019, the fledgling distillery entered the World Whiskies Awards. “The first ever barrel we filled commercially won Australia’s best single malt, single cask, no age statement whisky,” says McIntosh, whose surname means “chief’s son” in its original Scottish Gaelic form.

Like most Australian whisky makers, the McIntoshes use craft-beer ingredients, which produce less alcohol but more flavour than distilling ingredients used in Scotland and elsewhere. “Generally Australian whisky’s high-quality and high consistency, and it’s expensive for a reason,” says McIntosh. “In Scotland they create 400 litres of alcohol per tonne of barley. When we create our 900 Standard, we get 230 litres per tonne.” For their pure malt whisky it’s only 80 litres.

Chief’s Son distillery: Australian whisky is high quality and high consistencyCredit:

Most Chief’s Son product is matured in former wine and sherry barrels, but a just-released single malt was aged in barrels that had stored stout. Between special releases like this, and the core range, space is already an issue. “This year we started producing 2½ times more than we have before.” There’s still room for fun, though. Throughout Melbourne Whisky Week, Chief’s Son is hosting guided tastings of four whiskies matched with local cheese, including one washed in 900 Standard.

Liz Beech’s path from chef to Here’s Looking at You, Kid distillery (hereslookingatyoukid.com.au) founder began five years ago. She was travelling with her daughter, who “wanted a break from me, so she booked me into a gin-making class,” recalls Beech. Considering they were in Edinburgh, and mum was more a whisky drinker, it was an odd beverage choice, but she “fell in love with being able to pick your own botanical ingredients and make your own bottle of gin”.

Liz Beech, founder of Here’s Looking at You, Kid, in North MelbourneCredit:

Unable to find anywhere in Melbourne to further her education in distilling gin, as well as vodka, Beech did a course at Kentucky’s Moonshine University. It included classes in making bourbon-style whisky, and hands-on experience at local distilleries including Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark, so she “developed a love of bourbon” and Beech’s path zig-zagged again.

In 2017, soon after establishing the distillery named after Humphrey Bogart’s toast in Casablanca, she began selling gins and vodkas and collecting awards, including American Distilling Institute bronze medals. Early this year, Here’s Looking at You, Kid relocated from Mordialloc to North Melbourne, making masterclasses and tastings possible.

Confident she had the income and brand recognition to warrant sinking money into a product that sits around for two years, Beech finally started making bourbon this month. Unfortunately, “I won’t be able to have ‘bourbon’ on the label,” she says, as manufacture in the United States is one of this appellation’s legal requirements. What Beech will identify as American-style whisky ticks the other boxes, however, including mixed-grain mash of at least 51 per cent rye, and maturation in new American-oak barrels.

While bottles of Grizzly Errol bourbon-in-all-but-name aren’t available until 2023, it will soon be possible to get mini casks to mature at home. Starting August 27 as part of Melbourne Whisky Week, Beech will host bourbon-style whisky masterclasses. Participants ultimately pour their spirit into new one-litre American-oak barrels, “then taste it as it’s ageing,” says Beech. The challenge is not tasting too much too often during those two long years.

Bakery Hill’s Andrew Baker says he was excited to hear about Melbourne’s whisky festival, “because we’ve looked on jealously at Tasmanian Whisky Week and Sydney Whisky Week.” As these three stories and three different approaches to making whisky suggests, the city is ready.

“Melbourne’s changed so much in the last 15 years,” says Baker. “When Dad started making whiskies it was probably more for older gentlemen,” but most Bakery Hill tour and tasting participants are now aged between 18 and 35, and nearly half are female. They ask “who made it, where’s it from, what are the ingredients, tell me a bit about the backstory,” he says. “There’s this yearning for more information, which is also part of the ethos of Melbourne Whisky Week.”

Melbourne Whisky Week is on August 20-29. Event dates may change subject to lockdown regulations. Visit whiskyweek.com.au for more details.

More Melbourne Whisky Week highlights

The Whisky, Spirits and Barrels Pop-Up at Federation Square offers meet-the-maker tastings, cocktails and masterclasses, plus food trucks and cheese; August 20-21.

Whisky-focused Russell Street bar Whisky and Alement hosts several festival events, including Japanese whisky masterclasses; August 21 and 29.

Brunswick’s Gospel distillery has a tour and tasting, followed by an on-site four-course meal with matched cocktails; August 22.

Whisky Freaks founder Greg Sanderson leads the Dram Fine Adventure whisky-appreciation tour of three CBD bars, including Eau de Vie; August 25.

Hardware Lane restaurant-bar Campari House hosts the Whisky-paedia trivia night; August 26.

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