Transcript
Speaker: I'm going to rapidly talk about something else that I really love, which is refill cask maturation. Talk about what's going on in the barrel, right? You've usually got three things. You've got that what the cask is giving, what the cask is taking away, and then you've got that third thing, which I just, it's the magic. It's the organic matter reacting and changing and creating new flavours. And I feel like the best lens to witness that reaction through is the lens of a second fill barrel that's got to go on for 20 years.
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Speaker: Welcome to the Full Measure podcast. Great to have you with us. We're very lucky to be joined this week by an extra special guest, someone I've been lucky to know for a long time. And she's here because there's a lot of relevance in one of the stories that we published this week, which we'll get to in a moment. But it is my joy and my pleasure to welcome to the Full Measure podcast, Miranda Lidgewood, the Brand and Communications Manager for Sullivan's Cove. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you so much, Luke.
Speaker: I'm so happy to be here. So obviously, as you you would have found, we'd communicated on this story. Jump onto the website you'll be able to see this really fascinating story on where Sullivan's Cove is in terms of an export push, in terms of, I guess, starting to give some people overseas a bit more of the Sullivan's Cove story and, of course, a little bit more whiskey. So um everyone will be jumping online to to to read the story. But if you could give us a little bit of and ah an understanding of, yeah, what's going on in the export push for Sullivan's Cove right now? Yeah, absolutely. It's really exciting, right? So we've got um a pretty amazing established already happening following over in Singapore. I was lucky enough to be able to visit Singapore earlier this year with our director of Whiskey Creation, Ms. Heather Tillett. And yeah, just to see the love for the brand over there was incredible. There was people that have been supporting Sullivan's for over 20 years, pre any of the global acclaim. So to be able to connect with them was really special. um Andy, our CEO is doing incredible work driving the export forward. We are strategically allocating some whiskey to Asia. So Hong Kong and Singapore being the two priority markets. And we've got incredible people on the ground over there with La Maison du Whiskey, with Northeast in Hong Kong, and then Nimbility over the top of them.
Speaker: And then also we've just appointed Mr. David Ferguson, who is our export manager for US, UK and our boots on the ground in that region. While Asia at the moment is remaining a priority, we're really, really excited to be showing up in some places in Europe as well. Andy, for example, is at Whiskey Live Paris like tomorrow. Oh, wow. There you go. So, i mean, if we back the story up a little bit, so we're talking like, of course, everyone is familiar Sullivan's Cove, I'm hope they are. I mean, it's one of the biggest stories, one of the biggest success stories in Australian spirits over the last 30, 40 years as well. But for people who might not be as familiar with Sullivan's Cove, can you give us a bit of background as to everything the distillery has been achieving over the last or three decades plus now? Yeah, absolutely. 32 years. I'm the same age as the distillery, so I can never forget it. we were both founded in 1994. I, however, was not founded on the beautiful waterfront of Hobart. I was founded here at Mitchum Private in Melbourne. yeah, established 1994 by a fellow named Rob cussson rob rob Hoskins. sorry He was a businessman. He actually had a very entrepreneurial vision for the brand in the beginning. He was over in Japan. he was on a business trip.
Speaker: He saw Japanese businessmen pairing abalone with single malt whiskey and it made him think of Tasmania. Tasmania's own possibilities, our seafood. We had an incredible brewing industry at that point in time. Amazing barley, amazing skilled brewers. So he saw that and he thought why not whiskey, why not Tasmania? He had a site on the waterfront, old Gasworks building where you might find a Hogsbreath Cafe now. Not very romantic but that's okay. And he was originally going to make it a brewery, but after this trip, he thought, why not a distillery? He commissioned an incredible still from a coppersmith up in Launceston, the very top of Tasmania. um It is a Cherente Alambic still in style. So it's a brandy still. It's absolutely bonkers. It's beautiful. Her name is Myrtle. She's been with us for 32 years. And he started making whiskey, which was incredibly pioneering back in 1994 in Australia. And like not just testing the waters, he was like, no, let's open up a full commercial distillery here on the waterfront, which was yeah pretty incredible at that point in time. So you fast forward, these are the pioneering days, right? We're figuring out how to make whiskey in Australia. We're using our local grains. We're tapping into the industry that we have. The years flow on. It's not quite catching. It's hard work at this point in time and hard work to the point where there were even lulls in production. You know, there was, there was months and I think even at one point a year in time where Sullivan's Cove did not produce because the demand just simply wasn't there.
Speaker: I'm fast forwarding quite a lot because I'm giving you the spark notes. About 2004, a fellow named Pat McGuire came on board. He really doubled down on all the things that made Sullivan's Cove so special and unique and still make Sullivan's Cove special and unique in the Australian context today. And that's things like large format casks. really patient maturation, um always wanting to get the best out of a barrel and eyes for long-term maturation from the outset and, you know, planting things in the brewing and distilling process that will take years and years and years and years and years to mature and actually come good. So he doubled down on all those philosophies, sorry, single cast whiskey as the most prominent practice of Sullivan's Code and the whiskey was amazing and it was starting to be recognized as amazing. So the then marketing manager, and I'm in 2014 now, sorry, Yes, we're trying, we're trying. The then marketing manager, Bertie Carson, he submitted a bottle of HH525 to the World Whiskies Awards and it won World's Best Single Malt Whiskey. This is a story that a lot of people know already, but it it continues and will always be one of the most pivotal moments in Australian whiskey, at an absolute watershed moment. yeah Pat McGuire didn't believe him when he answered the phone. He hung up the phone thinking that it was a prank and then realized, well, no, this is actually real.
Speaker: And yeah, so overnight a spotlight was shone on this tiny little whiskey producing region at the bottom of the world, this little region that could. And then, you know, the the spotlight's on us. So from there, demand went through the roof. And at this point in time, you could have bottled up every single thing in that Bond store and sold it. but Probably ti four or five times over, right A hundred percent, four or five times over. But Pat did not.
Speaker: He let the casks rest. Again, that commitment to allowing every barrel to reach its full potential. And I see some of the age statements that Sullivan's Cove has reached today, and I just can't help but always be grateful to Pat and to the foresight of the team there for allowing those casks to reach that level of age. um And since that point, you know, Sullivan's Cove has gone on to win it again, 2018, again, and again this year in hello Like moths to a flame, awards the Sondam's Cove. It's pretty incredible. And, um you know, I learned that we're the only distillery in the in the world to ever have achieved that many world's best. The Next In Line has done it twice. We've done it four bloody times. I was talking to Christopher Coates, who's the editor at large of Whiskey Magazine and the ex-chair of judges for the World Whiskies Awards. fair And he said that less than 1% of entrants to the World Whiskies Awards will ever receive a world's best. So the probability or just the fact that we've done it four times is incredible. And we can say that, but to hear it from someone else is always really, really nice. Yeah, definitely. So...
Speaker: Back in 2014, when we realised people are probably going to want this whisky, we started laying a little bit more down. The production gap ceased. We started consistently producing. a bunch of an owner investment came in 2016 as well. This is when the distillery changed hands from Pat McGuire to the Sable family. Okay, yeah. And we started making more whisky. Now, you do the math. Sullivan's Cove takes an average about 12 to 14 years to mature. That's now. Yeah. So we've got this extra whisky coming online now and finally enough to share.
Speaker: I do have to always bring context into this though, because it's not like we went from making very little to shit loads. We went from making very, very, very little to making very, very little. What we make is still what a Scottish distillery would spill in a year. So when I say things like strategically allocating, I really do mean that because we want to be able to nurture these markets that have been there and supported us for a long time, but of course taking care of our own backyard first. Yeah. Yeah, it's a huge story. And, you know, basically what you've outlined there very rapidly um is, I guess, not only progression of Sullivan's Cove, but the progression of the Tasmanian industry too, because from 2014, you know, everyone receives renewed attention. There's a bump in sales right across the industry. And the wind helps to ah not only put Tasmanian whiskey, but I guess Australian whiskey. And i've I've even heard people argue world whiskeys on the map and sort of right there it starts to, you know, get people thinking differently about, researching and going after whiskeys that produced in other parts of the world. So it's it's a part of this sort of broader movement. And Sullivan's Cove is absolutely one of the leaders there. Couldn't agree more. Yeah, it's a world whiskey thing. I mean, first just very outside of Scotland or Japan, right? Any major whiskey producing regions. And now you look at all of these incredible, like the the explosion in the world whiskey category over the past 10, 15 years has been amazing. And and it's right up there. It's right up there with the world whiskey sitting on that same stage, and getting those same props. Definitely. And so now you're in this incredible point where you're starting to, I guess, feel out of the markets overseas, which you've touched on. um Maybe talk to us about the seasonal capture releases that you've got coming up, which sort of are going to give people here and overseas a really new, fun perspective on where Sullivan's Cove is now and where it's heading next. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker: It's very exciting, Luke, because gone are the days of a ballot for every single release. Gone the days of, we let you know a whiskey is coming on Friday, you have 24 hours or 48 hours to get in the ballot and then it is gone forever. And so that's the context there as well. This whiskey has become so highly sought after. This ballot, this is contested by people all around the world desperate for, you know, you've had points in your history of the last five years where people just have been unable to get the whiskey. It's been that highly sought after.
Speaker: And I shouldn't, I maybe shouldn't have said that. So um like it was a blanket statement because there will still unfortunately be ballots and wait lists, you know, there there are these casks that are so highly in demand. And, you know, for example, in the seasonal capture that you've just mentioned, we have our very first 20 year old French oak.
Speaker: wow It's the first time we've ever reached that level of age for a French oak release, which is, you know, iconically difficult to age to, to these kinds of lengths. So French oak was obviously the whiskey that won in 2014 as well. The world beating style, if you will. Yes. It's quite iconic. Yes. So yes, that one will be a valid release. It's a single cask. So we're looking at only a couple of hundred bottles per barrel. yeah And yeah, so you've got to you know, put your hat in the ring for that one. And I think that's that's fair enough. yeah But what we're doing is we're not releasing whiskeys exactly as they come to maturation anymore. We can get ahead of it and we can give you guys morning and we can give ourselves all also a little bit of time to campaign them and time to tell their stories properly. Not just going to be a flash in the dark anymore. What we're setting up is a seasonal release cadence where once every quarter we let you know what's coming down the line from Sullivan's Cove over the next couple of months. We do this liquid lead as we are with everything. So we observe what is happening in the Bond store, what casks are nearing maturation, what's already ready to release.
Speaker: We link them. We find a narrative, a through line, something that connects them. And then we tell that story to you guys. We let you know what's coming down. This one is going to be coming next month. This one will be coming in November. And then they will each get their individual moment throughout the season as well. So for our spring capture, we have an incredible 20-year-old French oak single cask.
Speaker: I love it especially as much, I love it especially sorry because it's a refill cask. Right. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to rapidly talk about something else that I really love, which is a refill cask maturation. Talk about what's going on in the barrel, right? You've usually got three things. You've got what the cask is giving, what the cask is taking away. And then you've got that third thing, which I just, it's the magic. It's the organic matter reacting. and changing and creating new flavours. And I feel like the best lens to witness that reaction through is the lens of a second fill barrel that's got to go on for 20 years. You know, that's how you get to the end of a product and you go, well, how does my, you know, whiskey tastes like bubblegum? And that crazy citrus, like those tropical fruits that you get, weird green tea notes. Absolutely. Wonderful herbal floral characters that like, how do you, yeah, that oxidative maturation, what it brings out in the spirit is really unique. And there's not a lot of distilleries in Australia that have been able to capture that just yet because they don't have, i guess, the age profile in bowel, but Sullivan's and some of the other Tazzy's, some of the other distilleries from Victoria and, you know, Western Australia are a approaching that sort of age. I know they're on bird fills now. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, it's it's also, I guess, yeah, synonymous with what's happening brought in more broadly in the Australian industry as well, which is really fantastic and fun. so And also, sorry, in that seasonal capture is a French oak ex-white wine.
Speaker: Oh, right. Yes, the world-beating style of 2026. Thank you. Is that a Chardonnay cast? It is a Chardonnay cast. Okay, right. Yeah. There's also a French oak ex Pinot Noir. That sounds fascinating. My favorite, not to brush past the other two, which are incredible, is a double cask ex Brandy.
Speaker: Right. Where majority, I think about 90% of the casks that make up that batch of double casks are from our own historical brandy program. So our own brandy was matured in them, decanted, and then we put our own whiskey in there. Talk about a full circle moment. Jeez, very full circle. We might get to some brandy a little bit later, but we might just quickly discuss what we've got in our glasses right here. This is the double cask. um And this is but basically the entry level expression for people. That'd be the way to describe it. Yeah, your flagship. Yeah. It's...
Speaker: It's the quintessential Sullivan's Cove, right? It's the snapshot of our Bond store in a glass. And I say that with weight of years behind me, right? Because a double cask from 10 years ago, you look at that side tag and we have side tags on all of our batches of double casks that let you know exactly what barrels went into it. The side tag will read very different barrel prefixes than a batch of double cask would today. Yet every single batch of double cask is creamy, it's fruit forward, yeah and it's unmistakably Sullivan's Cove.
Speaker: There are things that Heather has done and then the production and the sensory team have done to ensure that we always will have that breadth of barrel and cask type and flavour profile to work within our Bond store. And I'm talking to the point where we have three different styles of new make now that we've put into casks so we can replicate that beautiful big HH funk that everybody knows and loves so well. But yeah, double cask, snapshot of our Bond store at a moment in time, made up of around 10 to 12 barrels at once usually. And it's not entire barrels as well. yeah It's small portions of these barrels. So yeah.
Speaker: Heather and the sensory team. i I did work on the sensory team for a year and a half as well. I loved it. I didn't even tell you guys what I do, did I? bad. Yeah, we did. We intro'd you. We got little intro in there. Well, when I started with Sully's, I moved down to Tassie. I've been with Sully's for four and a half years now, but I first started in a sensory slash marketing role. That was literally my title, sensory slash marketing. Very creative. No, actually, yeah, you're right We didn't cover off this. that's all right. Yeah. I worked on the tasting panel. i did blending trials. I would write the tasting notes. I still write the tasting notes. So I got a really, really beautiful view of how double cask comes to that. I even got to make a double cask with Heather and it was the 30th anniversary one. So it was very, very special. yes that was So good. Barrel from each one of our decades or whiskey from each one of our decades went into that batting. That was just a brilliant one. But yeah, watching the way Doublecast comes together, it's so intentional and it's so careful. Like you're pulling 10 litres of, you know, this vibrant, young, youthful American Oakex bourbon cask if you need lift and fruit and citrus. And then you're pulling maybe 15 litres of this one that we call Big Bertha, who's a big, funky red wine job from... the 1990s or early 2010s or something, depending on what the vatting needs. And we'll tweak in in these little blending sessions. You tweak millimeter by millimeter, um you know, little by little until it's found its place, until, you know, all parts of the flavor wheel are really singing together. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Amazing. Well, there's a lot of whiskeys to look out for. Check out the seasonal capture releases that are upcoming. i know there's a of information out about that now. And you've mentioned Heather Tillett a few times. We're actually speaking to Heather Tillett on the Full Measure podcast in the next fortnight. So if Sullivan's Cove and its story and especially the the different spirit profiles, all the finickety things that make Sullivan's Cove so exceptional. Fran, Sylvia and Yetta. Yes, there they are. They've beautiful foresight stills. We cover all that in the in the podcast coming up. So definitely one to to look out for. And yeah, we're going to have Miranda back after after a break because obviously your knowledge of the spirit's world doesn't just stop with whiskey. So fantastic to to have you talk about Sullivan's and thank you for joining us today on that. But we'll be back momentarily after the break.
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Speaker: We're back here with Miranda Lidgerwood from Sullivan's Cove. Now we're going to cover off on some of the spirits news over the last week. And thank you for joining me again, mate. I really appreciate it. um The thing that I'd love to start with is the Australian Gin Awards, which was just recently held. It was a big win for Blackwattle Distilling Co based in Sydney there in Roselle. An amazing awards where, you know, some of the best gins from Australia and New Zealand are pitted against each other judged by some incredible judges led by Mikey Enright there, a Sydney Stalwart, one of the hospital legends of the Sydney scene.
Speaker: um What I also would like to touch on is I guess the breadth of gin that is happening right now, exhibited perfectly at this awards. One of the things that was interesting about the Sydney Dry Gin that got up was very much a sort of a juniper forward gin. So I think there's been this settling period there where we're starting to see that, guess I guess, a return to some traditional characters. You see this play out in whiskey and other places well. Um, Yeah, so the I guess the the awards space is fascinating. I know we covered off on awards last week with with Fred Siggins. I thought it was the last one, but then we realised obviously that the Australian Gin Awards was this week. I know your, you know, Sultan's Cove have made a gin in the past, which a lot of people would sort of not be as familiar with. We forget about that sometimes. I Right. So what are you seeing in sort of Australian Gin land at the moment? Tasmanian Gin. look It's a fascinating category. There's always things happening. yeah Anything ah that sort of comes to mind for you on the Australian Gin space at the moment? Oh, geez. I'm, I'm, give me something that's been in a barrel. um There was a ballet gin category as well. i love I am joking as well. I love our gin industry. I think that there's incredible creativity happening in this space. I love what Brogan is doing at Brogan's Way. She's coming at it from such a technical place and and you know a point of education as well for her consumers and people that she works with. I think it's wonderful. The people behind these products are just amazing yeah as well. And I think we're very lucky in Australia that we've got that breadth of just incredible producers as well as incredible products.
Speaker: and From an industry side, it's just wonderful to be able to tap in into these people and their brains and And learn. Yeah. And learn. Yeah. We're tapping into some of those brains, uh, over the next couple of weeks. We are looking at James Young coming up in one of our podcasts, uh, from old young's a amazing gin distiller, also producer of, uh, the multi award winning, uh, series of gins. Um, prohibition liquor code did quite well in the Australian gin awards as well, taking out the contemporary category, the highly contested contemporary category. And we will eventually be talking to, to Adam Carpenter from Prohibition as well moving forward so excited for that. um Look if you're an Australian gin fan take a look at the awards list have a look at who did really well. For me it's yeah one of the more fascinating awards coming out at the moment because of how many gins, how many Australian and New Zealand gins are rented so it gives you a great sort of snapshot of what's happening in this part of the world. So The other thing that I'd love to touch on, we also published um in the last week was a gin tasting that put together on capturing the coast, sort of maritime Australian gins and, you know, things like Never Never Oyster Shell Gin, the Dasher and Fisher Gin from Tassie, which, you know, works into Wakami and other things into its into its botanical makeup, which gives you this, I guess it gives you a slice of the coast. Down in Mornington Peninsula, we've got Holly Clintworth doing fantastic things with her maritime gin as well. So,
Speaker: The way that Australian distilleries are able to infuse their spirits with characters that are local to their area is fantastic. it's it's ah It's a part of the industry that I'm completely fascinated by. it allows producers to put something specific in their gin to really capture people's attention. And look, Tasmanian whiskeys are on this sort of front as well. You've got ferno, you've got warbs that are in this space of trying to, I guess, inject a little bit of a coastal sort of maritime quality into their whiskeys as well. Sullivan's has obviously played around with this idea. Do you want to speak to that as well? Well, I mean, maritime can describe several different things, right? Yeah. yeah In a gin, a distiller might build the impression of maritime with actual coastal botanicals. At Fanoan Warbs, the sea is part of the place where the whiskey is made and matured. So I sometimes think about the consumer in these conversations because it's like if you read maritime in marketing or on a bottle or something, how do you know is this made by the ocean or is it made with ingredients of the ocean? yeah And where's that?
Speaker: Where's that line and what defines a maritime gin? Yeah. and Oh, I think it's interesting because from the Scottish perspective, I guess, we've been taught to believe and, you know, I've been very lucky to go distilleries like Boonehaven and Bermore on Islay where, you know, sometimes the the wall where the barrels are matured is right up against the sea. And, you know they've had storms in the past where seawater actually, know, you rushes into the dunnage where the bowels are sitting. And so you think, oh, is that, is there a salty sort of marachime character being injected into the whiskeys that way? Like certainly the the Campbelltown whiskeys from Springbank, you always sort of think that this feels like a funky, weird character that must be sort of, you know, injecting itself into the cask.
Speaker: Who knows, right? I think Australian distilleries are very interested in in this and what we get in Australia, it's probably potentially a bit different in Scotland for the maturation side of things, is the very you know distinct swings in climate. So, you know, Fleurio, for instance, has a character in Goulwa in South Australia, which they would sort of describe as as being sort of salty and saline and maritime. But obviously that's a very different climate compared to somewhere like Warbs, which is on the east coast of Tassie. So,
Speaker: Yeah, that's an interesting side of things. Have you seen that maybe Australia is still sort of trying to find some of the queues or look to some of the queues that Scotland set up over the years? i think so. Maybe. i mean, yeah, definitely. yeah And also for us in Sullivan's Cove, Tasmania's climate, obviously, it matters enormously during maturation to us. shapes our whiskey. But yes, I would, as a producer, be careful about claiming that every coastal tasty note comes directly from sea air yeah or something like that because a whiskey can evoke the coast without necessarily there being one simple explanation for that flavor. Yes. Like Sullivan's Cove has an incredible salinity to it, an incredible briny note that is true to its new make. Yep.
Speaker: You can't smell the ocean at Sullivan's coat. You could once upon a time, not anymore. You could once upon a time. one of Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a fascinating site to the industry. And yeah. So if you're interested in, well, we're coming into the summer months. All I want to do in the summer months is just crush a GNT by the beach. Um, So jump on have a look at those tastings. And look, if you're a fan of maritime whiskeys or you're interested in the Scottish style of things, get in touch with us, either comment on socials or send us in an email and we can maybe explore that a little bit more depth on multiple fronts on the age spirit front moving forward as well. um Now, we've also in just over the last week put up some fantastic distillery listings, which I'd love you to check out. The one most pertinent to my heart, of course, we love all of them, but this one has a special place for me because i was very lucky to write the book on this particular distillery, St. Agnes Distillery. The book I'm holding in my hand is the one that I published to mark their e centenary. The brandy they produce is absolutely exceptional, probably Australia's leading brandy producer. And yeah, the story going back a hundred and years, obviously there's a book that you can read, um, to find out the full story, but, um, we're trying to sort of give people a new perspective on Australian branding, I think. And Sullivan's, uh, brilliantly Miranda joined us today can speak to the Sullivan's brandy program. You're now maturing, um, you ex-brandy cast as well. So, but where did the, I guess the Sullivan's co story in brandy originate?
Speaker: It's actually a really cool and a very quintessentially and wonderfully Tasmanian story. Okay. So it starts with wine from the Panorama Vineyard in the Huon Valley, planted by a Hungarian immigrant by the name of Steve Forens. Right. Now it turns out Steve made some pretty incredible wine.
Speaker: Yep. In the early 1990s, Qantas bought his entire annual Chardonnay release for their first class passengers, for example. He was a head of the Australian wine industry in many ways at this time. He was really humble, but he was highly influential and completely pesticide free also, which was very interesting interesting. So to make a long story, because it is a long and it's a very cool story, but I'll make a long story short. He sold the vineyard to a man named Michael.
Speaker: Michael was in business with a fellow named Duane. Duane happened to be a part owner of Tasmania Distillery. which is what Sullivan's Cove Distillery operated under from 2004 to 2016. So Tasmania Distillery equals Sullivan's Cove Distillery. yep They ended up having a bit of a falling out. um As part of their separation deal, that collection of wine eventually ended up getting stored in our distillery. So it sat there for years before a Pat essentially cracked it.
Speaker: yeah And I mean cracked it in both senses of the word. He cracked it because it was taking up space. So he then cracked the lids and poured it into the still. Oh my God, okay. And decided to make some brandy. Unconventional? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that anybody expected it to become such a significant part of our story, but after using the cask, we've got something really special there. yeah It actually went on, i think barrel number TDB88 went on to win the World Brandy Awards and the French were pissed, but it was it was incredible, incredible brandy. We've since then released those casks and we treated it the exact same way as we treat our whiskey. So matured as single casks, nurtured everyone to its individual peak helicopter parented it during its maturation, noting every little turn and change, and then bottled single cask and double cask expressions. Exactly the way that we treated our whiskey. yeah The final twist is that once those casks were emptied, we filled them with our new make spirit, and thus we have whiskey born of our historic brandy program. I don't know if there's any other distilleries. You can tell me if there's any other distilleries out there that have whiskey matured in brandy casks that was brandy that they made and matured.
Speaker: I cannot... Whiskey. Yes. Well, yeah. St. Agnes. Oh, of course. But that would be the only other one. So synnnas I've got the bartenders cut here. Some of the components for St. Agnes brandies. Yeah. So they're whiskeys. These are the Cambon whiskeys. They would be the only other one I can think of anywhere in the world. Maybe in France, there's a couple thinking around, but yes, highly, highly unique. Otherwise. yeah Yeah. So cool and so delicious. And she might kill me if I told you guys this, but brandy is one of Heather's favorite drinks, maybe even a little bit above whiskey. So, you know, we care deeply about our brandy. Our Charente Alambic still is made to make brandy, right? So there's something, if there's really something there. And a batch of double cask has come together. That is, as I said earlier in the ep, comprised predominantly of whiskey matured in these ex-brandy casks with, I think, just one edition of a French oak ex-apero to give it a little bit of breadth because it was mostly American oak that the ex-brandy casks were. So to be a double cask, French and American. Yep. And you needed a little bit of, you know, fleshing out of the flavor profile. So that one will be coming out in the spring seasonal capture. I think it's going to drop sometime in November, just in time for Christmas. An ex-Bwandy cask, just in time for Christmas. Who would have thought? Look out for it. so And I bought you a little sample of them.
Speaker: Oh, okay. Well, I'll have to taste it and write it up for the site very soon. But yeah, St. Agnes story and the Australian Brandy story is something obviously we're obsessed with. We've covered it a fair bit over the last month. We're going to keep covering it until you all start to drink more brandy, I think. so What is the challenge? Is it getting people to try it or is it helping people understand that it's there and it's so vast? Yeah. I think all of the above and the XO piece that we put up on, you know, really address that specifically. So it's a very broad category as well. So you've got entry-level brandies, you've got exceptional brandies, especially from St. Agnes in the 20, 30, 40, 50 year old range, which is utterly exceptional. So jump on, have a read. It's a fascinating side the industry, which we love. um But I think we'll sort of finish off with a couple of events that are coming up.
Speaker: love to discuss ah Vine Hop. Vine Hop, the giveaway that is happening um via Crafty Pine and the Full Measure at the moment. Vine Hop is an incredible event happening on November 21st down in the Mornington Peninsula, over 30 producers. cross categories which we love at the full measure and at crafty pint so we've got spirits producers wineries breweries are putting on a fantastic show check it out out and jump on the website to see what's happening in the giveaway space there and finally sullivan's cove also got some events that you can check out too So this seasonal capsule we've been talking about, we're previewing it in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart. Attendees of these events will get priority access to the collection. So you get what's basically a golden ticket and you can write what you would like for the spring seasonal capture. Let us know. And you would be skipping the ballot and securing your access.
Speaker: We're doing one at Odevie in Sydney, one at Evolve in Hobart and one with our friends at Casa Divinos in Melbourne. I'm super duper excited. They should all be up on our website. And I believe this podcast will be out before they all happen. so Wow, there you go. So yeah the early word right here. Love it. Exclusives.
Speaker: Fantastic. Well, Miranda, thank you so very much for joining us. It was an absolute pleasure. It always is a pleasure talking to you. Good luck with everything Sullivan's coming forward. And, yeah, hopefully we'll have to have you back soon, I reckon.
Speaker: Thank you. I've loved it. Pleasure to be here. Fantastic. All right. Thank you so very much for joining us today. And we will be back next week with more Australian Spirits News. Cheers. The Full Measure podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman.
Speaker: For all partnership inquiries, reach out to Craig Williams, craig at thefullmeasure.com.au. To keep up to date with everything happening in Australian spirits, visit thefullmeasure.com.au and subscribe.
