Transcript
Speaker: it is genuinely uniquely Australian. And if I think about the Australian spirits category for, I guess, 180 years now, this is probably the first moment that we have created something that has never existed before in the spirits world. um And so that's pretty special and pretty amazing. And i mean, where does this come from? It comes from Fort Billy's Bloody Shiraz in 2015.
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Speaker: Hello and welcome back to the Full Measure podcast. I'm James Smith. Here with my co-conspirator Luke McCarthy. Hello, good be with you, mate. Yeah, good stuff. This is back with our weekly news review and love it's kind of like Luke travelogue, it seems to be, for a minute. ah Hopefully not. This is it for travel, except for grain stock, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. um So yeah, but hopefully you checked out our first in in-depth interview with Holly Clintworth from Bass and Flinders, which ran last week. If not, we'll include link in the show. I know we've had some amazing reaction to that. Definitely. Yep. I was actually with Holly on Friday ah in Sydney for the judging when it launched. So that was all very weird. um But yeah, the feedback has been incredible. You're still talking?
Speaker: Yes. Well, there you go. Although she said she wasn't going listen to She's like, I don't know if I can listen to myself. was like, just watch the reels then. And yeah I think that was okay. Yeah, no, it was great. So we'll we'll be running those for longer form interviews every couple of weeks for the time being with it with these chats and weekly. um But yeah, you mentioned Sydney then. So what what were you doing in Sydney, Luke? Yes, was up there judging at the Sydney Distilled Spirits Show, well, Sydney Royal Distilled Spirits Show, I should probably say that correctly. Yeah, absolutely fantastic. Incredible array of judges. My panel was, I had Heather Tillett on my panel from Sullivan's Cove, Master Blender, Sam Bygrave, Boothby, and Siren McGoram as well, who has been in and around the drinks trade for a very long time, specialist in whiskey and pretty much everything, bars, you name it. um And then, yeah, just looking around the room, seeing the other panels there judging, it was, yeah, it's It's always for judges, it's very special because we get to come together and and it's obviously a real privilege and an honor to be out to be there judging you know some of the best and the best. And so, yeah, no, it was a fantastic time and just getting up to Sydney, which is not something I feel like I get to do very often anymore. Maybe moving forward, who knows? But yeah, it was a wonderful time. And around the awards, what did you get up to? i think you visited a few places as well? Yes. So the first place that I managed to drop into was Red Mill Rum. And I hadn't even organized anything proper and got to sit down with David Fesk, the founder. Founder of Acilla, extraordinaire. His family has been in the industry. The drinks industry for a very long time. Their family goes back a very long way. And I just cannot recommend this place enough. It is so brilliant. You must go if you're in Sydney. As a hospitality experience as well as for the drinks. it's in an old manufacturing space. It used to be a Steelworks and it's enormous. And they've set up this beautiful little distillery. All of the barrels and most of the barrels are are maturing on site there too. They've got a little hospitality space, which they will be opening in the next ah the next month, I'd say. It might even be sooner, next fortnight. and So it's going to turn this into a new story for us. Yes, it'll definitely be a new story when when it breaks. Yeah. when When they fully open it up and I just cannot recommend what they're doing there. The branding, the execution, the liquid's amazing. Yeah. The signals, I think a really interesting sort of new way forward, but but it's a return to Australia's rum roots and Australia's rum heritage as well. So yeah, I just, yeah, I'm still buzzing from it. It was so amazing and we'll we'll have more on rum. coming very soon and i'm excited to have them in there yeah cool anywhere else you got to while you were up there yes and blackwater auxiliary is just literally around the corner so you pop out of red mill rum uh you should all be doing this if you're sitting in face pop out of red mill rum into black wattle um had a martini with the crew there and taste it through the range and and yeah look probably some of the best gin being produced in in australia right now i think uh it's absolutely exceptional and
Speaker: Yeah, there's probably more for us to talk about with the Blackwater story moving forward, which is going to be very exciting. Good stuff. Excellent. And that wasn't the only tasting you involved in last week? You were hosting Australian Spirits Tasting for international buyers, is that right? Right, yeah. Fine Food Melbourne. Enormous convention. I have not...
Speaker: been in a room full of so much stuff. You look down, i was very lucky be, I was sort of working with in some ways, definitely Kylie Lethbridge from Australian Distributors Association. I was involved with her and we were there talking to international buyers from from principally from Asia, but other parts as well. We had some some European interests as well, which is was really fascinating. um And then, yeah, presenting these three spirits here, plus the St. Agnes Brandy, which I have at home and forgot to bring. What you these three spirits here for people that are listening as opposed to watching, what would be the three spirits in front us? So what I have in front of us is Overeem Pork Cask, absolutely exceptional delicious. Shout out to Jane who sent that bottle up to me. We have Nildesparandum, their Premier Rum, absolutely exquisite. And then Nort Distillings Sangiovese Gin.
Speaker: And so Chris, thankfully, joined me there. Very easy to spot Chris in a convention hall that's about a kilometer long because Chris is six foot 11. a former professional basketball player. And so he was there, I guess, to help me speak to his beautiful gin and to, I guess, the development of wine gin more generally, is something we'll probably touch on laterally. We'll leave that until the second half of That's right. Yeah. So look, it was a fantastic experience and great to hear feedback from people about the flavors on offer, the story of Australian spirits generally. And yeah, exciting. Hopefully we can get more people in those spaces interested to buy Australian spirits. Yeah, yeah. Oh, you know, it should be a very large market. And, you know, being from the beer industry, I know there's been a people like over the years look to get into those markets, but beer is obviously a different product. You know, there is some success being found generally by the more sort of esoteric sort of beers hitting the middle class in some countries, but it's a very different proposition, obviously, for spirits. Yes, yeah, a little bit easier in some ways. You can just send the stuff over and it's sort of, you know, it's born to travel, spirits are. So, yeah, it will be very interesting to see how we can manage to get people engaged. And I think there's so much interest especially Southeast Asia across countries. Like I've spent days, I've done some FAMIL programs as they call them. I don't know why it's called FAMIL yet. I've forgotten. Someone out there will be able to film you and what it actually means. Get familiar with something. Yeah, something like that. I don't know. Global Victoria has had people and buyers in and hosted some fantastic events to try bring people to Australia and give them a hands-on, I guess, guide and tour of what's happening in Australian spirits here. um there's a number of organizations both at the government level and guess the the spirits organizational level that are trying to engage uh people overseas and give them more in i guess an introduction to what's happening here so yeah it's it's exciting really for me yeah and i guess closer to home um think the winners were announced maybe week or two ago, but we only picked the results a few days ago. The inaugural, I must get this right, Royal Tasmanian Whiskey and Spirits, they announced their winners. Around about 250 entries, I think, and Lark, one of their whiskeys picked up four trophies there. I think it was all, I'd looked down the full list of entries. There were entries from outside Tasmania, I think the Tasmanians cleaned up in their inaugural Home Awards. Yes, as they would have hoped to, I would guess. So, show awards, obviously just judge some, we'll probably look at show awards in depth, in greater depth moving forward. But yes, this is a significant show, I think, because Tasmania, where they enter, where they don't enter, is obviously, has its complications. But a lot of Tasmania producers entered this particular awards, which is fantastic. And I know the folks who have put together the awards and the chief judges involved. And yeah, they did a fantastic job. They a lot of whiskey entries, which was great. And obviously, lark took the chops. Yeah, think it was something like maybe, yeah, two thirds were whiskey entries. Yes, I think so. The rest were spirits. Yeah, yeah. But then a higher percentage of gold within the wider spirits category as well. I guess they probably judged whiskey pretty tightly down there. Yeah, yeah, I think so. And so I got to spend some time with nearly all of the judges at Tasmanian Whiskey Week, which it sort of happened around that same period, which spoke about last week. Yeah, so I'm really fascinated in judging program moving forward. And obviously the big talking point of it is there's cash prize. So if you win Champion Whiskey, you get whole bunch of cash, you get 10 grand. So yeah, that to me is a fascinating side to it. I think Lark going to use the money that they won this year to set up a couple of different programs, one of their distillers. So weren't just going to pocket the money. going to try and use it charitably for both their organization and Tasmanian Whiskey Spirits moving forward. So yeah, really interesting one.
Speaker: Yeah, cool. And the other one from last week, which we're still sort of coming down from, such a big deal. We chatted about it briefly in the Crafty Pint podcast, which I was very lucky to to spill over into. Yeah, yeah. Which you will be doing for the rest of this month. Yeah, so I don't know. I haven't had any feedback yet on how I went. I'm sure itll I'll get it today and tomorrow. But um yeah, mate, congratulations again on your trailblazing award at Melbourne Food and Wildlife Festival. I wasn't actually a trailblazer. No, you so you were just the... um'm I'm a legend a legend. A legend. Which has been rather amusing in a number of ah texts and sort of you know emails and messages coming in.
Speaker: And actually on on Father's Day, I was trying trying to sort of hint to my kids that we should go down to this gelato place in Fairfield, which is called Papa Gelato. was like, can you come up with another name for fathers? it's So they work out what I was hinting we should do later in the day. of They're going, legend. And I'm like, it's very nice you to say so. But yeah but ah no, it was very cool. um Yeah, so every year for a number of years now, Melbourne Food and Wine, I've had a Legends and Trailblazers Award, um nominates kind of peer nominated by previous winners. They had a whole bunch of categories like chef, restaurateur. And yeah, I was in the communicator, educator um category for work on Crafty Pint. It was nice to get suited and booted. ah And I'd been like that for, you know, Will's wedding. So was twice in three days I was suited and booted. Yeah. And down there, you know, got to receive the award. Said, you've two minutes to speak. it Might have gone over that a little bit. I had a very tight two minutes worked out and then started sort ad-libbing a bit. um But yes, um you know, just sort of sat there going, oh, look at look who's here. Look at all these, wow you know, a lot of people, you know, famous from the small screen. Jump on and have a look at some of the photos. There's some big, big names there. Yeah, and I think they'd done they'd really... i was lucky in this year they sort of stepped up as well. They did at the NGV at one of the rooms there, so it was very, very very fancy. So that was that was ah yeah nice to... you know When you spend your life just sat in front of a laptop tapping away, you sort of don't really realise... You don't even know who's paying attention, so that was that was very very sweet. Yeah, mate, huge congrats. And obviously, if anyone knows Crafty, he does not like to talk himself up in the bloody slightest, so... Huge congrats. It's a massive moment. And yeah, mate, kudos to you. Well done. Thanks very much. Well, I think on that note, shall we take a a short break and then we'll come back and chat about gin?
Speaker: Let's do it, yeah. All See you after the break.
Speaker: Calling all distilleries and spirit industry suppliers. At The Full Measure, we're aiming to build Australia's most comprehensive directory of distillers and the industry that supports them.
Speaker: Every listed distillery will benefit from product profiles, venue information, event promotion and more. Not only is it a great avenue to connect with new customers, driving both online sales and cellar door footfall, you'll also be supporting The Full Measure as we create a new home for spirits journalism.
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Speaker: Welcome back. Welcome back, Luke. Hello. I think we've probably mentioned this before. The planner is sort of over the opening weeks and months of of the full measure to sort of delve into all the key, I guess, spirits categories and, you know, sort of um some explainers, some deep dives, that kind of thing. yeah And we were chatting earlier today and you kind of like this is kind of gin week.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, definitely Gin Week this week. Gin Week. Diving in. but Taking a deep dive into the world of gin. um but And specifically this week, though, something that you know you've been telling me is pretty uniquely Australian, um wine gin. So yeah for those who are, you know, obviously, I guess it kind of explains what it is in the title, but beyond sort of...
Speaker: wine and gin being involved in the one thing, you know but what what is this this this part of the the the wide boo spectrum we're talking about here? Yeah, I think, look, it is something we we'll be concentrating on as we move forward, exploring different subjects and themes and spirits and trying to get to as many different spirits categories as we can moving forward. And this week, I really want to focus on gin. um And yeah, I'm starting with wine gin, which I think would be so we we be slightly controversial for for some people. It's not... Something like you, Luke. Yeah, wow well, it's it's not it's not your traditional classicist love, but it is genuinely uniquely Australian. And if I think about the Australian spirits category for, I guess, 180 years now, this is probably the first moment that we have created something that has never existed before in the spirits world. And so that's pretty special and pretty amazing. And i mean, where does this come from? It comes from Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz in 2015. So...
Speaker: Cam McKenzie decided to macerate some Shiraz grapes in their their dry gin. And I was actually you know i was actually with Stu Greger and Sally who founded the name basically. um Stu Greger, one of the Four Pillars co-founders, ah they had been mucking around with his gin for a while. They didn't really know what to call it or what it was. It was so unique and so different. And and and Sally sort of turns to Stu at one point and like, oh, you're still thinking about that bloody Shiraz gin? And that's literally how the name came about from that. And so Bloody Shiraz becomes this you know this massive moment in the Australian gin landscape and and really probably the Australian distilling landscape because it it takes together two components that are pivotal to Australian booze and drinks generally. And it puts a completely new spin on, I guess, what you call the slow gin style. So if you remember the slow berries, slow gins, very old style where you take slows, which are, you know you would know from from there from the UK, Scotland and and England, you know they're pretty bitter, astringent. There's not much you can do with them. But when you macerate them in gin, it just creates this something really delicious. Normally, you know you you sugar is involved in to try and balance out...
Speaker: the components and flavors there. What's really unique about wine grape gins is you got a lot of sugar in the grapes already. And so when they you know finally brought it to market, it was incredible how rich and voluptuous and just purely delicious it was. And a very surprising thing, and it's caused this revolution in Australian gin makers where they're trying to think about, well, Does everyone jump on board? Thankfully, we've got, i was talking to Chris Cameron r from Nort last week. I mentioned about 30, but he thinks it's probably more than that now. And each taking, you know, there's some different approaches in there as well. Is that right? Yeah. Everyone's doing it the same way, but there's different ways of building these wine gins. Absolutely. And this is where you start to dive down into the complexity of it. So I was very lucky. And when you know when you get to do the the spirits judging stuff like I do, you get to speak to you know some of the best in the industry. And having them all in one room, especially from a journal point of view, it's actually really bloody handy. So at one point, um at one of the lunch breaks, I ah had ah Sarah Prowse, who's ah the master... the master distiller for Four Pillars and Tim Boast from Never Never. And we just quickly got into you know a fantastic chat on this style. And, you know, Sarah is now leading Four Pillars yeah know forward, especially on the wine gin front. So they're also doing like single vintage stuff as well, really homing in on their region. And then Tim Boast and their gin ash, it's the same thing. They're using McLaren Vale, Grenache, And so you get, you know, what we're starting to find now across the country. and there's Tasmanian Pinot Noir gins. There's, we're going to be looking at Holly from Bass and Flinders herb, Pinot Noir gin as well. So wherever these styles are sort of adopted or taken up across the country, often they're they're trying to work with- Reflective of what's local yeah absolutely yeah yeah so I mean that's what's so amazing about Australian wine and so we're starting to get that reflected in Australian gin too so yeah a really really unique style and not something you'll find currently really being produced anywhere in the world yeah so at some point on the site this week you will have a feature of yes deep dive into wine gin plus a guided tasting some of your favorites yep yeah also some of the stand out standouts as well I um i think the plan is
Speaker: to follow that reasonably soon with a look at some maritime coastal gins as well. Yeah, definitely. Something I'd not tried too much of until pretty recently, but yes some again, incredibly distinctive flavours that, you know, feels like it's, you know, pretty localised or something that's been celebrated here, you know, more than else elsewhere. Yeah, definitely. And so I think that's what I'm finding so incredible about the Australian gin category now and moving forward where, you know, Maritime Gin's a great example of that. The fact that we can create gins that now speak specifically to place and different places within Australia as well and sort of really highlight that is is just such a joy. And so that's why i really wanted to start with these two categories because I think moving forward, I mean, sky's the limit for how big and how broad and hopefully the sort of reach that they might be able to achieve internationally. So, yeah it should be fun. so So look out for those tastings. ah It's been an an absolute pleasure riding them and and obviously tasting through the gins, which has been has been good. As someone who's not as fully immersed in it as as you've been, you know with my primary focus, haven't been beer um for long time now. It seemed to me that when the gin explosion first happened, whether it was here or whether it was you know in the UK when I was trips back over there, it was kind of like, I'll let some variations on themes with botanicals. yeah Whereas here, you've actually got two very distinctive like categories and ideas. It's not just like, oh, let's just shuffle this around for a little bit. you know is' this They're very...
Speaker: very much know their their own thing. Oh yeah, absolutely. And so we've now got, um you know, Brogan Kirkhorans is doing a PhD on native botanicals at the moment. So, you know, the the level of depth and and intrigue and interest and research that's now going into, you know, understanding the the Australian gin style, the use of native botanicals, It's just, you know, it's on another level at the moment. And so that's that's really fun. There's been the gin explosion now. I think we're getting the refinement of of where Australian gin is and where it might be moving forward. And that's going to continue. And that's something I'm very excited to be talking about the full measure more and more. so Excellent. um And looking ahead as well, and we'll be adding the in our industry um section to the website probably this week as well, where we've got a space for industry news, which can be sort of, I guess, less, maybe sort of more...
Speaker: just happening more sort of instant news media release based stuff on top of Luke's more in-depth features so you've got anything think the wider world might want to know about shoot us an email either to luke at thefullmeasure.com.au or cheers at thefullmeasure.com.au anything you think might be newsworthy my experience you'll have found the same thing my experience in beer over the last 16 17 years people know they'll be doing stuff and they're just they won't realise that there's actually an audience for it. It's like, just try us. It doesn't take too long send an email or call us or whatever. And anything you've got going on, please do drop us a line. And also, if you'd like to get involved in supporting what we're doing, we'd love to hear from you. Craig at thefullmeasure.com.au is your man for that. No in-depth interview this week. We'll be back with another one next Friday. We'll be back with one of these chats this week.
Speaker: Everything we've talked about will be in the show notes. for this show. And aside from that, and any more travel this week, Luke, or you back on terra firma? No, I've got us i've just got to stay still. For one, my partner's just like, oh, are you thinking about traveling? Yeah, absolutely not. No, it's been it's been in ah a hectic period, especially launching everything. But obviously all these plans that all the travel I've had to do over the last month So it's all been related, it's all been related to what we're doing. know You can taste lot of spirits. Yes, yeah, and that's the advantage. you It gets me out and gets me talking to aid distillers. Very keen to to do some more consumer bits moving forward and really focus down on that. So, yeah, and I mean, up until grain stock, I think I'm, yeah, terra firma, Melbourne, head down, writing, tasting, nothing else. Trying to ah live um at a slightly more sedate pace because the last few weeks have been anything but.
Speaker: Great. Okay. Well, root Luke, a whole week in your company. Let's see what we can get up to. For everyone listening, watching at home or at work, um if you do enjoy the show, please make sure you like, subscribe, rate or review. Tell your mates. um You know, the faster we can reach people, the better for us, the better for you, the better for the Australian spirits industry. um Enjoy the show and we'll see you next week. Cheers.
Speaker: Cheers. The Full Measure podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman. For all partnership inquiries, reach out to c Craig Williams, craig at thefullmeasure.com.au. To keep up to date with everything happening in Australian spirits, visit thefullmeasure.com.au and subscribe.
