NEWS
ARCHIE ROSE REVEALS PLANS FOR THE NEW YEAR The Archie Rose Distilling Co. celebrated its first birthday, unveiling its first casks of aged rye as well as some other surprises. In an extremely eventful first 12 months Archie Rose has laid down over 300 casks, turned over 3000 distillery tours and picked up several awards – including a master medal in the inaugural Distillery Masters competition. And as founder Will Edwards revealed there is still a lot more to come. “We couldn’t have asked for a better and more rewarding first year of operation,” Edwards said. “It’s a credit to our amazing team and the hard work we have invested over the last few years to make Archie Rose a reality. Most importantly though it’s down to the way Sydney and Australia have embraced the distillery, our tours, the Archie Rose Bar and of course our gin, vodka and white rye.” He added: “As far as whisky goes, we’ve got around 280-odd casks of single malt now laid down, and about 73 casks of rye. And with the gin and vodka as well, which was really the goal for year one, we’ve managed to get in available nationwide, which is a big thing for us.” Edwards also revealed that the distillery is planning to release some new products next year. Prior to the announcement, Edwards revealed to b&c that distillery production manager Dave Withers has been studying rum distillation through the prestigious Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh Scotland, and has been dedicating himself to sourcing the highest grade molasses that can be found in Australia – no easy task given the potential costs involved. The process will also present some unique logistics issues – cold chain storage is just the beginning – according to Edwards, however the distillery has managed to navigate potential problems and is looking forward to beginning production on a unique rum product, and potentially a limited supply of rhum agricole (a cane juice-based style of spirit).
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AUSTRALIAN DISTILLERS WIN BIG IN SAN FRANCISCO The San Francisco World Spirits Competition (SFWSC) has been judged for another year, with more than 1700 spirits submitted, making it the largest field in 16 years of the competition. There were multiple Double Gold Medals handed out with West Australian rum proving a favourite with the judging panels – both The Grove Experience and The Hoochery Distillery were awarded the prestigious titles for their Spiced Rum and Spike’s Reserve 10 Year Old Ord River Rum respectively. Four Pillars Gin also continued its winning streak, picking up its second Double Gold Medal in three years for Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin. There were plenty of other Australian winners with Hippocampus (pictured) taking home a gold medal for its gin that is just three months old. The distillery’s vodka also picked up bronze medal, with distiller Alex Poulsen ecstatic with the result. “What’s awesome about the SFWSC is to see how your spirit stacks up against other spirits from around the world,” he says. “It’s one of the biggest competitions of its kind so for our gin to receive a gold medal from a blind panel of industry experts is humbling indeed.” Also snagging a gold medal for its gin was Archie Rose in Sydney, with the distillery also picking up a silver medal for its White Rye. McHenry Distillery brought home a medal of each colour from San Francisco, with the McHenry Navy Strength Gin, McHenry Classic Dry Gin, and McHenry Barrel Aged Gin picking up gold, silver and bronze respectively. Ironbark Distillery also snagged four medals, with its 313 Dry Gin taking silver, 313 Dry Wattleseed Gin taking bronze, the 4 Week Barrel Aged Moonshine taking silver and the Crystal Clear Unaged Moonshine also being awarded bronze. In a statement on Facebook, the distiller stated that “this is testament to the work we put in to making spirits that showcase what craft distillers in Australia are doing, and proves that our craft industry can compete on a world stage.” Dobson’s Distillery also snagged two medals, a silver for the world-first Sumac Gin (which is made using the terpene pinene extracted from sumac instead of juniper) and a bronze for the New England Dry Gin, with the distiller noting on Facebook that the team is “suitably chuffed”. New Tassie gin distillery Poltergeist also picked up medals for both it’s gins with a gold medal for the Unfiltered version, and a silver for the Filtered spirit. West Australia’s resident gin slingers at The West Winds confirmed that they awarded a “gold and a couple of silver” through their portfolio of gins – they were also the first Aussies to ever bring home Double Gold on multiple occasions. And brand new tequila folks, Sesión took home gold for the Mocha Tequila as well as a silver for both their Blanco and Reposado, making it a medal for every product they distill.