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THE PROCESS Rye is the heart of our whiskey. We source our grain from a single farmer, located in the Murray Mallee region, on the border of Victoria and South Australia. Chosen specifically for its dry, harsh climate, the rye produced there is small and dense, with flavour unmatched by rye from other areas. The un-malted rye is then ground to a coarse flour, with 1.6 tonnes of this full flavoured grain feeding into our hammer mill at 6am every morning, and then mashed in our specially designed mash tun. The mash tun’s precise temperature control and high-speed agitator makes sure we get the very best out of the rye. Rye, a particularly ornery grain, can destroy the soul of...

In late February this year we heard rumblings about the Coronavirus hitting Australian shores.  At the time, Italy seemed to be going through hell and all the talk was – what’s going to happen here.  Even before the first stage of lockdowns started, Ben and I chatted about how we could manage the business through the potential bleakness coming our way.  Our first move was to break the work group up into working panels, ensuring that no panel crossed paths with the other.  To be honest, this started as a way of us protecting the business from shutdown as at the time we did not even feel a real threat to our health.  At the time I remember thinking that...

RYE IS the gospel It is widely believed that whiskey was first distilled for medicinal use by monks and apothecaries in Scotland and Ireland. The distillation of whiskey evolved as it moved from monastic to secular, as it did with the path of migration over hundreds of years. Early Scotch-Irish settlers in the USA used rye to make whiskey because barley didn’t adapt to the North American climate. These conditions are also true for the dry climate of Australia, where we set out to reimagine this original American spirit using 100% Australian rye. We use proven techniques of the world’s most famous distilleries, coupled with the attention to detail that only a craftsman can offer, to create rye whiskey with...