It’s not enough just to be Australian. To set the single malt world alight our whisky needs to blow the doors off! Kinglake Distillery are giving consumers a compelling reason to go Aussie.
The Australian single malt scene has exploded from a few Tasmania distilleries to over a hundred, and big players like Starward and Morris are starting to establish its’ reputation internationally. But why would a consumer pick up an Aussie whisky rather than a Scotch? Being ‘New World’ alone will not set us apart from new producers in India, Taiwan, and France.
Being new gives producers the opportunity to take a traditional product in a new, better, more exciting direction. With more Aussie authenticity, provenance and innovation.
Sustainable
It starts before we even begin making whisky. Sustainability has moved on from being a tick box exercise and consumers want to see it as part of the business DNA, it’s difficult for existing whisky behemoths to backwards engineer this.
Off-grid Kinglake Distillery was the first, and is still, the only producer of a certified carbon neutral Australian single malt.
Agricultural Land in Kinglake is some of the most fertile and valuable in Australia, due to high rainfall and seasonality. However, the distillery re-wilded a third of their property to natural habitat with carbon sequestration charity Greenfleet, bringing nature in closer and sharing their space with the local wildlife environment
Process
Scotch whisky producers focus heavily on alcohol yield when choosing a malt for their whisky hence the focus on single, super high starch varieties like Concerto and Laureate.
At Kinglake yield is secondary to flavour and we use a complex blend of four different malts, one of which is chocolate roasted, significantly reducing yield but with unique flavour and mouthfeel. Our Aussie malt supplier Voyager provides us complete traceability on all grain, where it was planted and harvested and by who.
Wash brewing in Scotch lasts approximately 72 hours only and is tightly controlled. We take an entirely different approach. Our fermentations are uniquely open-air and given plenty of time (7 days plus) for natural yeasts and eucalyptus pollens to affect the final flavour.
As well as experimenting with open air ageing of barrels, Kinglake also uses native redgum casks to finish their whisky.
Aussie Authenticity and Transparency
The trend for releasing ‘no age statement’ single malt has been adopted by many Australian producers as they release their first whiskies. However, we believe that the customer should have as much information as possible and if it’s great whisky at 3-4 years old then tell the customer that. All Kinglake whisky has an age statement attached.
Australia is a young vibrant country and it’s ok that our whisky is too. It will slowly age as we do.
Being an Australian single malt needs to stand for doing something different and Kinglake Distillery has created a uniquely Australian whisky-making process, from start to finish.