New whisky simply liquid gold
TUCKED away in a suburban Adelaide warehouse is a whisky distillery that is winning international accolades.
Whisky doyen Jim Murray has listed one of its drops in the 2012 edition of The Whisky Bible as “one of the most astonishing whiskies it has been my honour to taste. Frankly I am on my knees”.
This is high praise for Southern Coast Distillers in Welland. The distiller began selling its whisky only this year, online and at the Rob Roy Hotel and East End Cellars in the city.
“Our first customer was an Adelaide plastic surgeon who bought a bottle at a charity auction and paid $500 for it in February this year,” co-owner Ian Schmidt said.
The surgeon has been back to buy more, and the single malt batch 002, lauded as liquid gold by Mr Murray, has sold out at $110 a pop.
The company established a website this year and is receiving increasing numbers of purchases online. Most hits are from Australia, followed by the US and Ireland. It also has won medals through the Malt Whisky Society of Australia.
Southern Coast is one of about a dozen distillers in Australia. It all began when Mr Schmidt met Tony Fitzgerald and Victor Orlow through their children’s Rose Park school and they discovered a shared passion for whisky. After gradually improving their knowledge about making whisky, they decided to apply for a licence in 2004.
Their first still was dubbed “Monty”, after The Simpsons character Monty Burns. The next was “Homer”, named “because he’s a fair bit bigger”, and they have just bottled batch 004, producing about 150 bottles from each of the 10 to 12 casks produced each year.
“A lot of Scottish distilleries go out of their way to be consistent in their product,” Mr Schmidt said. “We’re aiming for consistent quality rather than consistent product . . . We want each one to be different. It’s whisky for whisky tragics.”
Each is made from Australian malt sourced from Bintani in Melbourne. The process involves a small portion being smoked with a peat mixture that lends a hint of eucalypt, or “bushfire”.
The distilling occurs in Welland. It is stored in oak barrels in the Adelaide Hills and bottled a minimum of two years later.
Batch 002 could have been a disaster; one barrel lost a hoop when they were being moved.
“It forced us to double barrel the whisky. That’s the one that got the very good accolades. We will be doing more double barrels,” Mr Schmidt said.
Italian Scotch – I don’t think so…
Nearly 200 bottles of bogus Scotch whisky, which the label states were made in Italy, are being tested to see if they contain harmful ingredients.
A total of 180 bottles of “Granton Scotch Whisky” were seized by Medway Trading Standards and customs officers.
The Scotch Whisky Act 1988 makes it unlawful to apply the term Scotch whisky to products that have not been produced in Scotland.
People in the Medway towns have been warned not to drink any of the product. Councillor Mike O’Brien said: “It is essential in this case that we get the alert out to local residents over this product to ensure that no one suffers any adverse effects over the festive period from consuming this bogus product.” Medway Council said trading standards officers were working with staff at the Scotch Whisky Association and had sent samples for analysis to discover if the whisky contained any harmful ingredients.
The authority said it was unable to identify where the whisky was seized as its investigation was on-going and “the wholesaler may face prosecution”.
Bill & Sheila’s Wine and Whisky
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