Australian Distilled Spirits Awards Spotlight: Bellarine Distillery

The 2024 Melbourne Royal Australian Distilled Spirits Awards celebrated Australia's best spirits and distilleries, recognising their distilling excellence at the iconic Victoria Pavilion at Melbourne Showgrounds on Thursday, 1 August.

Celebrating 10 years in 2024, the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards is Australia’s first and largest national spirits competition highlighting the innovation and excellence of Australian-manufactured spirits, liqueurs, aromatics, vermouths and ready-to-serves.

Bellarine Distillery, family-owned by Lorelle Watson, Russel Watson, Nicky Michael, Craig Michael, and located in Drysdale Victoria, took home the Trophy for Best Single Malt Whisky for their 'Kestrel'.

Melbourne Royal spoke with Head Distiller, Craig Michael on their win, and what it means for their business.

Q&A: Craig Michael, Bellarine Distillery

What type of product/produce does your business make?
Whisky, Gin, Liqueur, RTD

What is Bellarine Distillery’s history? How did the business come to be?
Established in 2015 by Russ Watson & Lorelle Warren, is the first distillery on the Bellarine Peninsula and the Geelong region since the 1980s. Russ's fitter and turner background allowed him to design and build a bespoke distillery in a beautifully landscaped garden replete with heritage fruit and nut trees.
Nicky and I joined in 2017, and I became Head Distiller. We started commercial production of premium gin and single malt whisky in 2018, inspired by the long tradition of distilling and maturation of whisky, with a strong focus on science, experimentation, and innovation.
Having visited Scotland in 2012 and the romance of the highlands, the concept of starting our own distillery seemed like a good idea. It took a further 3 years to take delivery of our 1st Still “Ronald” then another 3 to complete work on our distillery door and open to the public.

What makes your business/products unique?
• We are family-owned and fiercely independent.
• We are inspired by the long tradition of distilling and maturation of whisky, with a strong focus on science, experimentation, and innovation.
• When first discussing the production of whisky we agreed that we should make whisky that we liked. That way, if nobody else liked it, we could still drink it ourselves!
• Priority number one is a newmake spirit that has superb mouthfeel.
• We are focused on sustainability, using organic, sustainably farmed Pilsener malt from Voyager Craft Malt in NSW to maximise flavour but also reduce our carbon footprint.
• We use different fill strengths, depending on barrel type and history knowing that different compounds are extracted from the oak at different strengths.
• We have built a specifically designed maturation warehouse to aid the whisky profile.
• We favour extremely slow, in barrel dilution prior to bottling to avoid dilution shock and to maximise flavour, similar to traditional Cognac producers in France.

What’s your business philosophy?
We are committed to exceptional customer service and the ethos of buying local. We see visitors to our distillery door ‘The Whiskery’ as special guests who come in and share an experience with us in our home. Our whole business is centred around ensuring people leave having had a fantastic experience and enjoyed all aspects – our products, our food, our venue and our hospitality. Buying local is integral in regional communities such as ours, and we are passionate about supporting a whole community of local small businesses.
Our food offering includes platters with fish pate and gravalax from down the road, local cheeses and olives. In addition to our own spirits, we are proud to serve a selection of the exceptional wines and beer from our wonderful peninsula. We are very fortunate that supporting local in our region also means access to fantastic produce, this gives our consumers the very best experience.

What do you hope for the future of your business/product?
Whisky releases of equal or better quality to ‘Kestrel’!
Although we have the capacity to increase whisky production – which we will in time – we are being very careful to always ensure quality over quantity. We don’t want to be the biggest, but we do want to be the best whisky producer. Other future goals include improving our sustainability and environmental credentials.

Where can people buy your products?
In person at our distillery door which is open 7 days a week: Cnr Scotchmans Road and Portarlington Road, Drysdale VIC 3222, or online at our website shop: bellarinedistillery.com.au/shop.
You can also find us at various independent ‘bricks & mortar’ retailers. Find out where we are stocked here.

Tell us a little about your winning product
Kestrel, part of our 'Rare Release' whisky series, is a marriage of three 100L Refill Apera casks, producing just 452 bottles at 50% ABV. It features a nose of Jamón Serrano, beeswax, and plum jam on rye, followed by orange blossom honey and salted roast cashews on the palate. The finish offers seared figs, maple syrup, and walnuts.

What does winning this award mean for you and your team?
The reason we make whisky is the pure joy of seeing how people use it to celebrate significant occasions in life. Births, deaths, marriages or just catching up with those you love. It’s a symbol, it’s a toast. To celebrate our win with the product we make for celebration is a dream come true!

What do you think this win will do for your business?
Of course, we hope that this win allows our name and reputation to extend beyond the Bellarine Peninsula and Victoria and that more consumers come and visit the distillery door to see what all the fuss is about. But as long as we continue to strive for excellence and continuous improvement in everything that we do and instil the belief in our team that what they are doing is exceptional then all that other stuff will just naturally follow.

Why did you enter the awards?
We have had a long journey with many agonising decisions made along the way and we wanted confirmation that we were on the right track with a product we were proud of. We entered last year and found the commentary we received from the judges to be thoughtful and constructive.
The win this year is so meaningful as it provides us with validation from a group of industry experts that we have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for. Additionally, the ADSA awards are special because of the calibre spirit producers that enter the competition. This provides us with a true benchmark alongside wonderful distilleries we have great respect for.

Where can people find you on social media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bellarinedistillery
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bellarinedistillery/

 

Learn more about the 2024 Melbourne Royal Australian Distilled Spirits Awards winners here.