Page 31 - Food & Drink Magazine April 2019

BEVERAGES
New world whiskey takes aim
✷ CRUISEY WHISKY SINGLE MALT SAILS
THE HIGH SEAS
A limited edition single malt from local whisky maker Starward has returned from a 95,000 nautical mile voyage on board the luxury cruise liner Queen Elizabeth.
After ageing for two years at the distillery, Seafarer was strapped to the liner’s aft decks in a 225-litre oak barrel. It spent almost a year sailing around the globe, travelling to more than 90 ports.
The partnership between Cunard and Starward was in celebration of the ship’s inaugural homeporting season in Australia this year.
Starward founder David Vitale said because the maturation environment is crucial to the final flavour of any whisky, this was a great opportunity to create something different.
The Seafarer still had Starward’s trademark fruit characters, Vitale
AMERICAN single malt maker Westward Whiskey has grown quickly in line with rising appreciation for innovation in its home market, and has now singled out Australia as its next opportunity.
Westward, which is one of a growing band of so-called ‘new world’ distillers to settle in the craft brewing hub of Portland in Oregon, has risen to become one the largest independent distillers of American single malt whiskey.
The construction of its new distillery in 2015, when it became the anchor of Portland’s Distillery Row, enabled it to increase capacity six-fold, and in September last year things ramped up again. Thanks to a strategic investment from Diageo via its craft spirits accelerator Distill Ventures, Westward announced an ambitious expansion plan to increase production by 40 percent this year.
64%
GROWTH IN US SPIRITS EXPORTED TO AUSTRALIA IN THE LAST 10 YEARS
With new markets in mind, Westward’s first major export push is now kicking off in Australia. The reasoning behind this choice, according to CEO and co-owner Thomas Mooney, is that Westward brings a style that is “both familiar and revolutionary to whiskey enthusiasts in Australia”.
According to Mooney, Australia is considered a “thought-leader within the global craft whiskey
community”. Australia, along with Canada and the UK, is also one of the top three markets for both US spirits exports and American whiskeys. US exports to Australia have grown 64 per cent over the last decade.
In Australia last month to launch Westward was lead distiller Miles Munroe, who manages the Westward distilling production team and oversees all operations within the distiller’s warehouse – a 28,000 square foot facility that maintains an inventory of more than 3000 barrels of ageing whiskey.
Munroe told Food & Drink Business that collaborating with other Portland distillers was an important part of Westward’s growth story, with the company helping to forge a strong business support network there, along similar lines to the collegiate approach found in Tasmania’s whisky industry.
“Westward has been around since 2004, so we started a collective with other distillers as they popped up around us,” Munroe says. “It has officially become a group, and we still meet once a month, and we continue to add new members.”
Carrying on this tradition, Westward specifically sought to collaborate with Australian distillers, including Sydney distiller Archie Rose and Victorian distiller Starward Whisky, on the launch of its whiskey here. ✷
said, but the oak influences are stronger, its jammy characteristics have developed with time and the dessert cooking spices like vanillin are more identifiable.
“This is a whisky that’s been on an amazing journey so the result is appropriately epic. It’s a special drop so we’re recommending that it should be drunk neat or with a dash of water, so the subtleties of its flavour can be savoured,” Vitale said.
The Seafarer was available to Queen Elizabeth guests as well as visitors to Starward’s Port Melbourne distillery.
www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au | April 2019 | Food&Drink business | 31