Fever Pitch

The appetite for local whiskey is growing fast, with larger batches set to complement a spirited craft culture, writes MAX ALLEN.

- Max Allen

When the Corowa Distilling Co released their inaugural small batch of whiskey in August last year, all 320 bottles sold out in just 24 hours. This is not an uncommon story: such is the feverish enthusiasm for craft whiskey in Australia at the moment – and so good is the quality of many of the new whiskies emerging from small distilleries across the country – that supply simply cannot keep up with demand.

Corowa co-founder Dean Druce doesn’t see that demand falling off any time soon. In fact, he’s banking on it continuing to grow. The distillery only filled its first barrel with raw new spirit as recently as early 2016, but is now filling up to 200 barrels a year, and has the capacity to make 10 times as much.

“At the moment, we’re only bottling and releasing single barrels of whiskey at a time,” says Druce. “But even at $180 a bottle, selling single-cask whiskies is not a sustainable business model. We’re aware that when someone buys your whiskey today and then in three months’ time finds it’s sold out, there’s a danger you’ll lose them to another brand. So, in August, we’re looking to release a larger-volume, single-malt $95 whiskey, and an even more affordable blended whiskey down the track.”