Distillery’s ‘Kestrel’ crowned as nation’s best single malt whisky

Bellarine Distillery has taken out the top gong at the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards, winning the trophy for Best Single Malt Whisky.

The distillery’s Rare Series single malt whisky “Kestrel” took out the prize at the recent Melbourne awards, along with winning a gold medal.

Co-founders Russ Watson and Lorelle Warren established the distillery in 2015 and were joined by Nicky and Craig Michael in 2017, starting commercial production of gin and single malt whisky in 2018.

The Australian Distilled Spirits Awards provide Australian distillers with a benchmarking opportunity as the largest national spirits industry awards in the country.

Head distiller and co-owner Mr Michael said having a panel of accomplished industry-based judges taste their whisky and deem it worthy of the trophy win is a dream come true.

“It is extremely rewarding to make whisky for people to enjoy and seeing it being used to celebrate significant occasions in people’s lives.”

Mr Watson said the business wase chuffed to find out they had won the gold medal and were in shock once they were announced as the recipients of the trophy.

“Kestrel”, named after a pair of breeding birds on the property, was made in a refill cask – a cask that has been used for whisky before.

“We like using those types of casks because they let the spirit character really shine through,” Mr Michael said.

“Our new make, we’ve been tweaking and experimenting and changing brewing techniques and the type of grain we use.

“We really want to highlight that spirit we put into these refill barrels, less oak influence on the spirit because a lot of the oak has gone into the previous fills.”

Mr Michael said the judges’ comments mentioned the flavour palette of the whisky and the classy use of wood.

“This particular whisky really allowed the raw materials like the malted barley to shine through, and I think the judges liked that.

“I think they liked seeing the way Aussie whisky may be going to showcase the spirit rather than showcasing the barrel.

“We’re trying to make whisky in a traditional way and really honour how the Scotts have done single malt whisky, however we’re putting our own sort of spin on it too, with our style of new make, using new word whisky type of techniques.”

Mr Watson also believes people can expect better whiskies in the future.

“We’ve got whiskies is casks that we monitored recently and we think they’re going to be exceptional,” he said.

The award-winning whisky is the distillery’s eighth single malt whisky release since their first in 2021 and spent four years in the refill cask.

Russ said there’s been a lot of hard work put in by the team to get to this point.

“Our staff and everyone back at the distillery have been wonderful supporting us and working with us to get where we are; everybody at the Bellarine Distillery shares this award.”

To pick up one of the last remaining bottles of “Kestrel”, head to bellarinedistillery.com.au