Effectively opening the final weekend of Australia’s premium eating and drinking festival in the heart of Adelaide, the awards saw The Grove Distillery (WA – Rum), White Light Beverages (Vic – Vodka), Adelaide Hills Distillery (SA – Liqueur), St Agnes Distillery (SA – Brandy), The Craft & Co. (Vic – Gin and Best Small Batch Spirit) take out top honours.

The award for the best distiller, calculated from the best two scoring exhibits of entering distilleries, went to Southern Wild Distillery.

Among the judging panel was Bill Lark – widely considered the godfather of Australian whisky – who while absent from the evaluation group for his distillation of choice (Lark’s Distillery had submitted entries into the whisky category).

He praised the ceremony for its panel selection and process in the first year.

“This is the best competition of its type anywhere in the world,” Lark said.

“The quality of the judging experience, the organization, and the integrity is something that Tasting Australia should be really proud of.”

Tasting Australia ambassador Nick Stock was one of the lead judges in the event and said the opportunity to convene a national award in Adelaide in celebration of Australian spirits had enjoyed extensive industry support.

“It was really clear from the amount of support in terms number of distillers – 63 – and a number of entries – 166 – that we engaged with the right industry at the right time in putting these awards into play,” Stock said.

“The quality of the entries, the quality of the judges that got involved, means it’s a very exciting moment for the festival, but also for the industry we’re celebrating.”

No top honours were awarded in the whiskey and ‘other spirits’ categories, with judges deciding no products submitted truly reached the level of gold medal standard.

“The whisky were given an extraordinary amount of attention and the judges decided that there was nothing of gold medal standard and really, their feeling is this reflects that whisky makers need to evolve their approach to maturation and balance that with some fast-growing commercial supply and demand pressure. It’s good constructive feedback to this section of the industry,” Stock said.

Bill Lark (Lark’s Distillery, Tasmania), Seb Costello (Bad Frankie, Melbourne), Brooke Hayman (Whiskey & Element, Melbourne), Graham Wright (Odd Whisky Coy co-founder), Marcus Motteram (Hains & Co-founder), boutique wine and spirits distributor Mark Reginato and Ollie Margan (Maybe Mae co-owner) were on the judging panel.

2018 Tasting Australia Spirit Awards presented by Master Cask

Best Rum: The Grove Distillery (WA), The Grove Dark Rum

Best Vodka: White Light Beverages (Vic), White Light Vodka Original

Best Liqueur: Adelaide Hills Distillery (SA), The Italian

Best Brandy: St Agnes Distillery (SA), St Agnes XO Grand Reserve 40-Year-Old

Best Gin: The Craft & Co (Vic), Acheron Gin

Best Whisky: Not awarded

Other Spirits: Not awarded

Best Small Batch Spirit: The Craft & Co (Vic), Acheron Gin

Tasting Australia Spirit Awards Best Distiller: Southern Wild Distillery (Tas)

Dasher & Fisher Mountain Gin

Dasher & Fisher Sloe Gin

To read the full list of entrants and medalists, click here.

Source: Tasting Australia