In the increasingly-crowded shelf space for Australian whisky (as well as the crowded column space for Australian whisky articles!), a degree of “categorisation” needs to be applied if one is to consider the now-wide spectrum of the Australian whisky industry. There are the new distilleries, the big distilleries, the small distilleries, the hobby distilleries, and there are the very commercial distilleries. And there’s also the “old” distilleries. Old is perhaps an ironic term to use in a modern industry that’s barely 35 years old, but of the handful of distilleries that might fall into that category, Bakery Hill would be near the top of the list.
Founded in 1999 by David Baker, Bakery Hill was the fourth Australian whisky distillery of the modern era, and the first to be established on Australia’s mainland, noting that the preceding action had all been in Tasmania. Baker’s background was as a food scientist and high school chemistry teacher, giving him a strong foundation to explore the craft of mashing and fermentation, distillation, and maturation. From the very first bottled releases in 2003 (Whisky & Wisdom was there on the day David launched them at the inaugural Australian Malt Whisky Convention in Canberra that year!), Bakery Hill had a core-range that remains largely unchanged to this day: The Classic Single Malt, the Double Wood, and the Peated Malt. From the early days, the whiskies were well received and held in high regard; the distillery and the Cask Strength Peated Malt earned praise and won awards in the third edition of Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible in 2005. (The Cask Strength Peated Malt would go on to win Southern Hemisphere Whisky of the Year in the 2020 edition!)
Celebration
Bakery Hill recently celebrated 25 years; no mean feat in any business, let alone whisky. The distillery opened a new chapter in its story recently with the relocation to new premises. The original distillery was in a small facility in Bayswater, roughly 30km from the city, but its new home is a larger, more generous space in Kensington, almost in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD. The new set up is a multi-purpose space, providing not just ample space for production and cask storage, but also a function/event space, and even a front bar and cellar door retail counter.
For small distilleries, particularly those that fall into the “mum and dad” category that aren’t backed by big business, access to working capital is always a challenge, stymieing growth and/or the ability to lay down more stock. After many years exploring options (including a barrel investment scheme in 2012), Bakery Hill embarked on a crowd-sourced funding scheme in 2022, offering limited shares in the business through Birchal. The scheme was a success, going a long way to facilitating the move to Kensington.
Style
When speaking of flavour profile or style, Australian whiskies today tend to fall into one of two camps: Those that favour maturation in Australian ex-wine and ex-fortified casks (often referred to euphemistically as being “oak-driven”) and those that favour American oak, ex-bourbon casks (the euphemism for these being “spirit-driven”). Bakery Hill falls into the latter category, indeed, it is perhaps the distillery in Australia whose product is closest to Scotch in its style and character. Indeed, “a Speyside-style of whisky” is a descriptor occasionally used to pigeonhole Bakery Hill’s whiskies. That is no accident; it’s by design and precisely what Baker set out to achieve from the outset.
Unlike so many Australian whisky distilleries, Bakery Hill does its own mashing and fermentation on site; and the new premises gives them a bit more space and room to move. Setting up a distillery in what is essentially a residential area meant there were plenty of hoops to jump through and hurdles to overcome in terms of planning, compliance, safety, waste, and materials, and it was a slow process – taking almost two years from getting the keys to the building to actually starting production. The new space is impressive, with fermentation taking place “out the back”, and distillation in the public area out the front. The new distillery is also future-proofed for expansion, with provision already made for a second, larger still.
Generations
The other aspect of the Australian whisky industry that has emerged in more recent years is the handful of distilleries or producers where the second generation is entering the scene. Kristy Booth-Lark, daughter of Bill and Lyn Lark, has established her own distillery, Killara; Jane Overeem, daughter of Casey Overeem, together with her husband, Mark Sawford, have taken over the reins of the Overeem Distillery. The second generation now has its hands on the steering wheel at Bakery Hill with David’s two sons, Andrew and Matt now very much at the helm of production, management, marketing, and sales. David has not retired per se, but has stepped back a little from some of the daily hustle and bustle.
Whisky & Wisdom paid Bakery Hill a visit recently to see the new distillery and I sat down with Andrew and Matt over a dram or two on a Saturday morning to discuss their take on Bakery Hill’s path to-date, and what the future holds.
The family makes no secret of the fact that one of the key drivers or inspiration for David to start distilling was because people told him he couldn’t! “The thinking at the time was that Australia – certainly Victoria, at least – didn’t have the right climate, water, or conditions to make good whisky,” Andrew explains, “and plenty of people told him it couldn’t be done. So, to some extent, he set about the venture just to prove them wrong. I don’t think anyone in our family or even Dad himself thought it was going to be a decades-long business which could be handed down to future generations”
Neither Andrew nor Matt had plans to enter the business. Both sons occasionally helped out on weekends and provided manual labour, but they each had their own careers – Andrew in financial services and superannuation, Matt with Australian Customs and the Department of Home Affairs.
It was around 2010 that it became evident Bakery Hill could be more than just a hobby or a passion; it was certainly a going concern. “For the next five years or so, I then provided regular (unpaid) advice/planning/business strategy assistance to Dad, and it was becoming clearer that the business was going places. It was evident there was potentially a role for me and others in the business, and we could consider what this would look like going forward,” says Andrew.
W&W: So was there a “click” moment for either of you? Did you wake up one day and think, “Hey, let’s join the family business!”?
Andrew: The “click” moment for me was I’d basically had enough of the endless cycle of working in large financial companies. I was 35-ish and thinking, “Am I going to spend the rest of my working life doing the same thing?” From the business and project management experience I’d collected over a decade or so, I realised I could apply those principles in the family business and be able to offer what was needed at that point. It was around 2015 and, while Dad had production support staff around him, the business really needed to consider the next step and growth. The timing aligned with me looking to my next professional challenge. I had a chat with Dad, including negotiating a salary; we agreed on a figure, and I resigned from Australian Super the next day! I started with Dad four weeks later in September, 2015.
Matt: I had a similar “awakening” with my career in Customs, but it was in 2020, which aligned with COVID and me starting my family, so the timing wasn’t great. I eventually joined the business full-time in early 2023.
W&W: Is there a secret club or a WhatsApp group for the likes of yourselves, Kristy Booth-Lark, Jane Overeem, etc, where you swap war stories or have a support network for running a distillery that your parents set up?
Andrew: Haha, that’s funny – a few months back I was attending the Australian Distilled Spirits Awards and got chatting with a few second-generation distillers – we all agreed we need to set up a WhatsApp group! It’s not just in whisky, there’s a strong cohort of second-generation distillers amongst Melbourne’s gin distilleries, e.g. Holly Klintworth at Bass & Flinders, Amy Shaw at Hilmartin Gin, Brogan Carr at Brogan’s Way, etc.
W&W: Glenfarclas Distillery in Scotland is famous for passing from father to son for five generations now, although George Grant bought the existing distillery in 1865, as opposed to founding it. Our current industry is only 30-odd years old, but traditions have to start somewhere…how do you see things playing out?
Andrew: I’ve long thought there’s an interesting story to write about the second generation coming through – particularly relevant, I think, for Overeem and Bakery Hill – where our parents started something amazing and had certain values which they held very strong. As a second generation, we have the complicated task of continuing the legacy of what has been created, but also shaping that for the future, with respect to the past.
The world that the first generation were encountering in the 90s and 2000’s is very different to the world that we are living and working in today. And, equally, if one of my kids or Matt’s kids are interested in this business in 20 years or so, that will be a completely different world. So how can we remain relevant/and looking to the future whilst also balancing our history? What I have tried to do principally over the last 10 years is build Bakery Hill so it can be a multi-generational business. I’m looking to where this can go in 50 years, as opposed to the next two to three years, which is where I see a lot of distilleries only focussing on.
Matt: Dad actually used Glenfarclas as a model when he started, not just with the spirit production style and quality, but also with the business model. Andrew and I won’t be applying pressure to our kids to plan to run the business, and I think it’s actually healthy for them to go out and have a career doing something else, and then perhaps they may like to come into the fold at some time later on. Similar to the path Andrew and I each took.
W&W: What words of wisdom or business attributes received from your dad have been the most valuable and poignant?
Dad had some very valuable, early principles which he drummed into us, which are as valid today as they were 25 years ago:
…every decision we make with the whisky production is based on quality. We have to make the best possible whisky we can. That may cost more, or take longer in time, but it allows us to produce the best. And a product which people continue to enjoy. It does come at a slight premium in price but it’s dangerous for small businesses to compete in a cost/volume marketplace.
…we can’t try and predict the whiskies or products that people might like. We have to make what we love, and trust that customers will come along on the journey with us.
…we aren’t just selling bottles of whisky. We have to sell a whisky-based experience. Since Dad was a chemistry teacher, he took on the task of whisky education from the start, running whisky masterclasses on whiskies from Scotland, whiskies from around the world, whisky 101, etc. People love to learn. And we’ve also noticed that people might say that they “don’t like whisky”, but once we actually have the opportunity to talk about how it’s made, what are the key parts of the process, where the flavour is developed, and what styles there are…we can generally find a whisky that everyone will enjoy.
…consistency is critical. Dad always says that “anybody can make a good whisky”, but “not many people can make a consistently-good whisky”. So we’ve focussed on production ingredients, supplies, and processes to ensure that every time someone tries our whisky, they are getting a great one. And it should be the same quality as their last purchase.
…getting to know the bars, restaurants, and shops is very important. We run free tastings, training with outlets to ensure they know our story and our products. They are, more often than not, the front-facing people pouring our whiskies. We need them to also talk to and educate customers. All Australian distilleries are still in a market where customers don’t really know that much about the products. So we need to educate and encourage people to pick up a local bottle rather than always deferring to overseas brands.
…Dad still has an old sign in the office – ironically, he got it from a Borders bookshop, who aren’t around anymore. It says “Never ever forget: Each of our customers is the ONLY one we have.”
Consistency
I first wrote about Bakery Hill in 2003, compiling a piece for the Malt Whisky Society of Australia, following their launch at the Malt Convention that year. Subsequent pieces and reviews followed for other publications over the years, and Whisky & Wisdom published a significant feature profile piece on the distillery in 2019 which you can read here. Reading back through those articles, the word consistency appears…er…consistently, and I suspect it’s not merely coincidence that both sons used the word a lot during our conversation.
People talk a lot about whisky’s ingredients being barley, yeast, and water, but consistency is a key ingredient if a whisky is to be taken seriously. (You can explore more on this theme in our 2014 article about consistency, Whisky’s key ingredient.) One of Bakery Hill’s great assets is its consistency; its reliable quality and flavour profile have won it many long-term fans. It was a walk-up-start for the distillery to be included in the 2023 article, “Which is the best Australian whisky?”
Tours, tastings, and whisky education events on offer at the distillery.
(Click to enlarge)
Experience
If you’ve not yet tried anything from the Bakery Hill range, the distillery has recently released some special 25th Anniversary editions of their Signature range (Classic Malt, Peated Malt, and Double Wood) which you can buy directly from the distillery here. And, if you happen to be in Melbourne, you can visit for “Sample Hours” Tuesday to Friday between 1pm and 3pm, or the Full Bar hours are from 3-9pm on Fridays, 1-9pm on Saturdays, and 1-6pm on Sundays. Or for a more in-depth visit, the distillery offers 30 minute “Micro Tours”, as well as a detailed 90 minute tour and tasting. You can book a spot on either tour via the website. The distillery sits midway between two train stations, Kensington and Macaulay; it’s a short walk from either. Head on down and join the family.
Cheers,
AD
PS…interested on more articles and review on Australian whisky? Check out our Australian whisky category page here
