If you follow the undercurrents of the Australian whisky industry, you’ll be aware it’s a challenging time for all. It’s an increasingly competitive space, with so many distilleries fighting for your attention and, perhaps more critically, your dollar. The burst of new distilleries that were founded between 2016 and 2020, seemingly inspired by the success of Sullivans Cove in 2014, has meant a huge number of distilleries have raised their head above the parapet in recent times with their debut release and follow-ups. To be honest, there’s a lot of noise and lots of hollow PR releases, and not much of it sticks. But our interest was piqued when Kinglake Distillery announced it was doing something new and unique. We’ll come to that in a moment, but first some background…
Founded in 2018, Kinglake is located in Victoria, roughly a 90 minute drive north-east of Melbourne. One of the many Australian distilleries that’s owned and operated by a husband-and-wife duo, Kinglake’s story has a few points of difference. Sam Lowe and Chantal Daniels are the pair behind the business. The couple met while both were working in hospitality overseas, spending 10 years in the French Alps together. Sam explains, “During this time we both grew to have a huge love of spirits; their diversity and depth of flavour. We were close to and visited the Chartreuse Monastery, tried numerous Eau De Vies, Genepi and Marcs like Marc De Savioe. We decided we wanted to make a spirit that really showcased our property back in Kinglake and just couldn’t get past whisky as the perfect spirit for this.”
Returning to Australia, the pair went “all in”. Kinglake is not a hobby distillery, it’s not a side hustle, it’s their full-time job, their passion, and their livelihood. It was a 12 month wait for their still to be manufactured and delivered; during this time they worked tirelessly on their mash bill and perfecting their fermentation. The result of their many experiments and tweaks is a very unique four-malt mash bill that combines varying proportions of Atlas La Trobe malt, high-kilned Vienna Schooner malt, chocolate roasted malt, and – wait for it – 25% heavily-peated malt sourced from Scotland!
You can’t tell the Kinglake story without leaning into its location. It’s an isolated, off-grid property away from main roads, flight paths, and housing, meaning that air pollution is low. “Because of this, we are one of only a handful of Australian distilleries using open ferments for our wash”, explains Sam. “We’re surrounded by gum trees and the air is pungent with eucalyptus pollens, particularly in the warmer months. Our open ferments and open-door distilling allows all those natural pollens and yeasts to contribute to our fermentation.” So, in addition to the standard mix of distiller’s and brewer’s yeasts in use, their long fermentation promotes and utilises these wild yeasts to develop additional flavour and complexity in their wash.
Drawing further on the locale, Kinglake is one of the very few distilleries in Australia to have its own source of water – arguably the foundation stone of any single malt. Chyser Creek rises from a natural spring located on the distillery property. Chemical analysis determined the water had ideal iron and calcium content for brewing; it is used directly from the source, completely untreated
Distillation takes place in a particularly large Knapp Lewer still. The shape and style mirrors that of the many Knapp Lewer stills in use around Australia, although its 2,500 litre capacity makes it one of the largest ones making whisky. There’s just the single still, so two wash runs are combined to then charge the spirit run. For an Australian distillery, the spirit cut runs unusually deep into the tails (i.e. feints), but this is desirable to optimise and capture the contribution of both the chocolate and peated malts in the mashbill.
Sam is essentially self-taught as a brewer and distiller, but he cites Brian Hollingworth of Black Gate Distillery and David Baker at Bakery Hill as mentors. Of course, when it comes to Australian whisky, distilling is only half the exercise; you’ve also got to run a viable business. I asked Sam what the biggest challenge was for Australian whisky distillers at the moment. “Just working out where you want to play”, he noted. “What does success look like and how can you achieve specifically that? It’s still such a young industry; the goal posts and the competition are continuously changing, and you need to make a stand based on some criteria”.
Kinglake favours small-format casks for its maturation, chiefly 50L casks. However, unlike so many of its peers, Kinglake eschews wine and fortified casks from the Australian wine industry, and instead has its casks broken down and re-coopered from American oak ex-bourbon barrels. Having recently tried a selection of their bottlings, it’s evident the smaller casks have accelerated the maturation, although one can’t help but feel that a slower maturation in a larger cask would improve their well-crafted spirit.
To that end, Kinglake has a new chapter to its story, with the construction of what is believed will be Australia’s first underground, dunnage-style warehouse in use in the Australian whisky industry. Chantal explains, “Obviously inspired by classic Scotch traditions, the underground setup will deliver ultra-stable, cool temperatures, high natural humidity, and subtle earthy influences from our volcanic soil. It lends itself to slower, more even maturation, and some unique flavour profiles that we think could re-define Australian single malt.” Sam adds, “The facility will allow us to lay down whisky that can be left for ten years-plus. And it will primarily be for full-size casks.”
The Kinglake website has a wealth of information on it, including some great “Distiller’s Diary” blog posts by Sam. The distillery has open days, monthly tours, and tastings which you can book into online.
Kinglake currently has four different whiskies in its core range, three of them bottled and priced very competitively at $135 for a 700ml bottle at 46% ABV. O’Gradys is the flagship of the range, there’s also the Breakfast Rye Cask, and the Double Wood, which includes spirit matured in French oak, ex-tawny port barriques. The fourth, suitably named Full Noise, is bottled at 60% ABV, and comes in at $150 for a 500ml bottle. Whisky and Wisdom spent some serious time with samples of all four releases, tasted repeatedly over several sessions to confirm our tasting notes and thoughts. The Full Noise was our pick of the punch, with a hugely complex nose that could keep you entertained all night, and many of the traits and characteristics of bourbon cask maturation coming to the fore, e.g. vanilla, leather, horse saddle, pencil shavings, and a touch of citrus. I’m not convinced that small-format, 50L casks and the corresponding shorter maturation allow all the flavours developed in fermentation to shine through as well as they might; and small-format cask releases always carry the risk of coming across as hot. Kinglake already has a long list of fans; one suspects the move to larger casks and the new dunnage warehouse will see that list grow even bigger.
Cheers,
AD
PS…keen to read up on more Australian distilleries? You might like some of our previous distillery feature pieces….
78 Degrees – an Australian whiskey with a twist
Bakery Hill – the view from the top
Iniquity whisky and Tin Shed Distillers
Waubs Harbour – Australia’s maritime whisky
or our much-talked about article, Which is the best Australian whisky?
