Located close to the Yarra Valley in Victoria is Kinglake Distillery, a relative newcomer to the whisky industry. Set up in 2018, their first single malt whisky was distilled at the end of that year. The Distillery has just announced its commitment to produce Australia’s first government certified carbon neutral whisky. This will be achieved by offsetting their carbon footprint, increasing the sustainability of their whisky making processes and undertaking rigorous auditing. Kinglake Distillery aims to produce their first certified carbon neutral whisky by the end of this year. They are also setting aside land for the re- planting of indigenous native forest.
Kinglake is different, and so is the whisky. There is no power, water, gas, or telephone lines to the Distillery, instead using a mixture of solar and generator power for electricity, a tank for gas and onsite dam for recycling cooling water, making it completely off-grid. Its surrounds comprise of deep forests, impenetrable bush, mountain streams, and national park. The Distillery is specially designed to take advantage of its bush setting and rural location. Situated on top of the hill, one of the mountain streams rises on the property and runs almost all year round.
Owners Sam Lowe & Chantal Daniels, who is a 3rd generation Kinglaker, handmake all their whisky in Kinglake, from scratch. They are in close contact with the whisky from the moment they grind the malt until the new spirit fills the barrel. The foundation of exceptional whisky is water. Their single malt is made from the mountain stream rising on the distillery property. The water has the perfect mineral content for making whisky – its natural, pure, and totally unfiltered. They know the provenance of everything that goes into their whisky. 80% of the barley is farmed and malted in New South Wales and each grower is known to them personally. Rather than focusing on single cask releases, the couple maintain a consistent line of the best malt they can make by vatting different barrels (typically small- format ex-bourbon barrels re-coopered in Australia). Smaller casks are perfectly suited to ageing conditions in the Kinglake Ranges. A 2500 litre copper pot-still was handmade for them by Tasmania’s premier still-maker, Knapp Lewer, and was engineered to produce a heavy, flavourful spirit. Nature influences every stage of the whisky distilling process, and the result is an exceptional whisky that can only be made in Kinglake.
What is most surprising is the unrivalled price point of their whisky. For such outstanding quality, using only the best ingredients, Lowe & Daniels are selling their single malt for only $100 per 500ml bottle. Where some distilleries have gold-leaf bottles and Apple-style packaging, fancy delivery trucks and special uniforms, or big hospitality operations with cocktail bars, Kinglake circumvents anything that doesn’t make their whisky taste better, ensuring they can keep the price lower but the product exceptional. The couple foster a strong brand ethos centered around authenticity, honesty, and integrity; hence their belief in charging the minimum they can for their product, rather than the maximum they can.
Kinglake Distillery is set to become a genuine Victorian distilling landmark. With their commitment to produce Australia’s first certified carbon neutral whisky, they are dedicated to ensuring that drinking their whisky has no negative impact on the natural environment, which so heavily influencers the high quality of their product.
Kinglake Distillery can be found at 410 O’Grady’s Road, Kinglake, Central Victoria. For more info, please visit https://kinglakedistillery.com.au/
