Melbourne based Starward Distillery has received the Most Awarded International Distillery of the Year title at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, which took place in April. This is the second time it has received the award, after becoming the first Australian distillery to be awarded the honour in 2022.
Starward is an independently owned craft distillery with a minority investment from world-leading alcohol beverage company Diageo, through its drinks accelerator Distill Ventures.
Founded in 2007, Starward was an early pioneer of Melbourne-made whisky from 2010, maturing whisky in red wine barrels. The company now exports to more than 20 countries.
Starward founder David Vitale said that it was “incredibly thrilling” to have this recognition from a highly competitive spirits competition, as the company looks towards a bright future on the global stage.
“It is the Olympics of the international spirits industry, and our Melbourne-made whisky has taken top honour,” said Vitale.
“With this recognition, it is absolutely plausible that the Australian whisky industry could be as big internationally as Japanese whisky, which would be a massive boon for our export industry.”
Starward took home eight platinum, 13 double gold and 13 gold medals for its suite of Melbourne-made whiskies, beating out more than 5500 entries worldwide.
“Starward's innovation lies in how we age our whisky, not technology, patents, or IP. We capture the adventurous spirit of our hometown Melbourne and the rich flavours of local ingredients,” said Vitale.
“Within a day’s drive of our distillery, we have some of the world’s best wineries and have direct access to these luscious wine barrels to age our whisky in.
“The fact we experience four seasons in a day allows us to impact flavour into our whisky and create an award-winning whisky in just three years, when it would take eight to 12 years anywhere else. Australia has all the ingredients and opportunity to craft quality and distinctiveness in the whisky we produce,” he said.
Reaching for the stars
While Starward has taken a leadership approach to supporting aspiring distilleries to understand how to operate at scale, the industry requires additional support to address the industry’s capability gaps as it grows.
Starward believes an industry-specific Drinks Accelerator would support aspiring brands looking for the intermediate steps between start-up and foreign investment and serve as a springboard to become viable national and international brands. It also believes establishing a Spirits Australia body equivalent to Wine Australia to support growth in the spirits industry would be beneficial.
“We are riding a generational trend toward premiumisation and localisation as we evolve whisky from an after-dinner drink to one that can be enjoyed across more occasions. Because of this shift in attitude, we’re seeing younger, more diverse people starting to drink whisky, and this is a global phenomenon our entire industry should capitalise on,” said Vitale.
“We are proud of the people we currently employ at Starward and the numerous others who have worked with us over our history, many of whom remain in the industry building capabilities within other emerging spirits distilleries.”
The company believes that greater research and development are required in the Australian industry to propel local spirits. Using native grasses to create a totally unique, Australian product would be ideal for Starward, but it is currently economically unviable to test and learn which products could be an alternative to corn, wheat, rye, and barley.
As such, Starward has recommended to government that a grain research grant be established specifically targeted at native grains with the potential to be used in distilling.
Australia has a history of whisky distilling dating back to 1820, with the dark spirit now produced in nearly every state and territory. Exports have grown year on year to reach $41 million in 2022.
Australian Distillers Association CEO, Paul McLeay, said the Australian spirits industry has enormous potential to drive economic growth and job creation over the coming decades.
“Starward is an example of the sort of modern manufacturing opportunity the government can turbocharge with the right policy settings in place,” said McLeay.
“For example, a tonne of barley sold on the open market attracts between $300 and $500. When Starward sells that tonne of barley as whisky overseas, it is worth closer to $40,000 to $50,000.
“Australian spirits come from the soil. We use Australian grains, grapes, sugar, botanicals, and casks to produce our products. If we want to support our grain farmers, the value-added economy is the place to do it,” he said.
Recently the industry has been faced with challenges, including the unpredictability of costs of doing business in Australia – principally driven by the twice-yearly hikes in spirits excise rates, which rose again on 1 August.
“Halting the excise indexation would give the industry more certainty on investment and, particularly for aged spirits, clarity on the costs to produce their products while they are ageing,” said McLeay.
“Australia’s whisky industry has all the hallmarks of being able to replicate Australian wine’s success and deliver significant economic growth and employment dividends for the nation, but similar steps need to be taken to remove the current regulatory and taxation handbrake on industry growth that took place in the 1980s for wine if we have a chance at securing the international investment needed to one day being bigger than Japanese whisky.”
