In January this year I finally was able to visit to the tasting room and distillery of the award winning Starward. They established this purpose built facility in 2017, moving from their first location a few kilometres from downtown Melbourne.

I had the opportunity of a private tour, and my thanks to the team for such a warm welcome and hospitality. Whilst I tend to feature small distillers in my work, Starward is an important Australian brand to know for a couple of reasons.

Not only have they been tremendously successful and have been able to scale their production significantly over the years, making them one of the biggest players in the country spirits-wise, they are a great example of having the perfect marriage of brand, and expression of spirit style that has found its place in the market.

Founded by David Vitale 18 years ago, he wanted to create an accessible and contemporary style of Australian whisky inspired by the vibrant city of Melbourne. In 2015, they received investment from spirits giant Diageo’s financing project “Distill Ventures” enabling the, to expand considerably, one of the few Australian distilleries to have they sort of major investment.

If you are able to visit the distillery, they offer tours of the production facility that is very informative and you’ll notice some the sophisticated technology used to ensure consistency of quality given the range of variables that may be present during the distillation process, such as humidity and atmospheric pressure on a given day.

They are also focused on a sustainable manufacturing and distribution processes, for example the water used for cooling is the same water they have used for over 10 years through a sophisticated recycling system, and have recently introduced new glass bottles of custom design that use less glass, and energy in the manufacturing process, and lighter to ship and handle.  Also, given the climate and atmosphere in the barrel storage area, the spirit (all aged in regionally sourced red or fortified wine barrels) matures quickly within 3 – 5 years.

The starting point ingredients are all sourced within Victoria, Barley from Western Victoria which is locally lightly malted in the nearby city of Geelong, and they use filtered (naturally) Melbourne water.

The overall style of Starward is contemporary, bright, versatile and lands at an attractive price point for the consumer, by design. What I found interesting is that they cut the spirit run very narrow, using the 40% of the full spirit rum for the ‘heart cut’. The balance is distilled again so nothing is wasted, resulting in a new make ready for aging at 55% ABV. I was told the “angels share” of barrel evaporation over time can be 5% – 15% which is closely monitored by the team.

Not being constrained by tradition, Starward have created an award winning range that is aimed at being a crowd pleaser without sacrificing quality and if you visit the tasting room you can try some of their many special releases expressions not available elsewhere, plus some great cocktails, plus dine there as well.  So it’s definitely worth a visit to experience a welcoming and unpretentious whisky experience.