The New World whisky landscape is cracking with energy and complexity. Distillers everywhere are striving to make whiskies that stand out and say something about who they are and where they’re from. Traditions are being challenged, boundaries pushed, new styles are emerging, and some of the most exciting whiskies in this development are coming from Australia.
Historically, Australian whisky has been produced along Scottish, Irish, and American lines. But at the progressive end of the distilling spectrum, new ideas are being tested and big questions being asked. Perhaps the most important one is: What makes Australian whisky… Australian?
Unlike bourbon, with its use of indigenous corn in the mash and maturation in native American oak barrels, endemic ingredients have rarely featured in Australian whisky production over the last 160-plus years. The grains used for making Australian whisky – barley, corn, wheat, rye, and oats – hail from elsewhere, the yeasts used primarily derived overseas, the oak for maturation sourced from the United States and Europe.
