AN early redundancy package from Alcoa six years ago saw Russell Watson and Lorelle Warren hatching a plan to establish a distillery on an old chicken farm on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria.
“Russ was a fitter and turner and was too young to retire and I am an accountant so four years ago we purchased a 2.75 hectare farm that had been owned by the same family for more than 60 years,” Lorelle said.
“When we bought the property you couldn’t see inside so we spent most of the time clearing it.
“We feel we paid for the trees and got the land thrown in for nothing as you don’t get these mature trees on any sort of new property.”
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Along with cypress and pines the property boasts an amazing cornucopia of mature fruit trees from a towering walnut and loquat to apples, pear, oranges, mandarin, quince, figs, cherries, almonds and more.
“We’d been to Scotland and Russ has always been a lover of whisky and now, four years down the track we have opened Bellarine distillery and are making single malt whisky and Teddy and the Fox gin,” she said.
The gin takes its name from canine Teddy who not only features on the gin label (in hot pursuit of a fox) but also doubles as the friendly welcoming committee to visitors.
Russ has created the rustic timber and corrugated iron cellar door tasting room with its comfy seating and couches, outside deck and cleverly placed lighting that adds to the night time ambience.
Nestled in a sheltered spot among the tall trees it has been christened the Whiskery, giving a nod not only to the whisky connection but also to Russ’s impressive moustache.
The distillery boasts three stills.
“The big one ‘Ronnie’ is an 800L Knapp Lewer still that was hand-made in Tasmania, then there’s ‘Ginnie’ a 120L StillDragon column still and two alembic stills of 30L and 5L which are great for the smaller volumes,” Lorelle said.
“We distil all of our botanicals separately then blend them all together to a recipe. The juniper gets done in the big still and the small stills are good for the likes of the star anise as we don’t use a lot of that as it’s such a strong botanical.
“Our gin consists of six components, orange, juniper, coriander, lemon myrtle, star anise and orris root which is the fixative.
“The profile has juniper aromas and is very citrus forward with star anise at the back. It’s a very easy sipping gin and if you use tonic with it we recommend a lighter tonic such as Fever Tree as our gin doesn’t need any more flavor added to it.
“We are planting juniper as currently most is imported from Macedonia and also a grove of lemon myrtle plus with the fruit from the trees on the property we will be able to do seasonal small batch runs.
“At present we are using organic oranges and will do a small batch run when our own oranges ripen.
“We are already also thinking about our next two gin expressions; we want to do a navy strength one and also a rosy pink gin which is pretty much on trend at the moment.
“We might do that in collaboration with one of the wineries around here using their pinot noir.
“Our whisky is in barrel at present, legally you can call it whisky after two years maturation but it’s usually bottled around four to five years so it will all depend on the taste as to when we bottle.”
Along with the gin tastings, the whiskery also showcases some of the local ciders and beers together with simple pizzas and cheese platters – you’ll also find some of the fruit featuring, perhaps walnuts and pears as a pizza topping with fig and quince pastes being a perfect complement to the cheese.
And with Drysdale Goat Cheese directly opposite Lorelle adds that some of their spent juniper and lemon myrtle have been incorporated into the goat cheese to add a further flavour dimension.
“The whole industry is very collegial as the distilling industry in Australia is small and everyone helps each other,” she said.
“Bill and Lyn Lark have mentored us and have become very good friends.
“We really enjoy being part of the industry and aim to produce as much as we can given our limitations.
“Currently it’s basically us with some friends and family who help at weekends so the more we grow we’ll develop as we go.”