One of the standout sessions at the recent Australian Distillers Association conference was presented by Dr Marlize Becker of the University of Queensland and Luke Farrelly of Canefields Distillery on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

Luke is a fourth-generation cane farmer who wanted to carry on the family tradition and decided rum was the most logical vehicle for him to do so.

But the discovery of ten different ‘heirloom’ sugarcane varieties growing on the family property led him down the path of exploring which of them would be able to provide the most distinctive flavour profiles.

Enter Marlize, whose research over the last decade has focussed on understanding the flavour and aroma compounds in wine.

Funded by a university grant, Marlize undertook a study of the sugar cane varieties growing on Luke’s farm that enabled the application of her wine expertise to assist Canefields.

The initial results are exciting, offering the potential for Canefields to elevate its cane juice rums and bolster what is surely one of Australia’s most unique agritourism experiences.

We’re joined this episode by Steve Magarry and Jonny Croft of Sydney Rum Distillery, which has just unveiled its new home in the former Oak milk factory in Muswellbrook.

Now, that is of course a few hours north of Sydney, in the Upper Hunter Valley to be precise. In fact, the historic Oak site was most recently utilised as a winery.

But the selection of the Oak factory follows an exhaustive search across Sydney for a site that could accommodate the company’s ambitious plans to create a globally scaled rum and brandy business.

As you’ll hear in a moment, Sydney Rum Distillery is a holding company that in the first instance will produce bulk cane spirit and rum for export markets.

But there are also plans to create its own brand portfolio in addition to Cargo Cult, the south pacific rum brand that Johnny founded in 2014.

I caught up with Steve and Jonny at the distillery in Muswellbrook following a briefing and tour the company held for the local community, media and potential investors in March 2025.

Fred Siggins is a Melbourne-based spirits writer with more than 20 years of experience in the drinks and hospitality industries.

He joins us to discuss what I think is a fairly momentous development. Halliday Wine Companion, the definitive guide to Australian wine for almost 40 years, is expanding its remit to include spirits.

Launching in April 2025, Halliday Spirits offers comprehensive reviews and ratings of Australian-made and international spirits, aiming to elevate the industry with the same dedication to quality and insight that has defined Halliday's legacy in wine.

Distillers will be assigned annual star ratings, based on scores achieved throughout the year, and the Halliday website, winecompanion.com.au, will host a directory of distillery profiles.

Fred will be acting as lead taster, and joining him is gin expert Jess Clayfield, who has a profound understanding of Australian botanicals.

Coming up, Fred explains why he thinks consumers are crying out for expert buying advice on spirits.

You’ll hear which Australian spirits categories he’s most excited about, and he shares a few specific recommendations on the best value spirits currently on the market.

Interested distillers can find out how to get involved here:

https://winecompanion.com.au/spirits-submission-process

Welcome to a special news edition of Drinks Adventures as we unpack Lark Distilling’s half yearly results.

This time last year, Lark Distilling CEO Satya Sharma joined us on the podcast for a full-length interview, which I strongly recommend you listen to if you haven’t already.

Twelve months on and Lark appears to making strong progress against the priorities and objectives that Sash outlined in that episode.

The ASX-listed company recently announced net sales of $7.2 million for the half year ended December 31, which was a 7% increase on the same time last year.

The company reported an operating EBITDA loss of $1.2 million, but Sash – speaking in an investor webinar – said this was the result of an ongoing increase in marketing spend.

The webinar also featured the unveiling of Lark's new Kurio Blended Malt Whisky and an update on its rebrand, which Sash signalled will be significant.

In this episode, veteran beer journalist Matt Kirkegaard returns to the Drinks Adventures podcast.

Early in 2024, Matt surprised many people in the brewing industry when he announced a career change, having spent more than two decades as a beer writer and educator.

This also meant the closure of Brews News, the beer industry publication and podcast that I edited between 2015 and 2018, prior to starting Drinks Adventures.

And not only that, but Matt made a somewhat unusual tree change, taking a job in Roma, 500kms inland from Brisbane, where the country meets the outback.

Twelve months on from this move, I wanted to check in on Matt, who was honoured – very appropriately I think – with the lifetime achievement award at The Indies beer awards last year.

We talk about some of the ongoing challenges facing independent brewing, and why Matt remains optimistic that the sector’s best days are still ahead of it, if brewers can survive the current economic headwinds.

Renowned wine writer and champagne specialist Tyson Stelzer joins us in this opening episode of Season 20.

Late in 2024, Tyson released the seventh edition of The Champagne Guide, which is 50 per cent bigger than the previous edition, featuring a record 1260 reviews spread across 880 pages adorned with Tyson’s beautiful photographs.

The guide features a Hall of Honour ranking the best producers and the best champagnes of the year in all price points, as well as the best blanc de blancs, blanc de noirs and rosé champagnes.

It's the world's most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to champagne, featuring the latest, freshest releases, all tasted recently by Tyson.

And while champagne prices have really shot up in recent years, you’ll hear why Tyson believes champagne still offers far superior value when considered alongside the world’s other leading fine wine appellations.

This interview was recorded late last year, so apologies for the delay in sharing it with you, but I think it’s a very worthy episode to officially kick off the podcast for 2025.

We last spoke with Chris Hatcher in May 2021, at which time he was still chief winemaker of the legendary Wolf Blass brand.

Chris has since retired from Wolf Blass, but it’s not retirement as you or I would know it, because Chris has thrown himself into his own venture, Hatch Wines, which is what we’ll be discussing today.

Chris has relished the opportunity to build his small, family-run brand from scratch. And unlike his corporate winemaking days, he is hands on at every stage of the process, from winemaking and blending, to marketing, showcasing and most importantly, selling the wines. 

The result is a portfolio of premium shiraz and Riesling from some of South Australia’s most esteemed vineyards, and the wines have generated rave reviews from some of the country’s top critics.

We're joined this episode by Elizabeth McCall, master distiller of Woodford Reserve in Kentucky.

Elizabeth was not really a whiskey enthusiast when she first joined parent company Brown-Forman in 2009 as a member of the research and development department.

But she soon developed a taste for it, becoming a master taster in 2015, before being effectively anointed as successor to the legendary Chris Morris when she was appointed assistant master distiller in 2018.

When Elizabeth took the reigns in early 2023, she became only the third master distiller in Woodford Reserve’s 28-year history.

In this special episode of Drinks Adventures – produced in partnership with Woodford Reserve – we’ll hear about Elizabeth’s unique career pathway into whiskey, before getting in to the DNA of the Woodford Reserve brand.

Woodford Reserve is the only distillery that makes all four types of American whiskey – bourbon, rye, malt and wheat – ­under the same brand name.

We’ll explore those core range products, as well as the groundbreaking whiskies released as part of the Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection, in this brilliant conversation with Elizabeth.

Haydon Morgan and Damien Ryan are the founders of First Light Brewing Co, a start-up in Wollongong, NSW.

You may recall Haydon’s voice from the special documentary episode we did on Australian brewing legend Chuck Hahn a few years ago now.

Haydon and Damien are both longstanding residents of the Illawarra region and they met each other while working at Lion, where they realised they had complementary skillsets for setting up a brewery of their own.

Haydon finished up with Lion in 2023 as brewery manager for the craft beer division, and Damien, a drinks industry sales veteran, exited the business this year.

With such an accomplished brewer at the helm, I had no doubt whatsoever that First Light will be putting out some superb beers.

But I was interested to hear a bit more about their business model, given some of the challenges the beer industry is currently facing, as previously explored on the Drinks Adventures podcast throughout 2024.

In this episode we meet Ian Schmidt and Vic Orlow, founders of South Australia’s Tin Shed Distilling, the company behind Iniquity Whisky and other brands.

The original tin shed was in Adelaide’s inner west, adjacent to Ian’s other business manufacturing flagpoles, of all things.

Ian has since exited the flagpole game to focus on whisky, and he and Vic have relocated their distillery to a different tin shed in the Adelaide Hills.

There, they will soon be able to open their doors to the public for the very first time in the company’s history.

In this episode we meet two of the founders of Queensland Rum Day, Matt Hobson of Cavu Distilling and Nil Desperandum Rum, and Duncan Littler of Bundaberg Rum.

The second ever Queensland Rum Day is coming up this Saturday 2 November 2024, and this year brings with it a special collaborative rum showcasing liquid from four distilleries, two of which I’ve already mentioned – the others being Beenleigh and Kalki Moon.

They’re calling themselves The Rum Consortium, and there are just 1920 bottles available of their 2024 Limited Edition Blend, which is the first ever time that stalwarts Bundaberg and Beenleigh have ever combined their spirits in the same bottle.

I caught up with Matt and Duncan to find out about this historic rum release, the evolving rum industry in Queensland, and the significance of this new event that I expect we will be hearing much more about in years to come.