Drinks Adventures - Wine, beer, whisky, gin & more with James Atkinson

We’re joined this episode by Charlie Echlin and Chico Rosa from Fielden Whisky of England, which has recently launched its range in Australia. Fielden began life in 2017 as The Oxford Artisan Distillery, a company focused predominately on white spirits that it distilled from scratch using historic grain varieties. But it also laid down for maturation small quantities of grain spirit that underpinned its relaunch as Fielden Whisky and relocation to Yorkshire with the target of having 30,000 casks under maturation by 2030. This is a special episode of Drinks Adventures, produced in partnership with Fielden Whisky. Coming up, you’ll hear about Fielden’s differentiated approach to English whisky, championing rye, first and foremost, and highlighting the benefits of regenerative farming, working exclusively with heritage grains that have been grown entirely without chemicals. Just like several other brands we’ve previously featured on this podcast – Starward, Westward and Stauning – Fielden Whisky received a minority investment from the Distil Ventures accelerator program. Spirits giant Diageo recently announced it would no longer fund Distil Ventures, so later on in this episode I ask Charlie and Chico what this means for their business. We get their thoughts on some of the recent economic malaise surrounding the whisky industry globally. And, even though they’re focused on making rye whisky, Charlie and Chico give their view on the definition of ‘single malt’ in the proposed English whisky geographical indication that has caused quite a bit of controversy in recent months.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

We welcome back to the show Daniel Motlop of Seven Seasons Spirits, who we previously met back in May 2021. Coming up, Daniel reveals that Seven Seasons has returned to majority family ownership following the demise of his former business partner and distributor, Mighty Craft. Mighty Craft backer Pure Asset Management has emerged as Daniel’s new business partner and together they have big ambitions for the brand that has showed so much promise with its innovative products showcasing Australian native ingredients, led of course by Green Ant Gin. We get an update on the Seven Seasons whisky that was developed by Daniel in collaboration with another previous podcast guest, Mighty Craft head distiller George Campbell, who has since returned to Islay to take up the job as distillery manager at Laphroaig. Seven Seasons has also announced a new distribution agreement with Amber Beverage Australia, so first up in this episode I spoke briefly with founder and CEO Patrick Borg about the latest addition to his portfolio.