Kinglake Distillery

Kinglake Distillery, hard to find, impossible to forget.

Visiting Kinglake Distillery is to immersive yourself in the taste and processes involved in making one of Australia's most distinctive new world single malts.

Kinglake Distillery set out to make a single malt that was discernibly different from other Australian whiskies, something where regardless of barrel ageing, the characteristic Kinglake spirit can be picked out.

The most important Kinglake variable that allows us to make a very distinctive spirit is their use of local Spring Water. Chyser Creek rises from a natural spring located on the distillery property and is used untreated and unfiltered.

They are one of only a handful of distilleries using open ferments for their whisky wash. They are surrounded by towering Mountain Ash, Messmate and Peppermint gumtrees. The open ferments and open-door distilling allows these natural pollens and yeasts to become part of the fermentation process.

The final piece of the jigsaw in translating these local features into a new-make spirit is their approach to distillation and the final cut runs deep into the tails or feints. This not only means that they harvest the maximum impact from the chocolate and peat in their four-grain mash-bill but that all the richness and depth from foibles of using unfiltered water and open fermentations are given a chance to shine.