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Water of Life – Dugite Whiskey, Limeburners and Finders Distillery

While most of Australian’s distilleries are located on the South Eastern part of terra australis, the ones that are based in Western Australia have set benchmarks in terms of craftmanship when it comes to channelling their unique climate and context into aging outstanding whiskies.

Limeburners is the accolade decorated spearhead of the Western Australian distillery scene and has accomplished the trifecta of provenance by using locally grown grain, Albany water sourced from deep below the distillery and the usage of Australian fortified wine barrels along with American oak bourbon ones.

Sounds like winning combination?

It is.

There is hardly something more satisfying than a dram of Limeburners’ Port Cask Strength expression during the colder months of Australian winter.

Given that the expression is bottled directly from the barrel without further ado, this is as close as it comes to an unaltered drop that showcases the facets that emanate from being matured in a single cask. The dark shade of ruby red derived from the Port cask already gives an indication of the complex and decadent flavours that await:

Think truffled caramel, alcohol soaked raisins along with fine nuances of honeyed orange and apricots. Claiming that this drop is “moreish” would be an understatement par excellence.

Now, if you think that the Port Cask Strength cannot be topped in terms of indulgence, try Limeburners’ Darkest Winter expression.

Clocking in at a whopping 66% ABV, Western Australian peat is what takes things to the next level in this case: Sourced from a local valley, the peat is used to smoke Great Southern barley for an extended period to enhance the flavour profile.

Created to celebrate the Winter Solstice, what tickles the nostrils is churned caramel, vegetative, fruity and floral notes that transition into sweet, warm and woody aromas.

On the top of the mouth things get more subtle and refined than what one would suspect. Resting on a backbone of oaky and toasted maple, nutty flavours are punctuated by a delicate honeyed, poached pear sweetness with the elongated finish culminating in a crescendo of warm coffee bean piquancy and a subdued nuanceful peatiness.

Given the limited nature of the release, each batch is different and I cannot wait to try the 2022 incarnations.

What I have always appreciated about the three distillers that form Great Southern Distilling Co are there more accessible snake themed releases, with Tiger Snake being one of my favourite.

Bottom of Form

Named after a deadly Western Australian snake, Dugite Whiskey the new blended kid on the block derived from a mix of single malt whisky and the hybrid of barley, wheat, rye and corn, the result of which then has been individually barrelled in new American Oak casks and second fill bourbon barrels to age for at least two years.

On the palate, creamy in texture, each of the grains unfolds its flavours ranging from vanilla, honey dew and malty caramel via passionfruity citrus notes and oranges to spicy and nutty notes.

The finish culminates in a lemony, fruity high butterscotch toffee that leaves one lusting for another tasty sip.

A welcome and affordable entry point to the portfolio.

Let’s change gears from whiskey to gin and move locations from Western Australia to New South Wales:

It is every so often that one realizes that one does not have to venture far to find up and coming gems in the realm of distilling.

Case in point: Finders Distillery based out of an industrial unit on Sydney's North Shore.

Following a two-year around the world trip as a source of inspiration which saw the founders visit a myriad of distilleries to learn about production processes and graced with a passion for artisanal products upon their return, they set out to create each batch of gin individually with their three hundred litre capacity copper pot still.

Based on a backbone of Australian wheat spirit, Finders’ core Juniper forward Dry Gin expression is crafted the traditional way with an idiosyncratic Australian twist, i.e. the infusion of nine local botanicals such as Wattle Seed and Native Gum, the adage of which is finely calibrated to ensure that the desired flavour nuances are being achieved.

With the melange of the aforementioned Australian botanicals and floral sweetness reminiscent of chamomile and citrussy highlights, a uniquely complex flavour profile is achieved and enhanced by the expression not being chill-filtered, which with its smooth mouthfeel lends itself particularly well for both neat sipping or the traditional G&T.

Given the quality of Finders’ Dry Gin, I can only hope that we will soon see them venturing into creating their own whiskies.

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images from company websites

Rare Bird Publishing special

Founded in 2010, LA-based publishing house Rare Bird has released a catalogue of over fifty books and records with an eclectic cast of authors ranging from Mark Lanegan via William T. Vollmann to books by Sam McPheeters, which we have covered before.

One of Rare Birds’ latest releases is a tome dedicated to the collective known as Leftöver Crack, who have left an indelible dent in the realm of underground music with what on the surface looks like a nihilistic melange of no fucks given, cops hatin’ and drug takin’ crust core that centres its output around the tenet of causing mayhem in every possible way.

Architects of Self-Destruction: An Oral History of Leftöver Crack scratches the surfaces and seeks to document the band’s history by gathering details from the main protagonists themselves, their entourage, supporters and, most interestingly, their antagonists and enemies.

The result is a nuanceful depiction of a well-reflected band that shows that there is a method to their madness and more to their antics than mere shock value: In both a contemplative, challenging and provocative manner, the band’s history is chronicled with light being shed on the fiascos, confrontations and other shenanigans that ensued along the way.

An enlightening read that should tickle the fancy of both the uninitiated as well as hardcore fans, as the book is in essence an homage to the DNA of rebellious underground activism.

Having recently worked on an academic expose on Rammstein’ play with Teutonic imagery, taboos and stereotypes at large, it was nice to come across a book penned one of the less prominent members who nonetheless holds a special significance within the confines of the band, i.e. their keyboarder Flake.

It’s the World’s Birthday Today is the book equivalent of the man himself in that it is self-deprecating without being coquettish, funny and written from a unique angle.

Penned in a steady stream of consciousness kind of manner, Flake muses on being a middle-aged rock artist touring the world, fame,  its pitfalls and insanities that come with it, set against the evolution of Rammstein as a band.

With his own idiosyncratic sense of humour and in an engaging and relatable fashion, Flake shares not exactly glamourous but entertaining anecdotes from what happens behind the scenes of one of the biggest current bands on the planet.

The most entertaining bits is when Flake touches on mundane things and deconstructs the mythical entity the band has become, e.g. the fact that he listens to Rammstein cover bands to prepare before tours as their recordings prove to be more precise, his gripe that fascists do not get what Rammstein is really about, the creative process informing it all and what ensues when the band films their eccentric videos or engages in their not always too safe onstage pyro enhanced performances.

A wonderfully down-to-earth, enjoyable and entertaining book filled with titbits of a musician’s life that sheds light on where they come from and either makes you fall with Rammstein even more or will inspire you to give them a second shot, should you have decided that they were not for you the first time around.Cheap Shots: A Photographic Look at Underground Bands from the 1980s and Beyond should be the last component of the Rare Bird trifecta.

As the name suggests, this photobook zeroes in on bands that coined and shaped punk and hardcore music as we know it, ranging from the Bad Brains, Black Flag, Danzig, The Descendants, Fugazi via The Damned, UK Subs to the portrayal of U2’s first US tour along with many others.
Depicted both on-, behind and offstage in their respective natural habitats, Cheap Shots delivers in the eye candy department and should be a mandatory addition to the library to anyone remotely into underground music of the 1980s.

Hilma af Klint

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Sydney, Australia

Having recently spent quite a bit of time on the legacy Genesis P-Orridge left behind and what has been accomplished with Thee Temple of Psychic Youth and the ideas it transported and triggered, the paintings of cosmic visionary Hilma af Klint arriving in Sydney could not be more timely.

Born in the second half of the nineteenth century, Hilma af Klint was essentially a DIY artist channelling her inspirations in abstract art for which there had been neither a forum nor a categorization before. Needless to say, she suffered the fate of many trailblazing artists, i.e. the discovery and appreciation of her oeuvre only eventuated long after she had shuffled off this mortal coil.

A spiritualist and theosopher intrinsically interested in science at heart, Klint painted her visions of which she was sure that the messages that lay within, her contemporaries would not be ready for.

Close to eighty years after her death, I was fortunate enough to experience over one hundred of her paintings as part of the exhibition The Secret Paintings at the Art Gallery of NSW.

The exhibition traces Klint’s evolution from the beginnings trying to capture the intricacies of the natural world to her emissions as a constituent of the female art collective that became known as The Five, which became known for their intuitive paintings.

The final, most interesting part of the exhibition sees Klint acting as a medium, materializing on canvases what her antennae received as communications from spiritual beings, containing deeper meanings pertaining to pandrogeny an d the challenge of stereotypes and dualities that were to be unveiled in an unknown future.

Minimal in nature, Klint’s approach is informed by carefully chosen colour schemes infused with selected text excerpts and symbolism, with especially the bigger scale paintings with their delicate details capturing the audience’s imagination with a visual language that is comprised in equal parts of futuristic, cosmic and medieval constituents.

Summa summarum, a well-curated exhibition dedicated to an artist whose future has arrived now more than ever.

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image courtesy of Art Gallery of New South Wales

Thus Let Us Drink Beer – Slow Lane Brewing / Murray’s Brewing

Ah, there must be something in the water in Australia as every time I naively feel like I must have had the fortune to taste the cream of the crop of local craft distillers, I realize that I have hard unearthed the tip of the iceberg.

Case in point: Slow Lane and Murray’s Brewing.

Let’s start with one that is channelling its brewing alchemy not too far away, i.e. Sydney’s Slow Lane Brewing.

Lean in scale in terms of operations, Slow Lane’s focus is firmly set on carefully and expertly crafted beers across a diverse range of styles and flavours, with more than a couple of pages taken out of the European book of brewing to then infuse them with their own idiosyncratic DNA.

With the name being a telling one, i.e. Slow Lane making their beers based on a time- and labour intensive slow-fermentation and natural carbonation process, their emissions result in a deliberately amplified yeast character, which at times is further enhanced via further maturation in oak barrels to marry old and new world approaches and the adage of lactobacillus bacteria.

Sounds ominous? Not at all, but delicious and with an outcome resulting in interestingly complex, slowly evolving flavour profiles as the brewers’ have honed their craft in the US before developing a weak spot for Belgian Trappist beers and sours.

Having spent stints in Belgium, it should not be further wondrous that my favourite of the range is Slow Lane’s exceptional Threefold expression: Being a tripel and thereby the strongest of the Trappist monastery style beers, Slow Lane rests its expression on the foundation of a pilsner malt base before making it undergo an open fermentation along with a second fermenting process.

The result clocks in at 8.4% ABV and the honeyed malt flavours that sits against a backdrop of warming bitter maltiness, guides one down a path of sweeter notes, before the twist that comes with the nice, slightly dry finish.

Given what I have been able to taste from the rest of the range, a visit to Slow Lane Brewing’s bar, which is apparently influenced by Scandinavian design, has become mandatory.

Let’s venture a tad further out in New South Wales to arrive at a highlight my beer related discoveries in 2021: Welcome Murray’s Brewing to the fold.

With an accolade ridden fifteen year old history, the parallels between slow Lane and Murray’s lie in both having found their inspiration to try their hand in brewing via a trip to the US.

Based on the North Coast of New South Wales, their operations started after acquiring the Pub With No Beer (of Slim Dusty fame) with the establishment of a microbrewery, which grew over time to the extent that it demanded a relocation to a place that allowed Murray’s to grow exponentially to the scale it is known for these days.

Independent in nature and in full control of their production, I have yet to come across one of their quirky yet consistently and full-flavoured expressions of theirs that does not captivate me.

Specifically Murray’s IPA and NEIPA range has won me over.

Being a hophead, the Thunderbolt IPA is an example par excellence for turning the dial to eleven in terms of aromas and flavours. Think hopped out juiced fruit salad.

Based on a melange of Equinox, Mosaic and Columbus hops, the citrussy highlight sit on a backbone of malty bitterness. A borderline ideal IPA, which paired wonderfully as a component of a boilermaker with a dram of Octomore 6.3.

Not less delicious are Murray’s mango- and pineapple-y Nectabomb and especially the fruit punchy Riding the Ghost Train expression, which not only pours to a thick shade of orangey yellow that is a sight to behold but hides its 8% ABV behind a veil of sweet deliciousness.

Murray's Grand Cru is their idiosyncratic take on creating a  hybrid of the Belgian Trippel and Golden Strong Ale styles. While I am usually not exactly the biggest fan of derivations of the Belgian Trappist school of beermaking, I quite like Murray’s interpretation in that it takes the DNA and gives it a twist by adding Pacifica hops, which make a dominant appearance on the palate yet are counterbalanced by a finish that leaves on lusting for more with its malty bitterness.

Add a funky cheeseboard to the mix and give the adjective “moreish” another dimension.

If you are remotely into hoppy craft beers, you would want to make an effort to sample Murray’s Brewing’s range.

Water of Life - Melbourne Gin Company and Hurdle Creek Still

Another one that has been in the making for the longest time: Melbourne Gin Company. Having eyed their distinctively stylish bottles on the top shelves on the more respectable gin dispensaries of this country, I could not wait to try their emissions.

With a background in winemaking, Andrew Marks and his team have firmly established themselves with their idiosyncratic artisanal hand-crafted production approach on the radar of lovers of all things juniper.

Six years into their existence of being an independent distillery, they created introduced what has become their trademark expression into their portfolio, i.e. Single Shot – quite a telling name as it was created in one single distillation run. A hole in one in golf terms.

Channelling their alchemy by distilling their emissions with a custom-made copper pot baine-marie alembic still from Portugal, their distillation uses local rainwater – talk about provenance and adding another depth of dimension to locally sourced botanicals.

What tickles the nostrils with the Single Shot, is both a spicy and fragrant melange with peppery highlights, sitting against a backdrop of zesty, lavender and rosemary notes. Sounds complex? It is.

Being a whisky-head, I like sipping and the Single Shot lends itself particularly well for that exercise as it rich flavours unfold on the top of the mouth, riffing on the aforementioned nuances substantiated with a bit of a warming alcoholic kick.

What I have tasted will warrant a visit to MGC’s headquarters, which I hope can be accomplished once the travel situation allows.

Let move to the family run Hurdle Creek Still.

Essentially a gin distillery, Hurdle Creek has quite a diverse portfolio with the common denominator being that all of their  products are made and bottled onsite within the confines of their still house, with the base spirit made from locally sourced grain using a traditional infusion mashing system and twice distilled though their extended copper and glass column, resulting in a unique grain character enhanced by local botanicals – are by “local”, they mean as close as having grown in their garden and doing everything themselves, including the distillation of their base spirit, the difference of which can actually be tasted.

Hurdle Creek’s portfolio encompasses aniseed gin, navy strength gin, cherry Gin and pretty much everything in between.

I find their signature Yandarm gin, whose robust juniper DNA is accentuated by the most beautiful melange of cinnamon, coriander, cardamon and – on the more interesting end of the spectrum – curiously citrussy hop notes courtesy of their collaboration with Black Dog Brewery, which resonates particularly well with me palate as it amplifies the flavours.

Hurdle Creek’s Navy Strength expression gets its flavour profile not merely from a solid backbone of alcohol, but through the vapour infused adage of peppercorns, cinnamon, eucalyptus and aniseed myrtles.  

However, what really excited me about Hurdle Creek is that they are one of the few Australian distilleries that are making the traditional French aniseed flavoured aperitif known as Pastis. Taking the traditional French approach, it would not be Hurdle Creek if they did not add a twist, which in this case is the addition of round-leaf mint bush and aniseed myrtle. I have always enjoyed mixing Pastis with sparkling water and this variant has instantaneously become one of my favourites.

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imagse from company websites