The Australian craft spirits picking up big overseas prizes

by · Australian Financial Review

Max AllenDrinks columnist

Thursday, October 19 was a big night for Matt Sanger. That evening, the founder of Melbourne-based canned cocktail company Curatif stepped up to the podium at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London, and accepted the trophy for the best ready-to-drink alcohol (RTD) producer in the world – for the second year in a row.

Not bad for a business that only started operating in 2019, and was run for the first few months from Sanger’s mum’s living-room table.

Curatif cocktails, including the Mai Tai, at right, that impressed Glenmorangie.  Kristoffer Paulsen  

“It was pretty wild at the awards night,” says Sanger. “I met one of the head distillers at [major Scotch brand] Glenmorangie there. He said to me: ‘I tried your Mai Tai the other day. I thought it was great’. And I’m thinking, hold on: I grew up drinking your whisky with my dad. Glenmorangie was Dad’s favourite. So, yeah, to go from having what I thought was a pretty good idea for a business five years ago to now being recognised in that sort of environment. That’s pretty amazing.”

Curatif wasn’t the only Australian spirits company to be recognised at the international awards. Top Shelf International’s Grainshaker brand took out the vodka trophy – beating much larger, more established vodka makers. And Yarra Valley-based Four Pillars was named best gin distillery – for an unprecedented third time.

Matt Sanger, the founder of Melbourne-based canned cocktail company Curatif, with the trophy for best ready-to-drink alcohol producer in the world. 

Australian winemakers are no strangers to this long-running competition: well-established producers such as Rosemount and Wolf Blass have been winning IWSC accolades for decades. As it happens, the Outstanding Wine Producer trophy this year went to an Australian – again – this time to Margaret River’s Larry Cherubino.

What arguably makes the Aussie distillers’ achievements more noteworthy, though, is the fact that, unlike our wine industry, our craft spirits scene is so new: Four Pillars, considered a “veteran” player, started making gin as recently as 2013; Grainshaker has only been around since 2020, launching not long after Curatif.

Four Pillars head distiller Cameron Mackenzie. The company was named best gin distillery for the third time. 

It’s not just the IWSC where Australian distillers excel, either. Every week, it seems, I hear about yet another trophy or gold medal won by an Australian whisky maker or gin producer at a competition somewhere around the world, from San Francisco to Hong Kong.