Morris ventures into whisky
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The Morris Australian Single Malt Signature Whisky. Morris Wines
Everybody’s doin’ it. Distilling this or that, and making gin or whisky or some other spirit.
Wine regions now have resident breweries and distilleries competing with wineries.
There’s nothing new about multi-tasking, of course. Maxwell’s in McLaren Vale has always made mead as well as wine; Kellybrook in the Yarra Valley is noted for cider as well as wine.
John Casella visited the winery and noticed the copper still that was gathering dust and hadn’t been fired up for 30 or 40 years.I don’t know about you, but I figure I only have enough capacity for a certain amount of alcohol in my life, and there’s more than enough beautiful wine to satisfy my thirst.
But when something special comes along, such as Lark Distillery’s single malt whisky finished in Seppeltsfield 100-year-old Para barrels, featured on The Real Review recently, I get excited—especially when there’s a winery involved. So when samples of Morris Single Malt Whiskies arrived, my tasting glass was at the ready.
Morris of Rutherglen is one of our very finest makers of fortified wines, especially barrel-matured muscats, tawnies and topaques. When Casella Family Brands, famous for Yellow Tail but who also own Peter Lehmann, Brand’s Laira and Bailey’s of Glenrowan, took over Morris in 2016, proprietor John Casella visited the winery and noticed the copper still that was gathering dust and hadn’t been fired up for 30 or 40 years, no-one can quite remember how long.
There was a time when most wineries produced fortified wines (then labelled as sherries, ports, etc) and many of them had a still in which they distilled their own fortifying spirit. Brandy is made from grape wine, and fortifying spirit likewise, so it made sense to distil your own alcohol from your leftovers.
Chatting to David Morris, the sixth generation Morris to run the winery, John Casella floated the idea of using the still to produce spirits.
Craft distillers Copper & Grain Distilling Co were brought in to produce the whisky, which they did using locally-grown barley and water from the Snowy Mountains. The barley was mashed and fermented at Casella’s Yenda brewery, and the ‘low wine’ was taken to Rutherglen and distilled by professional distiller Darren Peck.
The team has launched two whiskies, both of which were aged in barrels formerly used for maturing wine. One was finished in old muscat casks from the Morris Rutherglen winery.
They are *Morris Australian Single Malt Signature Whisky (AUD $95/700ml) and Morris Australian Single Malt Muscat Barrel Whisky (AUD $140/700ml). The former is 40% alcohol by volume, the latter 46%.
Morris is a venerable company, established in 1859 by George Morris (whose signature is on the whisky labels), and still making some of the world’s greatest fortified wines.
It’s great to see an Aussie whisky of this quality that can be bought with a $100 bill.The still—for those with a technical bent—is an Australian-built Whitehill hybrid copper pot and column still. It was installed at the Morris winery in the early 1930s and used for producing fortifying spirit. It has been ‘meticulously’ restored, and, in reference to its ‘awakening after decades of slumber’ it’s been named Aurora, after the princess in Sleeping Beauty.
The Signature is medium to full amber—a typical malt whisky colour—while the Muscat Barrel is much darker, almost like a liqueur muscat, which seems to fit with the fruitcake note in the whisky.
The Signature’s bouquet is fine and not unlike a good Scotch malt, with some apparent peatiness – unlikely though this is in an Aussie whisky. It’s the more delicate spirit, complex and full of nutty and new-leather nuances. The Muscat Barrel is richer and ‘darker’ in its aromas and flavours, with hints of treacle and panforte, more powerful – partly due to its higher strength – with a long resonating aftertaste. Neither of them is oaky or heavy: they have a lovely lightness allied with intensity.
Two superb spirits, distinctly different in character. And it’s great to see an Aussie whisky of this quality that can be bought with an AUD $100 bill.
* Vanguard Luxury Brands is the exclusive Australian distributor of Morris whiskies. They are ranged in premium bars, retailers and restaurants across Australia.