Starward

David Vitale founded Starward in 2007 — early years in an old Qantas hangar at Essendon airport — with one governing idea: an Australian whisky should taste of where it's made. So every cask is an Australian wine barrel, shiraz, cabernet and apera among them, many arriving still wet from wineries a day's drive from the Port Melbourne distillery. Melbourne's notorious four-seasons-in-a-day weather pumps the spirit in and out of the wine-soaked oak, and three years here does the flavour work of many more. Nova and Two-Fold have made Starward the face of modern Australian whisky abroad.