Starward Distillery DistilleryStarward Distillery Distillery

Founded in 2016
In 2007, Starward Whisky was founded by David Vitale, who branched off to start his own label after kickstarting the Australian single malt movement under the tutelage of Whisky godfather Bill Lark. Vitale, a Melbourne native, established the Starward Distillery in 2016.

Starward Spirits are distilled in the bedrock of southeastern Australia's wine scene. The unique climate and world-renowned wines of Australia are carved in the DNA of each expression. The dynamic climate accelerates the maturation process in  “Melbourne years.” Their Spirits are uniquely Aussie.

The premium Australian Whisky maker was crowned Best Australian Whisky Innovator, their Starward Nova Whisky earning Best Craft Distilled Whisky in the world in 2016.

Their star-studded lineup includes their award-winning Starward Nova Malt Whisky matured in carefully selected ex-Shiraz, Cabernet and Pinot barrels, their Solera-aged Whisky matured in 40 to 50 year-old fortified Australian Wine barrels, their barrel-aged (New) Old Fashioned and Red Manhattan cocktails, and a Two-Fold Double Grain Whisky.

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What does Starward Distillery taste like?

The Flavor Spiral™ shows the most common flavours that you'll taste in Starward Distillery Australian Whisky. It's based on all Starward Distillery drinks in our large database and gives you a chance to taste Starward Distillery before actually tasting it.


Distillery Details

  • Country
  • Established
  • Visitor Center
  • Status
  • Address
    50 Bertie St, Port Melbourne VIC 3207, Australia
  • Phone
    +61 3-9005 -4420
  • Website
Dog Dogson
Dog Dogson's
Melbourne’s crazy “four seasons in a day” climate means it takes a fraction of the time it takes to make Whisky in Scottish Isles or Ireland.

The original Starward facility was actually an old flight hangar in Essendon Fields.
Video from Starward Distillery
Video transcription
My name is David Vitale, I'm the founder of Starward distillery in Port Melbourne and behind me is my playground.

So the story begins in Tasmania about ten years ago. Walked into a cellar door on the waterfront there the Lark distillery and I was completely captivated by Whisky.

Up until then my background was in sort of a drinking a lot of craft Beer, was really excited by that and I really didn't understand that there was a world of Whisky out there beyond the traditional blends, and just fell in love with this whole idea that this is, there was a craft Beer scene but you could have a craft Whisky scene.

So we were already making like Whisky in Australia, my inspiration really was to think about it as being far more accessible and easier to find and obviously more approachable to drink. The thing that really captivated us was this idea that perhaps we could use the Australian Wine barrels to influence the flavor of the Whisky and therefore having a reason to exist on the back bar.

Everybody loves Australian wine so for us having the ability to source these barrels and get them to the distillery still saturated with Wine in the barrel itself means that we're getting all that flavor into the Whisky and you can see it in the color of the product itself. That's half of the story, the second half is obviously that once we get them here and fill them with that new-made Spirit we've got Melbourne’s four seasons in a day to be able to mature the Whisky in.

Quite often we come to the distillery with a sunny morning. It's hailing in the afternoon and by the evening it's mild again and that change in temperature that happens so frequently means the Whisky is expanding and deflecting out of the oak all the time. So we're getting all that complexity, color and character out of the oak into the Spirit far quicker than we would anywhere else in the world. We wanted to inspire our drinkers and ourselves every day to think about what Whisky can be by reaching towards the stars and that's why we call it Starward.

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Flaviar Times

Australian Whisky from Starward Distillery

Average rating: 8.7/10 (92 votes)