Kensington’s Bakery Hill offering new whisky tours

A boutique family-owned whisky distillery in the heart of the north-west is offering peeks into the creation of its enticing beverages as well as tastes, tales, learnings, atmosphere and a general love for the drink.

One of the “weird myths” about whisky is that you need pure Scottish water and air to make the good stuff, says Bakery Hill’s Ash Clinton.

The distillery’s founder, David Baker, “called bull***t” on that, she says, “because the climate there is so still and stagnant”.

In Victoria, by contrast, where David set up in 1999 – initially in Bayswater – the changeable weather means the wooden casks the spirit is aged in expand and contract, speeding up the chemical process.

An eight-year-old Victorian whisky is thus the equivalent of an 18-year-old Scotch, Ash says.

So, in fact, “the Scottish make fabulous whisky against all odds!”

While her boss, a former chemistry teacher who is dogged by Breaking Bad jokes, was among the first to dare to produce the spirit in Australia, there are now around 600 distilleries here, Ash says – more than in Scotland.

Despite that, the now family-run label, which moved to Kensington in 2022, where it cranks out 1000 litres a week, can’t keep up with demand, she says.

On a grey, wet Sunday the distillery, with its exposed brick walls, repurposed wooden barrels, Chesterfields, heaters, piano, rugs and range of tasty whiskies, is pretty inviting.

Marketing manager and budding distiller Ash, who is hosting half-hour tours, is another source of warmth.

I have the best job on the planet,” the 25-year-old says. “I talk about whisky for a living.

While once considered “an old man’s drink” the spirit is so popular now that there are a lot of young people in the industry, she says.

“I’m no longer such an anomaly.”

From Ash, the visitor learns that the Baker family business has traditionally made single malts, which are aged in ex-bourbon casks for six to eight years, although it has recently also launched a more “cost-effective” blend.

Its whisky is “a Speyside style”, which refers to a region in northeast Scotland dense with big name distilleries.

While the business used to import barley from Scotland, it is now sourced more locally, with “everything milled on site”.

Ash runs through the stages of production, which include the water and grain being “cooked like porridge” in the “mash ton”, the resulting “wash” being heated in a “kettle” to bring out the fermentable sugars, and the liquid being fermented in tanks before going to the still.

For the uninitiated a surprising fact about whisky is that “you’ll never get one bottle exactly the same as the last,” with variables like the weather at the time of production and position of the barrel when stored influencing the end result.

And crucial in the question of flavour is the barrel, or cask itself.

“The barrel gives it its colour and flavour. It’s super important,” Ash says.

At Bakery Hill the barrels in use include former French and American oak wine casks and sherry, port and stout ones.

But rather than talking about equipment and analysing barrels, some people will prefer to sit down at them and get on with sampling the product.

On offer alongside a dry gin are classic and peated malts in both regular (46 per cent) and cask (60 per cent) strength, a double wood and a single blend.

A bottle of this lovely stuff will set you back a bit.

But if you savour it and drink slowly, you might be able to keep yourself warm for a fair while to come.

Bakery Hill is offering short half-hour tours of its Macauley Rd distillery on Sundays in May.

bakeryhill.com •