A spirited operation
Expansion needed after high demand for drinks
THE owners of the Bellarine Distillery are investigating how to finance a major expansion of their distillery following the soaring interest generated by the opening of their cellar door a little more than a year ago.
Russ Watson and Lorelle Warren admit to flying by the seat of their pants through much of last year to meet rising demand for their handcrafted gins.
The explosion in popularity of gin combined with the rustic charm of their Bellarine property and the cellar door known as The Whiskery tested the new business to the limits after it opened in April last year.
But the business’s performance has encouraged plans for a purpose-built distillery to increase production and build on the distinct visitor experience that is part of the attraction at The Whiskery.
“We now need to ramp it up significantly,” Ms Warren said of their gin and whisky production volumes.
She said that having financed the development of the business to this point “it has got to get bigger that just what Russ and I can do”.
In a short time, the business has expanded from just the owners to a full-time team of five, including the appointment of a distillery manager in January this year, plus a raft of casuals supporting the cellar door.
There is irony in that it is gin, most notably the award-winning Teddy and the Fox, that is powering the growth of The Whiskery but Mr Watson is looking to address that through the expansion.
“Sadly, we haven’t made us much whisky as we would have liked,” he said.
“The (cellar door) project and the gin just took over, it’s been phenomenal.”
The maturation time required for whisky makes it a longer-term proposition but Mr Watson and distillery manager Craig Michael are creating batches of whisky using recoopered wine barrels from nearby Scotchman’s Hill winery.
“We want to run a constant line, and it takes years to build it up, of whisky,” Mr Watson said.
And space is already tight at the distillery, a converted shed that sits apart from The Whiskery on the Portalington Rd property. To fund the expansion, the owners are planning to offer a barrel investment program by the end of the year with the aim of raising $5 million.
Ms Warren said the investment program would involve the pre-sale of barrels of whisky with the offer to include a buyback option that would help the business secure an ongoing supply.
She said the concept for The Whiskery, and giving the distillery arm a retail outlet, had been born before the surge in the gin market.