Tequila ace joins venture
AN industry leader who helped develop one of the most respected tequila brands in the world has signed on to build the profile of agave growing near Bowen.
Top Shelf International has secured Trent Fraser to lead the company’s Australian Agave Project and international expansion.
The key appointment will help raise the company’s profile and draw on Mr Fraser’s extensive experience that includes more than two decades in the wine and spirits industry.
He has spent the past 13 years in New York with Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton after a 10-year tenure with Penfolds and Treasury Wine Estates in Australia.
Mr Fraser has worked for Moet Hennessy since 2008 within its luxury spirits portfolio where he spent nine years as vice president for the iconic champagne producer, Dom Perignon.
“In 2015 I was honoured to be tasked to go and build a tequila brand for the esteemed LVMH luxury group,” Mr Fraser said.
“This was an absolute dream fulfilled as I was able to ignite this entrepreneurial fire within me and in a category I’m so passionate about.
“For several years I lived between Guadalajara and New York building a distillery and brand from scratch.
“The project completely consumes you and immediately you need to become a jack of all trades learning on the fly about areas you never even dreamt of.”
TSI previously announced its new agave spirit would be market-ready in September, marking the major milestone for the Eden Lassie farm south of Bowen.
It will deliver a uniquely Whitsunday product to the Australian market which has proven to be among the largest consumers of tequila behind only the US and Mexico.
Mr Fraser said he was proud to leave a legacy of one of the most respected tequila brands in the world.
“I’m a very proud Aussie and the opportunity to return home to lead something so groundbreaking is undeniably the main driving motivation, as is the rule-breaking, hungry and pioneering attitude of the TSI team,” he said.
TSI CEO Drew Fairchild said Mr Fraser’s record would help guide and shape “the development of our Australian agave opportunity”. “We could not have found a more well-credentialed, internationally recognised Australian in the spirits world to help TSI realise its ambition to become
Australia’s first globally relevant multi-branded spirits company.”
Mr Fraser said he had sampled the agave grown near Bowen and was “immediately impressed”.
“A stunning agave liquid profile that has been carefully nurtured to flourish outside of its native Mexico will be the next chapter in agave’s future,” he said.