Bottle Stats

• Produced by Kinglake Distillery
• Australian single malt whisky, situated in Kinglake, 60 km northeast of Melbourne
• Distilled in 2020, bottled in 2023
• Age is 2 years, 1 month, 25 days
• ABV is 61%
• Single cask, 28 of 171 bottles
• An ex-bourbon barrel that initially had a level 4 “alligator” char, but the barrel was shaved-out and heavily toasted before being filled (thus, “See Ya Later Alligator”)

Distillery Key Facts

• Two-person, rural producer in Victoria, Australia established in 2018
• First whisky was released in 2021
• Production is between 12,500 and 20,000 litres of alcohol per year (with a maximum theoretical capacity of 50,000 litres per year).
• Long fermentations and open-top washbacks
• Mash tun is stirred by hand
• 2,500 litre copper pot still, handmade in Tasmania, that is short and fat with a downward-sloping line arm
• Intent to emulate the style and flavours of Scottish single malt whisky
• Producing a heavy, oily style of single malt spirit
• Using 100% M-1 yeast, which is often used in Scotland and yields high alcohol with complex esters
• Primarily using ex-bourbon barrels for maturation, but occasionally using some port, sherry, and exotic timber barrels as well
• Approximately 75% of their barley is farmed and malted in New South Wales, Australia, and the distillery founders have a personal relationship with each grower
• The other 25% of their barley is heavily peated malt from the Scottish borders
• Water source is straight from nearby Chyser Creek, completely unfiltered
• The distillery is entirely off-grid with certified carbon neutral status, with a large dam on the property providing power and recycled cooling water
• Kinglake experiences cold, damp winters (4°C) and moderately warm summers (26°C)

Why Kinglake?

I've spent a lot of time in Melbourne, Australia. I absolutely love it there. The whisky, drinks, and food scenes are world class.

When I lived in Melbourne, my local was Bad Frankie – an excellent neighbourhood cocktail bar on the border of Fitzroy and Collingwood. Bad Frankie only stocks Australian spirits, and it's an obscenely nerdy collection.

During my time there, I familiarised myself with many of the Australian spirits nestled behind the bar but, after four long years away, most of their domestic stock was foreign to me when I finally paid Bad Frankie a visit again on a busy Friday night in March 2023. Amidst the heaps of Austraian booze, a few Kinglake Distillery bottles caught my eye with their pixelated, Pac-Man-eske design aesthetic. I'd never heard of them before, but I ordered a dram of their cask strength core release “O'Grady's Stand Full Noise” expression. I enjoyed it. It was oily and Scotchy-Scotchy and characterful. I wanted to know more about their operation.

After some coordination via social media, I paid a visit to Kinglake Distillery a few days later. They are truly out in the backwoods. Despite having a good sense of direction, it was not trivial to find the distillery, and I made more than a few wrong turns along the way. The area around Kinglake is beautiful, and it's a bit spooky. The eucalyptus forests, the cool mist, the quietness – Kinglake has a tremendous sense of place. The natural oils in the air from those dense eucalyptus forests scatter blue light in the spectrum, casting a sometimes errie pall over the landscape. The entire region is at high risk from wildfire, despite it remaining relatively cool atop the low mountains of Kinglake year-round (between 4°C and 26°C). Rumor has it that Melbourne-based organised crime in the 20th century used to disappear bodies in the hills in and around Kinglake. Before that, the hills were a hotbed of gold mining activity off and on since the mid-19th century.

Once I finally found Kinglake Distillery, the distiller and cofounder, Sam Lowe, was there to greet me. As usual, he was running around the distillery on his own, tending to the production process, and he kindly showed me around as he did so. It's a very small, mostly one-room operation, and it's quite obviously a labour of love. Despite his low-key demeanour, Sam's enthusiasm was palpable. His favourite scotch is Springbank, and he loves whiskies matured in ex-bourbon casks. Sam and his partner, Chantal (chief taster & blender), most often produce a style of spirit that is heavy and oily. Being an absolute fiend for viscous whiskies, Kinglake's style of distillate is most definitely something I can get excited about!

Sam is originally from Cambridge, England. Chantal is a 3rd-generation “Kinglaker”. The two of them met while working at a ski resort in France. Both passionate about spirits – particularly single malt and cocktails – they returned to Kinglake to start up a distillery.

What a thing to do! To just go and build your own distillery from scratch in the backwoods of Australia and make single malt whisky precisely how you want to make it!

I doubt we'll ever see releases from Kinglake Distillery on this side of the planet since their production is so small, but it'll be good fun to open up this special “See Ya Later Alligator” release at the Pacific Rim tasting and see what people think of it. It's traveled a very long way.

Distillery Location

Kinglake, Victoria, Australia

The area of Kinglake is a combination of forest, farmland, national parklands, and a small township, home to fewer than 2,000 people. Situated about 60 km northeast of Melbourne, it is a popular area for camping, hiking or a day trip from the city, and it takes about 90 minutes to reach by car from central Melbourne.

The distillery property is located on high ground, with nearby streams running almost year-round. The local water has a excellent mineral content for making whisky.

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