That vision is now a reality, with Starward emerging as an international powerhouse, outgrowing its original Essendon Fields base to set up distillery bar in Port Melbourne and developing a global award-winning line-up of drinks. 

“We started in Essendon Airport in a small maintenance hangar and started making spirit. We launched our first product in 2013 that was just known as Starward,” says Production Director Sam Slaney, Starward’s first employee who now oversees the distiller’s entire supply chain.  

“In 2015 we launched Starward Wine Cask and in 2016 we moved to Port Melbourne since we needed more space. We had double the floor space and we tripled our production capacity at that point in time.  

“In 2020 we doubled our production capacity again at Port Melbourne. We can now make 600,000 litres of spirit per annum.  

“We've continued to grow. Our export sales are taking off and we had a massive win this year at the San Francisco Spirits Awards.” 

Whisky for a new generation 

Starward’s success has been attributed to its innovative approach to whisky.  

“We really want to make a modern Australian whisky – we're not trying to make scotch,” Sam explains. “We basically use the Melbourne environment – the weather gets really hot and really cold here, so that's good for our maturation.” 

Starward’s range started with the Solera single malt, made in Australian sherry barrels. 

“The problem is we can't get enough of those barrels to make enough of that whisky. So pretty early on we started playing with Australian wine barrels from some great wineries out of the Barossa and the Yarra Valley – a pretty novel way of making whisky that no one was really doing around the world.” 

Some of Starward’s core range now include the Nova, the distiller’s signature single malt, “a really full bodied, fruity, juicy whisky” matured in red wine barrels. Two Fold incorporates some wheat spirit to make it “softer” and more accessible. Fortis is matured in 100 per cent American oak red wine barrels and 50 per cent alcohol, “a bigger, bolder, richer whisky”. 

Starward continues to experiment with innovate with new projects. 

“That’s our distillers’ playground, a chance to play and explore and make some interesting products,” Sam says.  

“Probably the biggest cult release there is Ginger Beer Cask. It's matured in ginger beer casks that we make in-house. We make a ginger beer, season the barrels, take the ginger beer out of the barrels and put whisky in to make that ginger beer cask whisky. 

“We've also released lots of fortified wine barrel matured whiskies through that and even some peated whisky through that.”  

A key piece of the Starward puzzle is its Port Melbourne distillery bar that can fit up to 300 people, which is ideal for events but also provides an opportunity for drinkers to see the distilling process from start to finish. 

“You can see from the raw materials coming in to a cocktail being shaken at the bar. It's a fantastic environment to see and try all the different whiskys.”  

Future trajectory 

This year Starward won the most awarded Distillery of the Year at the San Francisco Spirits Awards, the ‘Oscars of the spirits industry’, with 12 double gold and three gold medals, an unprecedented result at the awards. 

“Really great to get that validation on the world stage and especially in the USA, which is one of our key markets. So yeah, we're really proud of that and great credit to the team and everyone involved in bringing that together.”  

With Starward’s star on the rise, Sam says the immediate focus is on keeping up supply to meet growing demand, and continually evolving the range. 

“We're looking at new products coming through to keep people that are coming into whisky excited about it.  

“We've got our bottled cocktail range and we've just launched our canned cocktail range, so an accessible format and our first time in that in that format, which is pretty exciting for summer. 

“[Then comes] growth in export markets and growing the brand of Australian whisky. We want to see Australian whisky as a category known around the world – same as bourbon, Irish whisky, scotch whisky and Japanese whisky – and we're really excited to be leading the charge on that.”