Which local drop continues to rake in the awards?
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They got us all addicted to their award-winning gin (think Blood Orange, Winter and HerCanberra French Earl Grey Gins) but now The Canberra Distillery is creating an award-winning rumble in the dark spirits world.
In August we brought you the breaking news that Canberra Distillery was officially crowned with a Gold Medal in The Australian Distilled Spirits for their aged Old George Reserve Rum.
This comes on top of The Spiced Rum winning both a Gold medal and an overall trophy at the Australian International Rum Awards last month.
Which was backed up by a Silver award for the Old George Reserve Rum.
But this month this clearly superior rum picked up another gong, the 2024 Sydney Royal Distilled Spirits Show – Champion – The Chair of Judges Award Prize.
It’s the major award where the head judge gets to pick from all the products to choose the most outstanding one.
For founder Tim Reardon, it is a glowing endorsement of a product he knows is making waves internationally as the aged Rum last year won Silver at the San Francisco Spirits Awards (which are the biggest in the industry) as well as taking out a Best in Category Award at the American Distilling Institute International Spirits Awards.
Canberra Distillery founder Tim Reardon
It’s a fitting reward for a distilling process that takes considerable time and patience.
The Old George aged Rum is three years in the barrel (and that would be a very expensive French oak barrel to be exact) before bottling, while the Spiced Rum requires some additional human creativity and tinkering to make it special.
In The Canberra Distillery’s Case, the alchemy behind the Spiced Rum comes at the hands of French winemaker-turned-gin-distiller Leonore (Leo) Salancon. Leo has worked in vineyards in France, South Africa and the United States before happily settling in Canberra and turning her attention from grapes to spirits.
Leo, creating award-winning spirits for The Canberra Distillery. Photo Emma Bickley.
While she has spent the past few years focussed on the use of juniper berries to create gin, she is also showing her talent in turning cane sugar into award-winning rum.
She and Tim agree that for too many years, rum has suffered from some unpleasant connotations in Australia, namely being a bogan mixer with Coke.
Instead, it is a complex and fragrant spirit which is best, in Tim’s opinion, served over ice in much the same way whisky should be enjoyed.
The Old George Reserve Rum has sweet palate with notes of caramel, maple syrup and vanilla. This comes from the French Oak barrels that previously held Spanish Sherry. It has a subtle finish of oak and leather.
The Spiced Rum, meanwhile, has a little more X-factor.
Leo has created a rum which balances tangelo peel with nutmeg, licorice root with cardamon and cocoa, and brings it all together with a caramelised brown sugar syrup.
In a labour-intensive process, Leo steeps her ingredients to separately, in carefully calculated times to balance the flavours, making sure nothing stands out too much.
“Unlike cooking, where you want to identify a flavour, the distilling process requires that no flavour overpowers the rum. If you can identify a single flavour then you’ve gone too far,” she says.
And just to keep it real, she admits the last 18 months has seen “plenty of failures” in the creative process, but she chalks it up to learning…
And while Leo also loves a rum on the rocks in all of its unadulterated and prize-winning perfection, she is not averse to using the Spiced Rum in some fun and flavourful cocktail recipes. Such as a creamy eggnog for maximum winter cheers, or better yet, a hot buttered spiced rum.
So clearly, if you haven’t experienced the joys of rum, The Canberra Distillery is the place to go, and the time is now. And here’s a recipe to kick you off.
Both the Aged and the Spiced rum are available at select local bottle shops in Canberra and across the country, and on The Canberra Distillery website.
Pineapple and Rum Fizz
Photo by Emma Bickley
Ingredients & Method:
• 90ml Old George Reserve Rum
• 120ml pineapple juice
• Squeeze lime juice
• Splash of ginger beer and mineral water
• Garnish of mint leaves and lime wedge
Pour rum into pineapple juice and add a big squeeze of lime. Stir and strain into a highball glass. Top with a splash of ginger beer and mineral water. Serve with fresh mint and a wedge of lime. Did we mention this serves two?
