There’s a time for tradition and there’s a time to go rogue. Solera was the first whisky where we borrowed from tradition then started asking questions. It left us with a whisky deemed world class not just by us, but award judges too.
Solera, not only our name but also a traditional method the Spanish used to age their Sherry and keep it consistent. A fractional amount of each young cask is blended with more mature spirit. It’s the inspiration for making our Solera and it means there’s still a touch of our first ever cask in every bottle made today.
We source every Solera ingredient from just a day’s drive away. A quintessential grain like Australian malted barley was a no-brainer to start with. Then, for a bold, craft flavour we ferment our barley with brewers’ yeast.
Next, the barrel.
We wanted barrels with one hell of a history. Our Apera barrels, an Aussie fortified wine similar to Sherry, have typically held spirit over decades. That’s some seriously flavourful oak.
At first, maturation was a bit of trial and error. We were used to Scottish whiskies with age statements over a decade long. But we soon found out that wasn’t Melbourne weather’s style. The wildly varied temperature means whisky works harder in the barrel, absorbing flavour from the wood in a much shorter time.
With this elemental maturation, Solera is a neat reflection of Melbourne; wild weather and all.
