Joadja Distillery Spirit Still |
In March 2011 the then stripped out distillery was bought by Valero Jimenez and his family. At first they didn’t really know what to do with the building, but Valero remembered vividly his father producing sherry style wines in southern Spain. Also given that his wife Elisa was born in Jerez de la Frontera near Cadiz, it wasn’t a big leap to realise that they had a huge link to whisky. Well considering that the Scots have been using ex-Sherry butts to age whisky for decades.
After making some calls, they came across the "Godfather of Australian Whisky" Bill Lark, who had met the previous owner. Bill immediately saw the potential and insisted that they should restore it as a whisky distillery, and the rest as they say is history.
Joadja was virtually a "Scottish Town" in the
Southern Highlands of New South Wales over 130 years ago, when thousands of
shale miners were brought in from Scotland with their "know how" and
is one of the reasons the local authorities allowed the building of a
"boutique" whisky distillery on what is a very special heritage site.
The distillery will produce a traditional single malt using
copper pot stills. But its "forte" will be the use of Spanish
ex-Pedro Ximenex and ex-Oloroso casks. They have over 125 barrels of varying
sizes. The first batch of mature whisky will be bottled in just over two years
from now.
Posted by Steve Rush