Starward Tawny Finished // The Whisky Club

A special release of Starward whisky crafted from their signature red wine matured whisky finished in ex-Australian tawny port casks. Specially selected by The Whisky Club and bottled at Starward's preferred 48% Abv.

Starward

In 2003 David Vitale sold his IT businesses and after making the move to Tasmania shortly afterwards, began planning his next business venture. In 2004 he met Bill Lark at the Lark distillery’s cellar door and the two bonded over a shared vision of what Australia had to offer the whisky world. Bill offered David the position of business development officer, which David gladly took for two and a half years. In 2007 he felt it was time to start his own business in the whisky space and Starward was born. In 2008 the first Starward distillery would open in an old Qantas maintenance shed in Essendon and begin producing in 2009. After spending many years on the verge of bankruptcy David’s whisky would come into fruition in 2013 when Whisky & Alement bought a case of their wine cask edition. The whisky would see great feedback and interest in Starward would grow exponentially throughout the next few years.

In 2015 Starward received a large cash injection from Diageo’s funding project “Distill Ventures” and was able to open their Port Melbourne facility in 2016. The closure of the Essendon distillery and the opening of Port Melbourne allowed Starward’s production to jump a huge amount, now being able to produce up to 250,000 Litres/year of spirit. Harking back to David’s initial vision for the distillery, Starward single malts are typically matured in still wet wine casks sourced from the Barossa Valley as well as some Australian Apera casks too. The relatively quick maturation for Starward’s whisky is characterised by the unique climate that Melbourne provides, often seeing a substantial fluctuation in average temperature within a short period of time. Consequently, most Starward whisky is ready for drinking after only four years in cask. The quality of Starward has become more and more evident with their releases picking up many spirit tasting medals and the interest of world-renowned independent bottlers. In just the last few years Starward has been bottled by Adelphi, Berry Bros & Rudd, That Boutique-y Whisky Company as well as the Scottish Malt Whisky Society.