How a dollar coin led to Corowa Distilling Co's fine whisky with royal connections

Druce, founder of Corowa Distilling Co, Corowa, NSW, bought a run down flour mill in the town on the banks of the Murray River when he was only 21, in 2010.

"The property was dilapidated with no roof, missing 650 panes of glass, no floor, while the mains needed to be connected, so the local council sold it to us for one dollar after we pitched the idea for a whisky distillery," he says.

The building took about six years to renovate and in 2016 the stills were turned on and the first whisky was made.

Born and raised on the family farm at Corowa, it was championing farmers and expanding the family business that gave Druce the idea to start making whisky.

"We wanted to do more than just grow grain and send it off to the silos, so we looked at different options as to what we could do and how we could change the way we do things as a farming family," he says.

"First of all, turning our wheat into flour and then into liquorice at Junee, and then our second go at it was turning barley from the farm into malted barley and then into whisky."

Fast forward to now and the distillery has 1000 barrels with head distiller Beau Schilg at the helm.

Keeping local is important for Druce with organic grain from his own family farm used where possible and other grain is sourced from Voyager Craft Malt in Whitton.

"They do such a great job and gather a lot of grain from around the Riverina, which is one of the best barley growing regions in the world," he says.

Druce says said making whisky was all about the conditions, with the cold nights and hot days at Corowa ideal for allowing the spirit to naturally mature at a faster rate and bring complexity and character to the product.

"We can try to make the same barrel everyday, but the temperature affects how the grain reacts and sometimes the alcohol inside picks up the old oak or the newer oak of the barrel," he says.

"We want to change the mould that whisky is an old man's drink, because it's not."

The whisky can be bought around the world and it was this that launched Corowa into international recognition, being one of only two distilleries asked to create a drop for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

"The Rolls Royce and Bentley Enthusiasts Club noticed our whisky in a boutique bottle shop in London and invited us to put forward a whisky for the Royal event," Druce says.

Druce says selecting the whisky was a 12-month process and the barrel chosen had a rich dark chocolate note with a cherry ripe type of aftertaste.

"We carefully selected a whisky from a single barrel with a rare and unique flavour profile, which sounds like a difficult job, but basically we had to keep tasting whisky until we found the right blend," he says. "It was five years old, which is older than we'd ever produced and it has a great richness to it."

Once selected, the team sought 2022 bottles of the fine port cask whisky, the number of bottles to match the year of the Jubilee, with a special cork stopper.

Druce says the bottles' packaging included a one dollar coin embedded into the door, an ode to their beginnings in Corowa.

"The alcohol volume is also 52 per cent which was again a really nice touch, given Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952."

And Druce had the opportunity to be involved in the celebrations.

"I went to London for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, me a bloke from Corowa sitting with Earls and Barons and members of the Royal family, but I couldn't tell you what their names were," he says.

While Druce and his team have created a successful business, he says it was the farmers behind the scenes that were the real champions, as well as the local community.

"Corowa has a population of just 7000, and we are so proud that our whisky is made here, by us," Druce says. "For us here, it's all about championing those really good farmers that make really good barley for us to use, because without them, ultimately we can't make whisky and we can't have the story we've got."

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