Spread The Sunshine
The team at Sunshine & Sons, the distillers at Woombye, continue to go from strength-to-strength picking up major awards at the recent Australian Gin Awards. Tony Cox discovers there is more on the horizon for this powerhouse distillery.
After just 18 months in business, Sunshine & Sons shone at the Australian Gin Awards where their Original Dry Gin won Gold and the real star – the Small Batch Barrel Aged Gin – won the Best in Class trophy for Best Matured Gin.
With 370 entries submitted across seven categories the result is confirmation the team is on the right track, with on-premise, retail and online sales showing an uptick once the results were announced.
The experienced team, forever humble, put it down to the passion and commitment of Head Distiller, Adam Chapman, who has a diverse background across both wine and spirit production. They are proud that Adam’s labours are seeing him acknowledged by his peers as being in the upper echelon of his craft in the country.
With the gins performing well and having distribution with all of Australia’s major retail groups, the business is in a position where new offerings can be contemplated.
Being Queensland born and bred, the logical next step was to utilise the abundance of sugar cane (fun fact: Queensland grows 85% of Australia’s sugar cane) and produce a rum with Queensland molasses as the base ingredient.
Nil Desperandum, meaning ‘do not despair or worry’, is the next chapter in the book. Named after the first licenced premise in Woombye, it was the Cobb & Co staging point and those heading north in the 1800s would certainly require some fortifying for the adventures facing them!
The resultant rum, to be released on Tuesday 22 February 2022 at 2.22pm, will be the first Australian rum utilising certified organic molasses and the distillery proudly boasts Australian Certified Organic certification, one of only a handful in the country to be bestowed such an honour.
Aged a minimum two years, with used Australian red wine and bourbon barrels being the ageing vessels of choice, we are eager to see the results when revealed early next year. At this stage, we are as much in the dark as you with only the Head Distiller, Australia’s only ‘Rummelier’, having the complete picture. We can’t wait!
With borders opening soon and people on holidays looking for something to occupy their time, why not drop into the Distillery Door next to the Big Pineapple at Woombye for a tasting of Award-winning spirits where you can pull up a bean bag and immerse yourself in nature and ask yourself, ‘Does life really get any better than this?’
May the sun continue to shine on this crew of bright locals!
