We Tried the Best Whisky You’ve Never Heard Of (No, Seriously)

Even if you don’t hunt down rare bottles in free time, you’re probably familiar with the most significant brands in whiskey-making: The Macallan. Buffalo Trace. Jack Daniel’s.

And, if you had to guess, you’d probably assume that one of those names (or some other heavy-hitting brand with famous labels), was named the Most Awarded Distillery of the Year at 2022’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition, an annual event akin to the Oscars of spirits.

But you’d be wrong.

Shockingly, the brand that took home the most trophies at the prestigious global competition — which saw over 4,000 distilleries competing in 2022 — was a distillery that you almost certainly haven’t heard of: Starward Australian Whisky.

The distillery smoked the competition, taking home 12 Double Gold and 3 Gold medals. In the process, it also became the first Australian distillery to be named “Most Awarded Distillery of the Year.”

Such a performance from an underdog certainly got my attention, so I sampled Starward’s range of whiskies to see if they lived up to their championship pedigree.

Starward Whisky: What We Think

When it comes to Starward’s success at the 2022 SFWSC, I get it. The distillery’s whiskies are all quite good, and they stand out in a crowd thanks to their unique maturation process bringing in some unexpected flavors and frankly insane smoothness.

For the best representation of the Starward style, I’d recommend a bottle of Nova, thanks to its strong red wine notes and the almost-total absence of heat. If you want something more traditional-tasting for your shelf, opt for Two-Fold. Or, best bet, pick up a sampler pack with all three core bottles. You won’t be dissapointed.

The Starward Australian Whisky Lineup

Photo by Johnny Brayson

A few things make Starward’s whisky-making process unique. One is that the distillery ages its whiskies in wine barrels (typically red wine), imparting more complex flavor than you’d get from, say, new oak barrels. The unique climate of Melbourne, Australia, where the distillery is located, also allows for much shorter maturation times than is typical, due to the city’s “four seasons in a day” climate, a process that Starward refers to as “elemental maturation.”

Starward has three whiskies in its core lineup, along with an ever-increasing array of rotating limited offerings and even some bottled whisky cocktails. For the broadest picture of the distillery’s output, I tried the three core bottles along with one of the limited offerings, all of which are described below.

1. Nova: This is an 82-proof single malt aged for three years in red wine barrels. It won Double Gold medals at SFWSC.
2. Solera: Another Double Gold-winning single malt, Solera was the distillery’s initial offering. It’s matured in apera barrels for three years and is bottled at 86 proof.
3. Two-Fold: A more affordable double-grain whisky made with wheat and malted barley that won a Gold medal at SFWSC, Two-Fold is recommended mainly for cocktails. Like Nova, it’s aged in red wine barrels for three years and bottled at 80 proof.
4. Vitalis: The distillery’s most premium limited offering to date, which was released at the tail-end of 2022 (so it missed out on SFWSC) to commemorate the distillery’s 15th anniversary. It’s a single malt made with whisky aged between 4 and 10 years in red wine, tawny, bourbon, apera (an Australian sherry-like wine) and rum barrels.

How do Starward Australian Whiskies taste?

Starward Nova

Caskers

Starward Nova Single Malt Australian Whisky

• $39 at Caskers

Nose: Nova smells terrific. It’s heavy on the oak with some berries mixed in, and it honestly smells good enough that I kind of want this scent bottled as a room spray.

Palate: It’s exceptionally smooth, almost confusingly so — I had to double-check the proof on the bottle to make sure this was indeed an 82-proof whisky I was sipping. The oak remains from the nose, but the taste is mostly influenced by red wine, resulting in an overall earthy flavor.

Finish: Just a bit spicy but with almost no heat — an experience unlike any whisky I’d ever tried before.

Starward Solera

Caskers

Starward Solera Single Malt Australian Whisky

• $77.99 at Caskers

Nose: Solera — which is aged in sherry-like apera casks rather than Starward’s signature red wine barrels — is significantly sweeter and fruitier, with strong whiffs of cherry.

Palate: Take a sip, and the apera comes into play, resulting in a taste somewhat reminiscent of Italian vermouth with a hint of bitterness. This to me almost tastes more like a Manhattan than a whisky neat…which makes me think it would make a killer Manhattan or whisky negroni.

Finish: It certainly brings more heat than Nova, but it’s a pleasant warmness that lingers for just a few seconds and leaves you wanting another drink.

Johnny Brayson

Starward Two-Fold

Caskers

Starward Two-Fold Australian Whisky

• $31.99 at Caskers

Nose: Dessert-like, with creamy vanilla and lots of honey.

Palate: It’s the most “whisky-like” of Starward’s offerings: mellow and slightly sweet, not unlike a wheated bourbon, with considerably less of the wine-y notes of the distillery’s other bottles. They’re still there, though, hiding in the background and adding a slight and mysterious extra element.

Finish: Again, there is very little heat here, and there’s a creamier mouthfeel than the other bottles. With a suggested retail price around half that of the other two core bottles in Starward’s collection, I didn’t have the highest hopes for Two-Fold as a sipping whisky — but I came away pleasantly surprised.

Starward Vitalis

Caskers

Starward Vitalis Single Malt Australian Whisky

• $163.99 at Caskers
  $163.99 (0% off)

Nose: It’s certainly harsher than the others due to the higher alcohol content (104 proof), but once you get past the initial sting, there is a lot going on. I get apple, fig, vanilla, cinnamon, caramel — it’s a cornucopia of scents.

Palate: The fruit dissipates but the vanilla and caramel stick around with some oak joining in, making for a shockingly traditional flavor considering this hooch spent time maturing in six different casks.

Finish: The bourbon cask seems to have left the biggest impression here, and the finish is mostly oak with a touch of spice. It’s good, for sure, but tastes a bit pedestrian compared to Starward’s other offerings — especially considering the higher price.

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