APenola distillery is in good spirits after receiving an international award.
St Mary’s Wines and Spirits Mulligan’s Aged Rum received the Best of Category, International Column Still Rum, Distilled Spirit at the 2023 American Distilling Institute Spirits Competition.
St Mary’s winemaker Ian Mulligan was thrilled about the award, which he said came as a surprise.
“The Mulligan’s Aged Rum, it is our first release of the rum, we have been working towards it since we started doing distillation about eight years ago,” Mr Mulligan said.
“A couple of years ago we sent our gin and our spiced over there and they both got golds, and then we thought, well, the rum is out so we will send that over and see how that goes.
“It is nice when you put the effort in and things like this do happen.
“We are all quite humbled by it, it was a pleasant surprise.
“We must be obviously doing something right.”
This is not the first time St Mary’s Wines and Spirits has appealed to the palates of judges, receiving three awards, four gold medals, seven silver medals and more than 10 bronze medals for their spirits in just three years.
Mr Mulligan said the award-winning rum was a nice, clean spirit aged in new oak barrels which they got from a local producer.
Mr Mulligan said the way in which they produce their alcohol was something that set their rum apart from the rest.
“What we do in regards to the sugar that we use, how we distil the product, our makings of the alcohol, would be the primary asset, and then the oaks that we use would be the next one on the list,” he said.
“It is not like you just whack it through a still and put it all together and bingo bango, there is definitely a bit of work involved.”
St Mary’s Spirits are distilled by Mr Mulligan with his brother, Robin Mulligan, at their family-owned boutique winery and distillery, and they are passionate about their craft.
“You do not want to just do an average sort of job, you definitely want to actually try and make sure that whatever you do you have a proper go at it,” he said.
“The last thing we want to do is put our name on it and not be proud of the product too.
“We want to make sure that whatever the consumer or customer is buying, we definitely put our stamp of approval behind it.”
Mr Mulligan said they strove to use local ingredients in their spirits as much as possible, including produce straight from their mother’s abundant garden.
“Mum has got a big garden and there are things in her garden that I would like to try and use more of,” he said.
“Australia has got plenty of great produce, so there is no point trying to buy items that would impersonate those fruits and spices, you may as well just use the real deal.”
