Adelaide Hills Group’s (AHG) Founder and Master Distiller Sacha La Forgia has told The Bloody Big Drinks Summit that he believes the Mighty Craft whisky program is the most important in Australia right now.
With AHG’s 78 Degrees whiskies already launched and more to come from other Mighty Craft brands Seven Seasons, Kangaroo Island and the soon to be launched Hidden Lake Tasmanian whisky brand, La Forgia says the Mighty Craft whisky portfolio is strong and compelling.
He also said that he believes the future of Australian whisky is extremely promising, and that in 10 years’ time the world will have forgotten Japanese whisky and will be talking Australian.
La Forgia told the Summit, about his own whisky journey, saying: “The first whisky we did was the Native Grain Whisky and in similar fashion to our other products it’s about looking at what grows around us, and what might be a good way to do things for the future.
“We looked at the whisky industry in Scotland, thinking about how that had developed and then looking at that in an Australian context. Thinking ‘if whisky had developed in Australia instead of Scotland, what would it look like?’ Finding native Australian grains and turning that into whisky was the obvious choice.
“The Native Grain Whisky was the first one we and we’re really proud of that, and last year it won World’s Best Grain whisky, the first whisky in the world to win a major award using non-traditional grains. That’s a huge testament to what we have in this country, what we have access to, the flavours we have on our doorstep and the ability that this country and our industry has to carve out a niche in the global market.
“I think give it 10 years and the world will be talking about Australian whisky, everyone will have forgotten about Japan, and Scotland will just be over there somewhere in the middle of the ocean.”
Speaking about Mighty Craft’s whisky portfolio, La Forgia added: “I genuinely think [Mighty Craft] is the most important whisky program in the country right now. If you look at what’s under the hood, you’ve got this collection of craft distilleries and brands that have really well positioned, very unique and really different whiskies. They are whiskies that change the game in Australia.
“The industry now is innovating and progressing, we’re moving away from ‘who can be the most Scottish’ to ‘let’s define our style’. I think that’s something that Mighty Craft has done really well, that’s to select these distilleries that are doing that and bring volume to them.
“We’ve already released our whiskies, but as you see what Seven Seasons will bring out, and what Kangaroo Island will bring out, it starts to become a really strong and compelling portfolio.”
La Forgia was joined for his Summit presentation by Mighty Craft CEO Mark Haysman, Seven Seasons Founder Daniel Motlop and the Founder of Torquay Beverage Company, Nick Cogger.
To see the full presentation and more than 60 other presentations, head to The Bloody Big Drinks Summit website.
