The prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition has named Port Melbourne’s Starward whisky the world’s best for 2024.
Starward has taken home the title of ‘Most Awarded International Distillery of the Year’ for the second time in the event’s 22-year history. It was the first Australian distillery to be awarded the honour in 2022.
Starward founder, David Vitale said it’s incredibly thrillingto have this recognition from a highly competitive global competition, across all spirit categories.
“It is the Olympics of the international spirits industry, and our Melbourne-made whisky has taken top honour,” he said.
“With this recognition, it is absolutely plausible that the Australian whisky industry could be as big internationally as Japanese whisky, which would be a massive boon for our export industry,” he said.
Starward swept the competition, taking home eight platinum, 13 double gold and 13 gold medals for its suite of Melbourne-made whiskies, beating more than 5500 entries worldwide.
“Starward’s innovation lies in how we age our whisky, not technology, patents, or IP. We capture the adventurous spirit of our hometown Melbourne and the rich flavours of local ingredients,” Vitale said.
“Within a day’s drive of our distillery, we have some of the world’s best wineries and have direct access to these luscious wine barrels to age our whisky in,
“The fact we experience four seasons in a day allows us to impact flavour into our whisky and create an award-winning whisky in just three years, when it would take eight to 12 years anywhere else.”
