Husk Distillers

Paul Messenger established Husk Distillers in 2012 in the subtropical river country of northern New South Wales, with a founding premise that distinguished it immediately from most Australian spirits producers: the distillery would grow its own certified organic sugarcane, harvest it fresh, ferment the juice without concentration, and distil a pure cane spirit in the Brazilian agricole tradition. The result is Ink Gin and the Bam Bam rum range — spirits whose agricultural origin is traceable to a specific certified organic field a short distance from the still.

The sugarcane fields at Tumbulgum are certified organic through Australian Certified Organic, and the distillery's vertically integrated model — from planting to bottling — gives the organic claim a specificity that purchased-ingredient spirits operations cannot match. The fresh cane juice fermentation produces a raw spirit of a character that aged molasses-based rums do not share: grassy, floral, distinctly agricultural in the best sense.

The Husk Pure Cane Rum has drawn 95 points from IWSC. The Ink Gin — made with certified organic butterfly pea flower that produces a colour shift from blue to pink when mixed with acidic tonic — has been the commercial breakthrough, but the rum programme is the more serious long-term argument for Husk's place in the premium spirits conversation.

For Australian spirits, the certified organic provenance is unusually complete and unusually verifiable.