Every distillery has a secret.
Not a scary secret, but that thing that sets them apart, and there is a distillery up in the Adelaide Hills that has a doozy.
Paul Shand. And I’ve just named him The Wizard of Drams because I get to do that sort of thing.
He started life as an actual scientist. A Geologist that traveled the world studying the planet and how water and earth worked together. He’d been all over Australia, Russia and Europe, studying rock formations and rivers until one day he decided he’d rather make Whisky.
So he left science and became an alchemist. He named his distillery Tria Prima, which came from the Three Primes that the ancient alchemists believed could create the Philosopher’s Stone, and not the Harry Potter claptrap. The original Tria Prima was salt, sulfur, and mercury. The ancient scientists thought that in the right combination, it could turn base metals into gold.
It doesn’t.
But if you work the right magic with barley, yeast, water, and oak, you get liquid gold in the form of whisky.
That’s the magic Paul does now. And he’s damned good at it. He has a unique understanding of how the chemistry of fermenting, brewing, and distilling interacts within oak casks, and has created many fascinating whiskies and rums by working with different kinds of oak casks and his whisky.
It’s some magical stuff. I’ve tried a lot of them.
His distillery is a real, working distillery. He had no interest in building a tourist mecca, just a functional place to do everything he needs to make his whisky. No fancy tasting room or cellar door, just a big room for all the equipment and a lot of oak casks holding sleeping whisky.
If you go visit him, he’ll show you around and pull out the copper whisky thief and pour you some glasses of the wares in the casks. You’ll want some, and he’ll sell you some.
But it’s not a showplace. Some distilleries are half Disneyland and half functional workplace. Tria Prima is all functional workplace. In the winter, the distillery and cask storage are cold, and in the summer it’s hot. The whisky ages according to the weather, like the world’s oldest distilleries. If it’s cold, bring a jacket and if it’s hot, expect to get hot.
The Wizard of Drams will be there, telling you how he does it. He’s always been very open with aspiring distillers over the years, which is why Australian distillers all know “Shandy.” He’ll tell them anything they want to know. But his innate understanding of the alchemy of wood, barley, yeast and water is more than most will ever fathom.
He makes brave spirits. Not like you’d expect from a giant distillery, but flavors that will intrigue and surprise you. Unexpected tones in the spirit that only a wizard can coax out of the ingredients.
It’s no wonder that all his bottlings are named after alchemists and mythical beings.
There is a little magic in that cask, so try it.
There is a wizard up in the Adelaide Hills. It’s worth the epic journey up the hill to see The Wizard.
And he promises not to turn you into a newt, even though you’d get better.
