In 1859, George Francis Morris established a vineyard and winery near Rutherglen in North Eastern Victoria, Australia, starting with a trial ten acre plot. By 1885 Morris had grown to over 200 acres, making it the largest wine producer in the Southern Hemisphere.
In 1941 third generation family winemaker Charles Tempest Morris oversaw the installation of a hybrid copper pot and column still, used to manufacture neutral grape spirit for their fortified wines, helping the Morris family to become one of the most acclaimed fortified wine producers in the world.
In the years after this still fell silent, but in 2016 a new distillery was built around the still. It has been meticulously restored and in recognition of its awakening after decades of slumber, the still has been named “Aurora”, a nod to the princess in Sleeping Beauty. There is also a second identical still called
“Ella” as she too will come to the ball.
What began as an experiment blossomed into the creation of an Australian single malt whisky by 2021, with the launch of two core products into their home market: the Signature and Muscat Barrel.
For me what makes Morris such an interesting distillery is their fortified wines, which are multi-award winning, such as in 2018 when Morris won ‘Best Muscat in the World’ at Muscat Du Monde and was named IWSC Fortified Producer of the Year. The casks used to create these wines then go on to age their whisky, giving them access to a selection of casks most whisky distilleries can only dream of.
In an era when most of the port and sherry casks used by distilleries are seasoned (the wine in these casks isn’t to be drunk, instead laying in new casks for a much shorter period with the only aim of preparing the wood to be used for whisky ageing, then often being recycled into the next new cask) Morris has constant access to the casks used to create some of the best fortified wines in the world, as well as a broad range consisting of Muscat (known as Moscatel in Spain and Portugal), Port, Sherry and Tokay, in addition to their red wines.
