GOOD SPIRITS
What started out as a backpacking adventure in Eastern Europe for Dom Wundke when he was 18-years-old has turned into a lifelong love of the craft of distilling.
WORDS TIERNEY WHITE
IMAGE CHARLIE BLISS
WHEN WE TRAVEL beyond our borders, we expose ourselves to different cultures, landscapes, and ways of living. Sometimes, we bring our learnings back home.
Highly inspired by both his travels abroad and the Top End environment, distilling became Dom Wundke’s life obsession, with the Northern Australian native speargrass as his muse.
“The speargrass itself is actually something that's been a part of my life for a long time – since that age or even before – but the idea of speargrass is about conservation. So, environmental protection, that's the whole reason I arrived in the Territory in the first place,” he says.
Wundke studied environmental science at Adelaide Uni, and was always interested in conservation. He came to the Northern Territory to work in Arnhem Land as a ranger, eager to learn from the Traditional Owners how to look after the Country properly, eventually scoring a job doing just that.
“First day on the job, I was literally lighting speargrass on fire, hanging off the back of a ute – which was pretty wild, coming from the Adelaide Hills, which is a very fire prone area,” he says.
“Ever since I arrived in the Top End, speargrass has been an important story for me, because it's an important part of all the ecosystems. It binds everything together. It's very resilient. It can survive fire, it can survive monsoon, and it connects North Australia. So, yeah, the speargrass story is very special to me.”
It’s no wonder, then, that his first distillery is named after his beloved native, with a speargrass seed resting in every bottle.
Opening to the public earlier this year, Speargrass Distillery sits neatly in Coconut Grove, open weekdays for sales and tastings, with later hours on Fridays for drinks. Wundke got to test run his spirits at his former bar, Dom’s Bar, now Rust Bar, to skip the mass-produced spirits that have dominated the market for decades.
“I saw the opportunity to not have to use these giant brands and have something local – I just couldn't pass that up. And they're not made with love either, that's the other thing, and you can tell. Smirnoff is made from corn, it's not a good thing to make vodka out of, and there's no love, there's no love in there,” Wundke says.
And when he says love goes into every handcrafted Speargrass bottle, well, he’s not lying.
Staff members sing to the spirits as they’re in the still and being hand bottled. In fact, the team has a strict rule that if they are in a bad mood or feeling blue, they need to stay away from the spirits and come back when they’re feeling lighter, happier. Makes you wonder what songs have been sung to the gin and tonic you’re sipping on, doesn’t it?
You can also sample tasters at the Mindil and Parap Markets, test your tastebuds with Infusion Paddle Bingo, enjoy a Friday feed from Sari Rasa, and hit the distillery on the last Friday of the month for a jam session hosted by Ward Hancock, featuring an entourage of talented local musos.
“What I really love about that jam night is that that's where all our spirits are stored. So, all the all the good vibes and the music end up in our spirits. I love thinking about that when the jam night's happening, like the spirits are just there soaking up all those great vibes,” Wundke says.
Operations Manager Kristian – aka Prof. Mackie – has also been busy infusing spirits, with 109 infusions now available to try including laksa, mango, and Vegemite. Yep.
Staying true to Wundke’s ethos of caring for Country, Speargrass has recently partnered with Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) to support them to continue their conservation work.
“We're donating a dollar from every 700ml bottle to AWC, as well as every triple pack that we sell. We like to support the AWC because they buy land and protect it for conservation. They own two percent of Australia's landmass now, which is really good, so anything we can do to contribute to them is great,” Wundke says.
“AWC manages and owns six properties in the NT. I visited one in Arnhem Land when I was living out there, called Wongalara Wildlife Sanctuary. They do amazing work, and that's what we want to support and get behind. We want to grow our business, our company, so that the more that we grow, the more that we can support nature and support conserving it.
“Think about the native natural beauty we have in the Northern Territory … Unfortunately, a lot of our environment, particularly in the NT, is under threat due to major mining projects and other proposed developments like large-scale data centres … Think about how we can protect our natural resources, because that's the whole reason I moved here, and I think everyone who lives in Darwin and the Territory in general is here because we have this amazing natural beauty, right on our doorstep.”
Plan a visit, take a tipple, and if you take a bottle home, know there’s a little part of it supporting the planet. No bad vibes at Speargrass Distillery, just good spirits.
WHEN MON-WED | 10AM-5PM,THU | 10AM-3PM, FRI | 2PM-10PM
Friday Night Live Jam Session
INFO WHEN FRI 27 NOV | 6.30-10PM
AT SPEARGRASS DISTILLERY
INFO speargrass.au
