'Malty richness': Tasmania's first ever bourbon 'whiskey' released, as well as sought-after Kentucky tipple
An American investment banker who was raised in a winemaking family in California has released Tasmania's first bourbon-style whiskey at Rosevears in the Tamar Valley.
Justin Turner had planned to build his whiskey distillery in the US, but all that changed when he fell head over heels in love with Taswegian Sarah-Jayne Hall.
Ms Hall was working as a corporate lawyer in New York when their paths crossed on St Patrick's Day in 2012.
Mr Turner, a financier and German language scholar, was working at the big end of town valuing multi, multimillion dollar assets like ports, water utilities and transport infrastructure when he proposed.
He said he had his 'epiphany' when visiting Ms Hall's parents in Tasmania.
Overcome by its raw beauty of the southern state he decided to exit the hurly-burly of high finance where he spent 14 years.
A quieter life beckoned.The newlyweds made their headquarters, Turner Stillhouse, in a disused barrel room beside Tamar Ridge winery, 18km northwest of Launceston, in 2018.
They installed a 3,000-litre copper hybrid still they imported from Oregon and began making gin under the Rosevears label to pay the bills.But Mr Turner says his first love remains whiskey.
He spells it with the 'e'.
Here is a good time to point out that whiskey in America and Ireland is spelt with an 'e' and while Australia, Scotland, Canada, and Japan spell whisky without the 'e'.
'Whiskey is my passion. That is why I started the distillery,' he said.
He has just released Rosevears Tasmanian Three Grain Whiskey and Rosevears Tasmanian Single Malt Whisky (each $179).
The Three Grains is made from corn, rye and barley, all grown in Tassie.
The corn delivers the sweetness, the rye the spice and the barley the malty richness.
Mr Turner said the firm's Three Cuts Gin ($80) remained the distillery's flagship brand.
More than 15,600 km away in Kentucky, another special bourbon was released.
Wild Turkey Jimmy Russell's 70th Anniversary eight-year-old bourbon ($135) pays homage to the man they call the 'Buddha of Bourbon', said to be the longest-tenured and active master distiller in the world.
Jimmy Russell is 91 and still turns up at the distillery at Lawrenceburg Kentucky (population 12,112) to offer advice and welcome tourists.
'He still comes out to our visitors centre at least two or three days a week to talk to our visitors, swirl and sip, and sign bottles," said his son Eddie Russell, 65, also a master distiller.
'He doesn't get around too good anymore, but you cannot keep him away from the distillery.
'All up, one and a half million tourists visit Kentucky each year to taste bourbon. We do over 100,000 tourists at our distillery.'
There are 35 distilleries producing hundreds of bourbons on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.
The Buddha of Bourbon said in a statement he has not lost his passion for bourbon.
'I've never worked a day in my life,' he said. 'The day I do, I'll retire. Until then, I'll keep making the bourbon I love.'
Australia has overtaken Japan as Wild Turkey's biggest export market, Eddie Russell said in a phone interview.
He is a regular Down Under, hosting bourbon dinners in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adalaide.
They invariably sell out.
'There is an Aussie Wild Turkey Collectors' Club, and they are a great bunch of people,' Mr Russell said.
I found the new Wild Turkey release one of the best bourbons I have tasted and I'm sure bourbon aficionados will swoon over it.
It is a fandango of aromas and flavours.
It begins with fragrances of honey, oak, cinnamon, and tobacco and is followed by flavours of vanilla, butterscotch, sweet cream, cherries, spice and rich chocolate.
Don't drink it, sip it, says Jimmy. Slowly.
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The last thing they need is to waste it enduring incomprensible monologues from a president who has a loose arrangement with the plot. When Trump was bloviating about Russia and Ukraine being like two children fighting in a park - sometimes you have to let them fight before pulling them apart, he told the chancellor - Merz showed incredible self-control by not looking at his watch. Having seen a procession of leaders displayed like trophies in the Oval Office, the host basking in all the attention, often treating them rudely, those seeking an audience ought to be careful about what they wish for. It's unlikely Friedrich Merz thought he'd get a front row seat to the unholy tantrum that was the Musk-Trump break-up. Also unlikely he'd hurry back for more of the same. HAVE YOUR SAY: Should world leaders maintain their dignity by declining audiences with Donald Trump? Do they risk becoming extras in Trump's trashy reality show? Are they pandering to his ego by beating a path to his door? Would ignoring Trump better serve their interests? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - An Australian man detained in an Iraqi prison for nearly four years has been released on bail. Engineer Robert Pether was granted conditional release after being detained on misrepresentation and fraud charges. - Families of six children killed in a primary school jumping castle accident in Tasmania are angry and in disbelief after a court dismissed a workplace safety charge against its operator. - Armed with bollards and bravery, French nationals Damien Guerot and Silas Despreaux confronted Joel Cauchi amid his stabbing rampage at a busy mall in broad daylight where he killed six dead in five minutes. They were awarded the Ordre National du Merite, one of France's highest distinctions, for their courageous efforts on April 13, 2024. THEY SAID IT: "Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear." - Albert Camus YOU SAID IT: When problems are always presented as insurmountable, we stop looking for solutions, falling victim to doomsday fatigue, wrote Garry. "I wish, those who suffer doomsday fatigue stayed in bed and slept it off instead of doing things like getting on a plane to escape to somewhere else or driving around in fat SUVs, and those who understand what's going on actually did what's most effective to avert disasters," writes Horst. "Doomsday fatigue is real (also under other names like 'collapse awareness'), but it can and should be worked through," writes Alex. "When facing the environmental facts, it is useful to think of the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. 'Acceptance' does not mean being happy about problems, it means being able to face them unblinking, go on doing what we can to make things better, appreciating what we've got." Noting he's enduring an Antarctic winter blast, Paul writes: "I think because everything is excessively hyped up, people just don't know how to gauge the degree of concern they should have over any particular issue. For an issue to break through the malaise, it takes something extraordinary and unexpected to happen - a wake-up call. Unfortunately, these days, that means a truly devastating event. That's the scary thing." This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. And, let's face it, so would you. We all knew it was coming but when it did, so publicly and in real time, the break-up was spectacular. The world's richest man and the world's most powerful, slugging it out for all to see, both diminished by the ugliness of the spectacle. Reality TV was never this compelling. No episode of Big Brother, Survivor or Married at First Sight has or will ever come close. Nor will it ever be this expensive to make. Elon Musk's US$300 million investment in Donald Trump's election campaign up in smoke in the course of an Oval Office appearance by the president, who with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz seated beside him like an embarrassed extra, unloaded on his former "first buddy". Not only that. Billions were wiped off his wealth as Tesla shares tanked by 14 per cent. One estimate was that Musk's personal net wealth tumbled by US$34 billion. In one day. Musk, the MAGA darling, one minute, a pariah the next. Long-time Trump acolyte Steve Bannon called for Musk's deportation. Trump himself threatened to cancel multibillion-dollar contracts with Musk's SpaceX, claimed Elon had "gone crazy". All because the billionaire publicly opposed Trump's spending bill with its tax cuts for the wealthy and an additional US$2.42 trillion in debt over the next decade. Musk himself called for Trump to be impeached, for JD Vance to replace him. He posted without evidence that Trump featured in the unreleased and, without doubt, sordid Jeffrey Epstein files. If it was dizzying stuff for casual viewers on the other side of the world, imagine what it was like for Merz, sitting in the rococo nightmare of the revamped Oval Office in front of the world's media, having just been informed by Trump that D-day was not a pleasant day for Germany. Some small talk. Then to have to sit through Trump's Musk tirade, maintaining a facial expression of dignified neutrality. After Zelenskyy's dressing down and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa's enduring of discredited white genocide claims, it's time world leaders stopped beating a path to the Oval Office door. They should not allow themselves to be used as props in the trashy Trump show. Show some dignity, people. Time is a precious commodity, especially for the leaders of nations. The last thing they need is to waste it enduring incomprensible monologues from a president who has a loose arrangement with the plot. When Trump was bloviating about Russia and Ukraine being like two children fighting in a park - sometimes you have to let them fight before pulling them apart, he told the chancellor - Merz showed incredible self-control by not looking at his watch. Having seen a procession of leaders displayed like trophies in the Oval Office, the host basking in all the attention, often treating them rudely, those seeking an audience ought to be careful about what they wish for. It's unlikely Friedrich Merz thought he'd get a front row seat to the unholy tantrum that was the Musk-Trump break-up. Also unlikely he'd hurry back for more of the same. HAVE YOUR SAY: Should world leaders maintain their dignity by declining audiences with Donald Trump? Do they risk becoming extras in Trump's trashy reality show? Are they pandering to his ego by beating a path to his door? Would ignoring Trump better serve their interests? Email us: echidna@ SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - An Australian man detained in an Iraqi prison for nearly four years has been released on bail. Engineer Robert Pether was granted conditional release after being detained on misrepresentation and fraud charges. - Families of six children killed in a primary school jumping castle accident in Tasmania are angry and in disbelief after a court dismissed a workplace safety charge against its operator. - Armed with bollards and bravery, French nationals Damien Guerot and Silas Despreaux confronted Joel Cauchi amid his stabbing rampage at a busy mall in broad daylight where he killed six dead in five minutes. They were awarded the Ordre National du Merite, one of France's highest distinctions, for their courageous efforts on April 13, 2024. THEY SAID IT: "Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear." - Albert Camus YOU SAID IT: When problems are always presented as insurmountable, we stop looking for solutions, falling victim to doomsday fatigue, wrote Garry. "I wish, those who suffer doomsday fatigue stayed in bed and slept it off instead of doing things like getting on a plane to escape to somewhere else or driving around in fat SUVs, and those who understand what's going on actually did what's most effective to avert disasters," writes Horst. "Doomsday fatigue is real (also under other names like 'collapse awareness'), but it can and should be worked through," writes Alex. "When facing the environmental facts, it is useful to think of the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. 'Acceptance' does not mean being happy about problems, it means being able to face them unblinking, go on doing what we can to make things better, appreciating what we've got." Noting he's enduring an Antarctic winter blast, Paul writes: "I think because everything is excessively hyped up, people just don't know how to gauge the degree of concern they should have over any particular issue. For an issue to break through the malaise, it takes something extraordinary and unexpected to happen - a wake-up call. Unfortunately, these days, that means a truly devastating event. That's the scary thing."
Sky News AU
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Donald Trump and Elon Musk must continue making progress together for good of the United States
The relationship between President Donald Trump and tech titan Elon Musk factors among the most consequential political relationships in American history and it must be repaired, quickly, for the good of the United States and the continued support of the Republican Party base. There is too much at stake in America today for their division to disrupt the process of the MAGA movement in reversing the incredible harms that were wrought on the country and the world by the Biden Administration. Five months into Trump's second term in the White House, he has taken the country by storm with a string of major accomplishments that, a year ago, most in the country despaired could never be achieved. As a result, his approval rating has reached its highest point in months, Americans are expressing greater satisfaction with the direction of the country than at any time in recent history, and Democrats have fallen even deeper into disarray. 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A massive base of conservative supporters, many of them young voters, follow him zealously. Nearly 70 per cent of young men have a favorable view of Musk. Now many of those supporters are defending Musk on X, and in the process criticising the president. Ask an average voter to name one figure in the country who is most symbolic of the MAGA movement, and they will either name Trump… or Musk. By publicly clashing, and forcing supporters to choose a side, Trump and Musk risk disunifying the Republican Party—and that's just what the Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media want. Since Musk's first combative post on X challenging Trump's spending bill, the feud has dominated news coverage and commentary. At this moment, the country is no longer talking about the administration's tremendous wins at the southern border, its accomplishments in returning safety to America's streets, the de-weaponisation of our Department of Justice, or its courageous efforts to bring manufacturing back the United States. Instead, the media can keep viewers' and readers' blood pressure high with incessant headlines about division, confusion, and 'chaos!' While the Democratic Party may be foundering and at a loss for a strategy to defeat the GOP in 2028, this is the media's strategy: to distract the public from Trump's wins, while compelling Americans to feel anxious and exhausted by a constant perception that Washington is disorganised and full of mayhem. Then, the Democrats can enter stage left and urge voters to elect them on the platform of an ostensible 'return to normalcy,' unity, and order. The White House likely made a mistake by allowing Musk to have so much visibility in the administration at the beginning. It was obvious from the start that while Trump and Musk were aligned on many fronts, there were many points of difference that would be impossible to reconcile despite their desire to collaborate. All of that, plus there were obvious concerns to be had about the risks and pitfalls of putting the world's most powerful man and the world's richest man in the same building from day to day. But for Trump and Musk to end the relationship in this way, and to do so while trashing each other publicly no less, is a grave mistake. Both men have unique and vitally important abilities to offer the country. Democrats significantly eroded the quality of life in the United States under the Biden Administration. More than 10 million illegal immigrants came through our open border, bringing drugs and crime. Millions of Americans worried about filling their cars with gas or buying groceries for their families due to inflation. Violent crime skyrocketed in American cities and towns. Leftists used lawfare to target and imprison their political enemies. We cannot afford to return to those dark days. Trump and Musk must bury the hatchet now and continue making progress together.
Sky News AU
16 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘A significant risk': Prime Minister Albanese warned not budge on beef import rules during trade negotiations with President Trump
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being warned not to cave to US demands on beef imports during upcoming trade negotiations with President Donald Trump. The Prime Minister is expected to meet with President Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit this week in order to discuss the tariffs imposed on Australian goods earlier this year. America's 47th President has imposed a massive tariff regime since taking office in January, including a 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium and a 10 per cent across the board tax on all Australian imports. Trump's tariffs are a breach of the existing Australia-US free trade agreement, but White House officials have defended the President's decision by claiming Australia bans the importation of US beef. A blanket ban on US beef imports - imposed in 2003 - was repealed in 2019, however biosecurity rules remain in place and no American beef has been imported under the new scheme. Mr Albanese has previously ruled out watering down the rules, but reports indicate government officials have been reviewing the scheme in order to provide the Prime Minister with a bargaining chip. Speaking to Sky News Australia on Monday, Nationals Leader David Littleproud said weakening Australia's biosecurity regime was 'not something we should entertain', as he called on the Prime Minister to again rule it out. Mr Littleproud said there were 'strict protocols' around the importation of US beef because Australia needed to ensure the cattle had been 'born in the United States and bred all the way through to their slaughter in the United States'. 'What Anthony Albanese and his departments were (considering)… was a relaxation of beef that was born in Mexico and Canada, where we don't have the traceability that we have over the US production system,' he said. 'Cattle can come into Mexico and then end up in a slaughterhouse in the United States, and then end up in Australia. 'We could be seeing those pests and diseases like mad cow… that's not something that we should entertain.' 'That's why Anthony Albanese needs to rule out straight away that he would open that up to those cattle that were born in Canada, Mexico or anywhere else in the Americas, because that poses a significant risk unless we can trace those cattle.' The former agriculture minister acknowledged the Prime Minister had previously ruled out weakening the biosecurity rules but that recent reports had called this into question. 'When you see reports from departments saying this is what's on the table in terms of negotiations where there's smokeless fire, and that's why the Prime Minister needs to rule this out,' Mr Littleproud said. The Nationals Leader said Australia had been 'fair' in its restrictions, which were based on science, and that traceability is also a requirement imposed on Australian beef. 'Every beast here in Australia has an ear tag from the moment they're marked through to the time they go to slaughter. They've got an ear tag that we can trace, what property they've been on, where they are, what they come into contact with,' he said. 'We have traceability in this country, and all we're saying to our foreign competitors is, if you're going to bring a product in this country, we need to know where your animals have been so that we can… protect our environment and our production.' Cattle Australia boss Chris Parker also backed standing firm on traceability, describing it as a 'pretty simple requirement' and adding that the US had similar requirements for the importation of Australian beef. "They insist that we provide that level of traceability for our beef going to their country and it's not unreasonable for us to have a requirement where we want to see at least equivalence of traceability so we have a good sense of where this is coming from,' Mr Parker told the ABC.
