So is this the beginning of Never Never’s step into whisky? Not quite. In fact not at all. Largely because there’s only 555 bottles of the stuff, with no plans to make any more.

BANDED is a single-release, South Australian Blended Malt Whisky that tells the story of how Never Never started and how we never really started making whisky.

When Tim, George and Sean decided to create Never Never Distilling Co. their ambition was to create the most exciting and innovative spirits in Australia, not just some of the world’s greatest gins. The purchase of a still called Wendy in early 2017 opened up a plethora of opportunities when it came to creating some cutting-edge styles of Australian whisky. Our founders pooled a small amount of money and invested in some locally produced single malt whisky in the hopes we would have some mature whisky to blend with once we started producing our own.

The new-make spirit was lovingly laid down into casks of varying sizes and finishes to create an exciting palette to blend with.

Then almost immediately, our gin business began to explode. In 2019, Southern Strength Gin won World’s Best Classic gin at the World Gin Awards and within an instant, we became a proper, well-regarded gin distillery with a global reputation to uphold. We made the decision then and there that if we were going to keep up with gin demand we probably needed to put our whisky plans on hold to focus everything on gin production.

BANDED is blended using six casks produced by two different South Australian whisky distilleries and matured in the four warehouses that follow the Never Never journey from Royal Park to McLaren Vale.

The final whisky was first blended, then finished in a final muscat cask, one that represents their final destination in McLaren Vale. Ironically, the various contributing whisky to the final blended malt all come from within a short distance of their new brand home.

The final flavours are a testament to the quality that Never Never demands in the glass. The nose combines toffee apple and buttered fruit toast, with elegant raisin and muscatel notes leaping out of the glass. The taste is honeyed with layers of brulee and plum pudding, with spice and oak developing into a drying finish with pops of pepper and cinnamon.