Long Island distillery sues global giant LIV Golf

You might remember LIV Golf, a group that promotes golf as a festival of drunkenness and pays some of the leading players obscene amounts of money.

It aimed to change the face of the sport but is now largely an extravagant irrelevancy - unless you are one of the lucky golfers raking in the dollars, or one of the fans fighting each other. 

Now LIV Golf has a legal issue.

A New York-based artisan distillery, Long Island Spirits, has filed a lawsuit against LIV Golf, alleging that the league depressed sales and confused customers, by selling LIV-branded products that infringed on the spirit maker’s trademark.

In a filing to the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the craft vodka producer claimed that the Saudi-backed golf league is infringing on its signature LiV brand by selling its own branded alcohol and apparel.

The LiV acronym originally stood for Long Island Vodka (see image right).

As well as its signature vodka, made from local potatoes, the distillery produces cocktails, whisky, RTDs and gin. It also sells its own branded t-shirts, hats and other clothing.

The Baiting Hollow (great name)-based distillery, accuses LIV Golf of “blatant trademark infringement”.

The complaint states: “Distributors, retailers, hospitality partners, and consumers have already experienced actual confusion about whether the LíV brand has affiliated with LIV Golf.

“Consumers’ mistaken belief that LIV is in league with a highly controversial and heavily commercialised venture backed by an immense foreign sovereign wealth fund is antithetical to the authentic, pioneering, craft spirit LíV brand that LIV has worked hard to build.”

Ouch.

So you are serious about whisky?

Are you serious about whisky? 

Want to know more about distilling in Tasmania and the Lark success story? 

Lunching in time for the Easter long weekend, Lark Distilling has launched a range of ways of exploring the Lark range right on the Hobart waterfront. 

Open across the whole long weekend, LARK’s Cellar Door, located on Davey Street, is offering bookable tastings designed to bring Tasmania’s whisky story to life in an immersive way.

Visitors and local alike can book for Welcome to LARK, a concise, 45-minute guided tasting that traces Lark’s origins and evolution, featuring three museum release malts for $149 per person. Daily from 1pm | $149pp | Booking link here

If you are keen to splash out, Fuse Whisky Blending Experience is a premium, hands-on session where guests create their own bespoke Lark single malt. Guided by a whisky specialist, guests blend from unreleased cask samples to craft a personalised, cask-strength bottle to take home.
Daily from 3pm for $499 per person. Booking link here.

For evening plans, LARK’s dining space, The Still, has just launched a new extended menu. To celebrate, all online dinner bookings will receive a complimentary tasting of Lark's new Fire Trail whisky (it's a ripper), over the next two week. (Closed Good Friday and Easter Monday). Booking link here.

The Fire Trail is part of a new portfolio of four Tasmanian whisky expressions that are presented in re-imagined 700ml bottle with a new design that was this week awarded World’s Best Design at the World Whisky Awards 2026 Global Dinner. 

The Collection comprises Fire Trail (RRP $170), Devil’s Storm (RRP $200), Ruby Abyss (RRP $400), along with Cinder Forest (available in May, RRP $160). 

Check out larkdistillery.com. 

Good fish, bad fish for Easter

Easter is one of the most popular times of the year for eating fish. But are you choosing seafood that align with your values?

Some of Australia's most popular seafood choices are linked to overfishing, impacts on threatened species, and habitat damage.

GoodFish - an independent guide to sustainable seafood - is urging Australians to think twice before choosing some seafood staples for their Good Friday menu.

The GoodFish list of popular choices to avoid includes Tasmanian farmed Atlantic salmon, imported squid, some wild-caught prawns and some flake (shark), although most gummy shark is sustainable. 

“Australians love seafood, and most expect what they’re buying over Easter to be sustainable, but that’s not always the case," says sustainable seafood guide program manager Adrian Meder.

“Some of our most popular seafood options are linked to serious impacts like overfishing, bycatch of threatened species including dolphins and sawfish, as well as serious habitat damage. Armed with this information, shoppers have the power to take their dollars elsewhere and reward fisheries doing the right thing.

“In Australia, we are really lucky to have sustainable alternatives readily available. People often feel sustainability is out of their hands, but with seafood, a simple swap at the counter genuinely makes a difference.

“Our free GoodFish app puts that power directly in shoppers’ hands. Sustainable seafood doesn’t have to be complicated. We’ve made it quick, practical and accessible for everyday shoppers, using a clear traffic light system so people can easily choose seafood that has a light touch on our ocean.”

Among the fish to say "no" to are Tasmanian framed Atlantic salmon. 

Goodfish says this industry is linked to serious and ongoing environmental issues, including pollution, killing protected seals, contamination of wild fish, and mass fish kills, and antibiotic use so heavy that fishers have been warned to stay kilometres away from some sites.

"Most critically, salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour could drive the extinction of the Maugean skate – a critically endangered species found nowhere else on Earth."

GoodFish says Atlantic salmon just aren’t suited to Australian oceanic conditions. Tasmania is the warmest place in the world where salmon are farmed on an industrial scale, and rising water temperatures place increasing heat stress on the fish. This weakens their immune systems and allows disease to spread rapidly through the crowded pens, hence the widespread use of antibiotics.

Instead, diners are encouraged to look at NZ-farmed king salmon, Australian-farmed barramundi, Murray cod or native Australian salmon.

Others to avoid include wild-caught barramundi from Queensland and the Northern Territory, which are caught using gillnets, which are known to entangle and kill a wide range of threatened marine animals, including dolphins, dugongs, turtles, hammerhead sharks, and critically endangered sawfish.

Vivid shines a light on Sydney's beauty

The lights and action of Vivid Festival provide a major boost to visitation to Sydney over the cooler months.

Running from Friday, May 22, to Saturday, June 13, the 23‑day program brings together creativity to Australia's largest city across Vivid Light, Vivid Music, Vivid Minds and Vivid Food.

More than 80% of the festival remains free, including the entire Vivid Light Walk, an unbroken 6.5‑kilometre journey featuring over 43 installations and projections created by local and international artists.

The Vivid Light Walk stretches along Circular Quay, The Rocks, Barangaroo and Darling Harbour, with additional venues in and around the CBD hosting Vivid Music, Vivid Food and Vivid Minds events. 

This year, Vivid Sydney will feature collaborations for a series of events with Biennale Sydney, as well as cultural institutions, venues and arts companies such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Australian National Maritime Museum, City Recital Hall, The Mint, Carriageworks, State Library of NSW, Sydney Opera House and more.

New South Wales Minister for Jobs and Tourism Steve Kamper said Vivid Sydney will be bigger and better than ever before. Well he would, wouldn't he? 

“No other city in the world can host Vivid, because no other city in the world has what Sydney has to offer," said the offensively cocky sounding Kamper. 

"Vivid Sydney 2026 will redefine how we experience our city, delivering a bigger and bolder event program that will come to life both day and night."

Festival director Brett Sheehy says: “For 2026 we are expanding our program into new artforms including aerial performance, daytime public art, theatre and dance. 

"These join our vast Vivid Minds, Light, Music and Food offerings to now make your Vivid Sydney one of the great comprehensive arts festivals of the world."

Stay tuned for a special announcement of a Vivid Sydney first, an outdoor performance on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt over the June long weekend.

At the heart of the new Regional Dinner Series is A Shared Table with Yotam Ottolenghi, where the world‑renowned chef will bring together ingredients and flavours from across the state. 

Tickets for Vivid Sydney are on sale now. For more information and for a full list of events, go to vividsydney.com 

Combining bikes and boats is growing in popularity

Tours that combine biking and barging are all the rage, tourism operator UTracks reports.

Bike and boat holidays aim to combine the comfort of river and canal cruising with the freedom to explore well beyond the riverbanks.

And Europe’s waterways, from the flats of the Netherlands to France, Germany and the along the Danube, enable small vessels to glide into lesser-known ports while cruisers spend days cycling through river towns, vineyards and picturesque landscapes.

The Mediterranean, particularly along the coasts of Greece and Croatia, offer similar experiences at sea.

Guests can cycle village lanes, and rural backroads before heading back to their ship for dinner.

A range of routes are available and for the less energetic (raises hand), electric bikes are available for a supplement.    

https://www.utracks.com/bike-boat-information

Crudo adds a new gourmet offering to Gippsland waterfront

Gippsland has a new gourmet destination with the opening of Crudo | Wine & Provisions in Lakes Entrance.

 

The new Mediterranean-inspired deli and wine store is part of popular waterfront restaurant Sodafish and has opened on the lower deck beneath the floating restaurant.

Following five successful years of Sodafish, executive chef and owner Nick Mahlook decided to  expanded his operation, creating a providore experience that brings together local seafood, European pantry staples and a wine selection in a relaxed coastal setting.

Crudo - Italian for ‘raw’ - aims to replaicte the Sodafish ethos with quality, simplicity and respect for produce, including gourmet offerings from Spain, Italy and France.



Guests can browse cheeses, anchovies, sardines and antipasto ingredients, plus pantry staples designed to elevate everyday cooking. 

Freshly baked breads and sourdough pizza slices are available daily, with toppings such as mortadella, stracciatella and pistachio, or capers, confit tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella. 

Sounds good for picnics, or anyone in self-catering accommodation in the sun, sand and surf destination. 

Crudo also offers grazing platters for pre-orders, also ideal for picnics, boating days or entertaining. A new jetty allows guests to pull up by boat, collect a platter and wine, and head back onto the Gippsland Lakes.

Images: Nicky Cawood