Winemaking family also excels when it comes to spirits

The Angove family are probably best-known for their wines, sourced from vineyards across South Australia.

What is probably less known is that the Angoves also own the St Agnes Distillery at Renmark, which has just been named Best Distiller at the Tasting Australia Spirit Awards.

The winners were decided after three days of intensive tasting by a panel of expert judges guided by the Spirit Awards Patron and World Whisky Award Hall of Fame inductee Bill Lark.

A record 315 different spirits from 73 Australian producers entered the awards. Every St Agnes brandy was awarded a medal with St Agnes XO 15-Year-Old collecting a gold and the trophy for Best Brandy and St Agnes VSOP 5-Year-Old also collecting a gold.

‘This was such an amazing surprise," said Richard Angove. "The Australian spirits Industry is going from strength to strength with so many amazing distillers making such high-quality products.

"To win Best Distiller is amazing, exciting and humbling. With over 100 years of distillation experience we have had just five master distillers and I am sure that my great, great grandfather would never have thought the small St Agnes Distillery he set up in the early 1900s, the first in the region, would be collecting a Best Distiller Award in 2021."

The St Agnes Distillery regularly run tours through the historic cellars in Bookmark Avenue, where visitors can learn about distilling.

The St Agnes Distillery now also makes one of Australia’s only certified organic gins; Blind Tiger Organic Gin, which received a bronze medal, as well as a soon-to-be-released Camborne Single Malt Whisky.

See https://stagnesdistillery.com.au/