Our historic Twenty Third Street Distillery, built in 1914, has been resurrected with twenty-first century technology. Century-old copper stills are reignited with a spirit of anarchic invention. Our Master Distiller captures the spirit of riverside relaxation intersected with energetic invention. We’re charting new flavour territories with old-school craftsmanship to bring you sensory pleasures savoury and sweet, bright and smooth, contradictory yet united. Twenty Third Street. Prime spirits for the liberated palate.
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We managed to lay our hands on a pair of South Australian-built copper pot stills of around the same vintage as our building. We found them gathering cobwebs at Berri Estate. From the history would could piece together these beauties were once part of Hardy’s Reynella and Tintara in McLaren vale, at one stage even being responsible for producing the grandfather of Australian brandy, the iconic Black Bottle Brandy.
Each still has approximately a 7,500 litre capacity. Years of hard work, running repairs and relocations have given these beauties a patched, pre-loved patina. Above the woodwork insulation that surrounds the ‘bellies’ of the stills we’ve had the copper parts gently blasted and polished back to gleaming beauty. With components repaired, tweaked and tuned, these fine old girls are the living pulse of our distillery. They add a little well-experienced, knowing sass to every drop.
Twenty Third Street Distillery is the new incarnation of a century-old landmark at Twenty Third Street, Renmark, in South Australia’s fertile Riverland. The distillery was built by Barossa firm Chateau Tanunda in 1914 to take advantage of burgeoning Riverland harvests. No expense was spared in the design and construction of this imposing building and its production plant. However, Chateau Tanunda had sunk too much into it and found itself sinking into financial ruin. This could have been disastrous for the local grape growers. They’d quickly become dependent on the distillery buying their fruit.
But beneath the gloom was opportunity. Could the growers cut out the middle man and run the distillery themselves? Around 130 fruit growers banded together to form The Renmark Growers’ Distillery Company Limited and purchase the facilties. It was the first cooperative of its kind in Australia, a great success and a huge boost to the local Riverland community.
A series of mergers and takeovers unfortunately led to a rapid decline in activity at Twenty Third Street, until it ceased all production in 2002. But the spirit lingered. Enter our new team in 2016, fuelled by fresh creative passion, Riverland heart and a taste for the future.
