By James Atkinson
Bickford's Australia will establish a spirit distillery, barrel hall, visitor centre and cellar door in the Riverland, South Australia, after being awarded a $2.36 million State Government grant from the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund.
Chris Illman, group marketing manager at Vok Beverages – the sales and marketing division for all Bickford’s alcoholic drinks – told TheShout the distillery will ensure the local production of Black Bottle Brandy is assured after Vok acquired the brand from Accolade Wines back in October 2011.
“We have enough existing matured brandy on hand to last us a couple of years, but we need a long-term solution,” he said.
“We will have the flexibility moving forward to look at other products that we can run through the system, so that could be vodka, gin or whisky.”
Managing director of Bickford’s Australia, Angelo Kotses said: “This new distillery is a testament to our commitment to grow Australian brandy volumes globally and presents the opportunity for Bickford’s to procure Riverland grapes and process them in a state of the art facility in South Australia.”