Distillery
The Grove was founded by Steve Hughes in 1995, it was originally established as a winery.
The site of the distillery is roughly 30 hectares.
Approximately 10 hectares dedicated to vineyard and the rest split between the distillery, cafe, homestead and short stay accommodations.
In 2008 The Grove transitioned to distilling spirits and purchased a copper still, officially becoming the first craft distillery in the region. The original copper still is in the restaurant area as a display piece today, it looks to be an Arnold Holstein from the photo I saw. It seems they must have upgraded to a larger Arnold Holstein still at some point.
Sadly Steve passed away and Brendon Stoney purchased The Grove Distillery in June 2024. They may have also changed head distiller at this time too as the website states a different head distiller to the one on this bottle.
Ingredients
The Grove Distillery uses rainwater collected on site and triple filtered.
The rum mashes are from heavy grade A molasses, dark brown sugar.
Fermentation
The Grove Distillery ferments its rum wash using a proprietary yeast strain. According to the distillery, the combination of this yeast and a slightly longer fermentation produces a subtle "funk" with an ester count at the lower end of the rum spectrum.
For its Christmas Rum release, fermentation lasts approximately 7 to 10 days in 500 L and 1,000 L fermenters, producing a wash of around 9% ABV before distillation. A fermentation period of 7 to 10 days is longer than the 1 to 5 days commonly used by many commercial rum producers.
While the distillery has not publicly confirmed the fermentation schedule for its core aged rum range, the available information suggests it may follow a similar approach.
Distillation
An interview with a head distiller said the Grove uses a 450L copper hybrid pot/column Arnold Holstein still for all their distilling.
Maturation
The Grove Distillery matures its rum on site in Margaret River, Western Australia. Although the region does not have a tropical climate, its warm summers and mild winters provide conditions suitable for accelerated cask maturation compared with cooler climates.
The distillery primarily uses 50 L ex-bourbon style American white oak barrels for maturing its rum. According to the distillery, these smaller casks mature spirit approximately 3 to 4 times faster than standard larger barrels due to their higher surface area-to-volume ratio. The trade-off is increased evaporation, with a typical barrel yielding around 40 L of spirit from an initial 50 L fill.
The barrels follow an in-house maturation cycle. The Grove first fills new barrels with its own bourbon-style whisky, where they remain for approximately five years. The casks are then reused to mature the distillery's rum.
The barrels are manufactured in Queensland from American white oak imported from the United States. Before cooperage, the oak is seasoned as planks for approximately two years, a process that helps stabilise the timber and contributes to the flavour compounds later extracted during maturation.
The casks receive a heavy No. 4 char, producing a deeply cracked charcoal layer often referred to in the cooperage industry as an "alligator char" because of its resemblance to alligator skin.
Bottling
Hand bottled on site.
I was unable to find any information of how much rum The Grove Distillery produces in a year.
Other Products
The Grove Distillery also distil vodka, gin, whiskey and liqueurs.