Sunshine & Sons: Golden Dreams
Tony Cox raises a glass to the latest global success for the crew at CAVU Distilling.
There really must be something in the water at Woombye because the team at CAVU Distilling have won more global gongs!
Not content with winning World’s Best Vodka at the World Vodka Awards for the Sunshine & Sons Original Vodka, the team has just been awarded a Gold Medal at the 2024 World Drinks Awards for their Nil Desperandum ‘Botanical’ Rum — providing proof that it doesn’t matter whether the spirit is white or brown, the end result is always golden.
In fact, Nil Desperandum came away with five medals across their rum range with the ‘Botanical’, in the Contemporary and Botanical category, being the highest awarded – even rating above such esteemed brands as Pussers from Guyana – so the competition was pretty hot.
Other awards received include:
Traditional Spiced Category: Silver, ‘Artfully Corrupted’ Spiced Rum
Pot Still 5 Years & Under: Silver, ‘Special’ Rum; and Bronze, ‘Premier’ Rum
Flavoured: Bronze, ‘Artfully Corrupted’ Orange Rum
A huge achievement when you consider the team has been doing their thing for four years compared to some overseas producers with generations of experience.
The 1871 Club Membership entitles members to five releases each year, all bottles being numbered and not being readily available.
The second release for members for 2024 is now available and for those with sufficient palate memory if you cast your mind back to 2022, where The Wild Muck won Best Pot Still Rum at the 2022 Australian Rum Awards, some of that batch was put aside to age further in ex-bourbon barrels with previous sherry and port fill creating a stunning four-year-old rum, The Muck Redux.
Weighing in at a warming 53.7% ABV, it is limited to 101 bottles.
As always, if you are looking for something to do of an afternoon there would be nothing better than kicking back in the sun, the distillery taking the brunt of southerly winds in the cooler months, and checking out the warming rum selection or sampling the latest cocktail creations.
The Nil Desperandum Mai Colada is a hybrid of a pina colada and a mai tai. With 30ml each of Premier and Special Rums combined with 20ml each of Triple Sec, coconut milk, pineapple juice, lime juice and orgeat syrup all shaken with ice and strained over ice. Plenty of vitamin C to ward off winter sniffles.
Best suited to those cooler monthsand a bit of contemplative sipping over serious conversation or just a little bit of friendly banter is the Nil Fashioned, a take on the classic Old Fashioned (your scribes favourite post-dinner non-wine down). Two nips of Special Rum, 10ml of simple syrup made using dark Demerara sugar, two dashes Angostura bitters and a dash each of orange and chocolate bitters with ice in a mixing glass and stir and cold. Strain into a rock glass with one large ice cube garnished with a twist of orange peel. Quality dark chocolate would make the ideal accompaniment.
Now that State of Origin is with us, what better way to support your team than with our much-loved maroon-labelled Nil Desperandum Special, OR if you hail from south of the border, the NSW Blues Limited Edition bottle will let you show your true colours!
What can we say about these guys that hasn’t already been mentioned (other than predicting the gongs are likely to continue to flow for the team at Nil Desperandum and sister operation Sunshine & Sons).
To keep abreast of what is happening, drop in and enjoy a cocktail or cocktail class at their distillery door near the Big Pineapple at Woombye, visit the website or to sate your passion for premium rum, become a member of The 1871 Club.
