Never Never Distilling Co. is celebrating an extraordinary moment on the world stage, taking home two major international honours overnight in London — Most Innovative Spirit and Global Distiller of the Year at The Spirits Business Awards. The wins mark a defining milestone for the McLaren Vale-based team, arriving just weeks after the launch of their new Signature Vodka, which has already begun to make waves in top venues across the country.
Crafted from premium Australian wheat spirit and enriched with distilled olive, coconut, and avocado oils, Signature Vodka was deemed the most innovative spirit across the entire global category. Head Distiller and Co-Founder Tim Boast was also recognised individually, selected by the judging panel as Distiller of the Year — an achievement he says reflects the drive of the entire team. “It was an incredible night for Never Never, to win Most Innovative Spirit on a global stage is an amazing achievement for our small brand,” Tim says. “The cherry on top was the distillers award, an accomplishment that wouldn’t be possible without our passionately creative production and brand teams.”
Never Never’s push for innovation has long been central to the brand, with Tim noting that the same approach applied to gin has shaped the new release. “At Never Never we have always aimed to innovate regardless of the product we are making,” he says. “We built a textural vodka using the techniques learned over eight years of building incredible flavour in gin.” Creating a premium vodka in Australia, he adds, comes with challenges. “We can’t rely on Eastern European distilling heritage, Russian winter wheat or Polish potato. We don’t have Icelandic glacial water or French Appellation. What we do have is a very good understanding of how to build texture and flavour so we leaned on that skillset to build a premium product.”
The three distilled oils — olive, coconut and avocado — were chosen for their ability to build silkiness while maintaining neutrality, contributing subtle notes of olive, white chocolate, honeyed macadamia and coconut cream. The vodka uses the same McLaren Vale water as their gin, with natural salts added for mouthfeel, and the neutral spirit is carbon-filtered for 16 hours before final blending. The result is an ultra-smooth expression designed for exceptional martinis and highballs.
Co-Founder and Brand Director Sean Baxter says the team set out to compete with the giants. “We pulled as many levers as we could to give us a leg up against the bigger imported brands here in Australia,” he says. “It just so happens that those levers make the product even more delicious,” he laughs. “We didn’t do it to be different, we did it because we think it makes an incredible vodka.” He also applauded Tim’s recognition on the global stage. “He works bloody hard and is very humble when it comes to the personal accolades he wins, I’m very proud of what he’s been able to achieve,” Sean says. “He’s won it for gin and vodka now, I’m sure we will never hear the end of it,” he laughs.
Despite only launching last month, Signature Vodka is already being embraced by some of Australia’s most awarded venues. Melbourne bar Byrdi has adopted it as their house martini, serving ‘First Frost’, blending the vodka with Victorian-grown shiso and pine distillates, a house vermouth of Savagnin and coconut, seasoned with shiro shoyu and served at –14°C. Sydney’s Tailor Room has unveiled its own ‘Satin’ cocktail with clarified Granny Smith apple, oolong tea, pear liqueur, fino sherry and aperitif vermouth, finished with a few drops of makrut lime-infused coconut and olive oil. In Adelaide, Hi-Fi bar Honeydripper features Signature Vodka with a tsukemono of pickled cucumber and karkalla, garnished with smoked caperberries and served freezer-cold.
Signature Vodka is available now through the Never Never website and quality independent bottleshops across Australia.
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