President Paul Milde opened the meeting with Rotary Grace and welcomed
our guest speaker Neil Druce from the Junee liquorice Factory and Corowa Distillery.
Food and Wine Update
Laurie Blowes
Program is progressing smoothly.
Darren Coggan has been booked as the major act for the day.
Other entertainment is organised.
David Pyke
Organising new event for this year - "National Youth Busking Challenge" for under 18yrs.
Looking to form a small committee of 3 members to run the event which will be held in the main
street on the Saturday of the festival.
New Member Induction
A warm welcome to our newest member Tim Hutchins who was introduced by Mal Robertson.
Sprout and About Market
Craig Bromley
A successful market was held on Saturday with 33 stallholders participating and a total of $2544
banked for the day.
The new DeFiB unit will be now in the trailer for the market and present at each market.
Rotary Information
Greg Conkey
Greg reminded us of the good work of the ShelterBox partnership with Rotary International, with
aid given to over One Million people.
Sergeant Micheal Giorgiou
Another stunning session, with much fundraising to stop Micheal telling another story!
Guest Speaker Neil Druce Corowa Whiskey Distillery
Neil is well known to the club as the creator of the Junee Liquorice Factory, and is great supporter of
the Sprout and About Markets. He gave a very interesting talk on his latest venture, Distilling
whisky at the Corowa Whiskey Distillery.
Neil was approached to take on the old Mill Facilities at Corowa from the local council
and set about creating a major tourist attraction and now a world recognized whiskey distillery
in Corowa.
After a major renovation of the building they now have a function centre, coffee shop and
distillery all up and running.
Neil gave a fascinating history of his introduction to the distilling process, with trips to
Tasmania and Scotland to learn from the worlds best producers. Most of the flavour or character of the whiskey is created from the barrel it is stored in, and great is given to the wood type
and history of the barrels. After five years of storage the whiskey is decanted to the Finishing barrels
for further aging.
The flavour is also determined by the distilling process - the art of whiskey making.
The whiskey business is competitive , but the Corowa Whiskey Distillery is already being recognised
as one of the ten best new distillerys on the world scene!