Holly’s unwavering spirit carries her to new heights

Bass & Flinders managing director and head distiller Holly Klintworth in 2022 was elected as the Australian Distillers Association’s first female president and continues this role today.  The honour has delighted the Bass & Flinders team, who said they were “so proud of Holly's achievement, which is recognition of all her passion and hard work in the distilling industry”. 

Following in the footsteps of her founder father Wayne, Holly made the decision to move on from her marketing role in the wine industry and join the family business full-time in 2016.  However, she has always been involved since the very beginning, initially helping out with bottling, labelling and even lemon zesting. One of few second-generation distillers in the Australian craft spirits industry, Holly is changing the face of spirits production in Australia.

“My dad is my daily inspiration,” she said.  “When I first started my journey into wine, he was passionate about carving out a name for Australia as a world-class spirits producer. His passion was infectious and inspired me to quit my day job and start working at Bass & Flinders Distillery.”

Passionate about creating small-batch, distinctly Australian spirits with a focus on local provenance and sourcing native botanicals, Holly is shaping the tastes, flavours and future of Australian gins, brandies and liqueurs, blending old-world techniques with modern technologies and flavour profiles.

“We wanted to do something different, and at the time no one else was using wine to make spirits in the region,” she said. Drawing inspiration from the Mornington Peninsula, where the sea meets the wine-growing hinterland, the grape-based eau de vie spirit is handcrafted at the distillery using traditional Charentais distillation methods, modelled on the finest French brandy producers and blended with new-world creativity and technology.

These production methods celebrate the remarkable flavour and viscosity provided by the grapes and lie at the heart of everything Bass & Flinders does.  These techniques are highly labour-intensive and require an enormous amount of attention to detail, but Holly continues to place importance on quality above all else.  “We choose to go the extra mile to create a premium product with complex flavours and a smoother texture and mouthfeel by proudly producing grape-to-glass spirits” and in doing so, they take the concept of ‘craft’ to the next level.

Influenced by her time in France’s brandy-producing regions and drawing on various facets of Australia's flavours and ingredients, Holly believes there is a place for both traditional botanicals and native Australian botanicals in gin production.  Regulations and classifications aside, classic gin botanicals such as juniper, coriander, angelica root, cardamom and others create instantly recognisable aromas and flavours in a gin. These classic botanicals have been tried and tested over many years and create a great foundation for the spirit's flavour profile.

With many of the 10,000 or more native Australian botanicals still unknown or unexplored, this creates an incredible opportunity to use exciting new botanicals from our own backyard that define our country, state or region.  For example, Bass & Flinders’ Maritime Gin includes locally foraged saltbush, sea kelp, samphire and wattleseed to embody the oceans, vineyards and bush surroundings of the Peninsula.

Holly is passionate about the future of the Australian craft spirits industry. Recent figures show that less than 8 per cent of spirits consumed in Australia are made locally. Holly hopes an increasing number of Australians begin to choose local over international and support the craft movement in Australia.

As the managing director of a distillery founded on a passion to create fine brandies, and with the popularity of dark spirits on the rise internationally, Holly is seeking to change perceptions of this elegant spirit and prove just how great Australian brandy can be.  Bass & Flinders is leading from the front with recent additions to the range, such as the double trophy-winning Distiller’s Selection Single Cask Brandy, a seasonal Spiced Christmas brandy based on Holly’s grandmother’s Christmas pudding recipe, and the luscious Madame Marmalade orange liqueur, produced to rival the best French triple secs and brandy-based liqueurs.

Holly also aspires to make premium-quality brandy more approachable and help others explore the category in less traditional ways, such as mixing it with tonic, or ginger ale mixed with a spiced brandy.  Time and patience are the keys to producing fine brandy, and there is a beautiful merging of traditions throughout the process with the winemaker, barrel maker and distiller’s skills all coming into play.

Like her father, Holly is inspired by the opportunity to share her knowledge and experience with others and help a new generation explore the Australian craft spirits industry. Their original gin masterclasses and new graduate gin masterclasses designed by Holly and available at Bass & Flinders are just one way of sharing this knowledge while having some fun along the way. Masterclass participants get to roll up their sleeves and create their own bespoke gin while learning all about these amazing spirits. They can then take home a bottle of their own blend to enjoy.

And let’s not forget about the ‘gin-tastic’ world of gin. Bass & Flinders’ gins are shining examples of what the French call ‘terroir’ – the grapes sourced from one single vineyard displaying their own unique regional character and expression. Grape-to-glass gins are highly unique in the world of gin where the majority of producers outsource a neutral ethanol as their base spirit from which their gins are created.

On a constant journey of discovery, exploring new flavours and new botanicals with a focus on sustainability and local provenance, Holly’s passion lies in creating the best possible versions of the spirits. Combining traditional knowledge and modern innovation with a constant focus on quality and local inspiration, Holly steers Bass & Flinders on an exciting journey into a promising future while helping to increase global recognition of the Australian craft spirits industry.