Issue 54 Aurora Magazine January 2023

taste
we had talked about the Barossa, the Yarra, Margaret River and all these different wine
regions,” Julia says.
“He said the largest wine growing region in Australia was the Great Southern and he
said there’s a little town called Denmark on the coast on the Southern Ocean, and he
said ‘trust me, you have to go if you love Australian wines, you have to go to Denmark.
“And so we did. We got on a plane to Perth, and we tootled down in October 1999
during a spring wine festival in Denmark. We did a masterclass and met all the
winemakers and absolutely fell in love with this little town.
“And, as you do, you start looking in the real estate windows and at that time everything
was 50 cents to the US dollar so everything looked incredibly attractive and cheap, so we
thought maybe we should be looking at Australia rather than going back to Texas.”
Brian jokes that he is retired now, and he was often tired when he was working in the
corporate world, and now he is tired again – so he is ‘re-tired’.
Brian and Julia first migrated to Australia in 1998 and bought a farm in Denmark in
2001 with the idea of starting a brewery, but then followed a job opportunity in London
before the permanent move to Denmark in 2003.
Brian had completed a diploma in brewing science and worked in a brewery, but in
2007 when they started to set up what they hoped would be a Belgian-style farmhouse
brewery with a tasting room, the rules and regulations of the time made it too difficult.
Instead, they became gypsy brewers moving from brewery to brewery as equipment
and space became available, creating and packaging their own beers in other breweries.
Brian is a qualified Beer Cicerone, the equivalent of a wine sommelier which he earned
on a course in the United States in 2011.
“It was a gruelling four-hour exam of essays and a videotape and presentation,” he says.
Two-thirds of the entrants failed the exam.
Brian hasn’t given up on the idea of Artisan Brewing having its own brewery and wants
to be Denmark-based, perhaps buying an existing brewery or going into partnership,
but they are also looking at new developments in Albany which could offer potential.
Artisan wants to continue to promote its vintage ales and to make people aware that
quality beers can age just like fine wine. Artisan’s beers are aged in old wine barrels.
“We’ve just taken those products out of the barrels and put them into bottles for our
private cellar club and there has been a huge reaction to those. We know we’re on the
right track there which predicates that we have to go into a bottling line scenario with
Champagne-style bottles and very elegant labels just like fine wine and cellared just like
fine wine,” Julia says.
“They are meant to be paired with food just like fine wine and have a higher ABV which
means they can age from the barrel as well as into the bottle – and that’s the future of
Artisan.”
Brian says the aging process can make a substantial difference to the taste of a beer
with an oxidization process much like wine. The brewery focuses on quadruples, strong
Belgian ales designed to age “like fine wines”, which when done properly can develop a
honey or sherry-like quality.
The quadruple brewed by Artisan in 2017 has just won a gold medal at the Perth Royal
Beer Show.
While the pair love their Belgian brews that doesn’t mean they’ve turned their backs on
Great Southern wines and are heavily involved in the local food and wine scene.
Artisan beers are available around the Great Southern in high-end venues like the newly
opened Bar Tarifa in Denmark, The Dam and wine bar Flame Trees and in Albany at Loft
22, Lime 303, and Liberte’.
A limited number of packaged beers are available in select bottle shops where the beer
can be refrigerated and looked after properly because it is not pasteurised, including
the Thirsty Camel in Denmark and The Bottle-O in Albany.
James Halliday 5 Red Star Winery for 7 consecutive years
Rockcliffe cellar door is open every day and offers a selection of some of the region’s best award-wining wines for
tasting and available to purchase. Customers are welcome to bring a picnic to enjoy at our beautiful vineyard and pair
with their favourite Rockcliffe wine. Visitors also come from near and far for our delicious homemade fudge and our
famous Rockcliffe gelatos and sorbets – all made on the premises to traditional artisan Italian recipes.
Our cellar door is regularly voted by our customers as not only the best cellar door in Denmark,
but the best cellar door experience they have ever had!
Rockcliffe wines are also available at the best restaurants, bars and liquor stores throughout the Great Southern.
SUMMER SERIES CONCERTS ARE BACK!
Bring your family and friends and dance the night away
in our beautiful vineyard. Enjoy quality Rockcliffe wine,
home-made gelato and fudge, and popular food truck fare.
Every Friday evening this January from 5pm to 9pm.
$10 per person, U-18s are free
• 6 January – Cyclone Tracy • 13 January – Impact
• 20 January – Pinstripe • 27 January – The Barnhouse
www.rockcliffe.com.au
CELLAR DOOR 18 Hamilton Road, Denmark, WA, 6333 | PHONE: 0419 848 195
OPENING HOURS 11am to 5pm, 7 days a week. At all other times by appointment, please phone.
LOVE LOCAL
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