Morris Whisky – Australian Single Malt, Muscat Barrel

Morris Whisky – Australian Single Malt, Muscat Barrel
Rutherglen, Victoria.
ABV: 46% (700ml, core release; ex-wine casks then finished in Morris muscat barrels). Cellar-door Cellar Reserve and Smoked Muscat variants run 48–48.3%).

This is a story. Morris, a fortified-wine dynasty, has turned its own casks into award-winning whisky – and done it with startling pedigree.

Morris of Rutherglen has made muscat and tokay since 1859; when its whisky project began in 2016, Morris brought in serious Scotch know-how to build it, in master distiller John McDougall – one of the very few people to have made whisky in every one of Scotland's distilling regions, for the likes of Laphroaig, Balvenie and Springbank – alongside the late Dr Jim Swan, the cask scientist behind Kilchoman, Kavalan and Bowmore whom Morris calls the "Einstein of whisky". Between them they designed the barrel and toasting regime, and the whisky is distilled on Aurora – the original 1930s still that once made the base spirit for Morris's fortified wines, restored and given a new name for its second life. The results came fast: the Muscat Barrel was named Category Winner and Gold at the 2026 World Whiskies Awards – the latest in a stack that already held two San Francisco Double Golds, a World Whisky Masters "Master", and Best Australian Whisky at the International Whisky Competition. It's matured first in French and American oak ex-wine casks, then finished in the very barrels that held Morris's own multi-award-winning muscat – the Australian wine-and-whisky story made literal, from the people who filled the casks in the first place.