It used to be that whisky was an old man’s drink but connoisseurs nowadays are much younger with women now making up nearly half of consumers.

Central Coast-based distillery Amber Lane has been at the forefront of Australia’s rising reputation as one of the world’s finest producers of Scotland’s most famous export.

Amber Lane co-owner, Figtree resident Rod Berry, will be in attendance at The Drink Show at The Pavilion in Kiama where he will be talking to attendees about the finer points of whisky.

He will also be providing a masterclass between the first and second of the three two-hour sessions where he will teach budding brewers “The Secret Blend Behind Australia’s Best Whisky 2025”.

Amber Lane’s 2025 limited release Silk Road took out the highly coveted Best Small Batch Single Malt Whisky title at the World Whiskies Awards in London last week.

Silk Road was also among a slew of Amber Lane whiskies to be recognised in the 2025/2026 edition of Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible, released recently.

“Whisky is definitely experiencing a revival. There's a massive whisky culture across the world. Australia now has more whiskey distilleries than Scotland has, so it's really really captured the Australian imagination but the production volumes of those distilleries is a lot less.

“But we're doing very well internationally.

“It's not just a parochial local idea that our whisky is good. It's being assessed against the best whiskies in the world and we just keep doing fantastically well.

“Amber Lane has now won 14 international gold medals which means that our whisky is rated up there with some of the best whisky in the world.

Berry founded Amber Lane in 2017 with his friend Phil Townsend and started production the following year, waiting for it to age sufficiently before releasing it to the market in 2022.

The secret to their success is the use of 60-year-old barrels, imported from the famous sherry regions of southern Spain,

“What I'm going to be doing in that session is providing everyone with samples direct from our barrels and making the blend of our internationally acclaimed whisky, the Equinox.

“Each person has their own barrel samples and then we create the blend together and then people get to take home their own 50ml bottle of this magnificent whisky.

Berry said Amber Lane prides itself on the consistency of its mash bill, the grain combination used in fermenting the spirits “to make sure the flavours are consistent”.

“And then we use really premium quality barrels to mature the whisky. We have imported some of the most exclusive barrels in the world, up to 60 years old from the very old Spanish bodegas (wine cellars) in the south of Spain.”

The Drink Show features three sessions from 12.30pm-2.30pm, 3pm-5pm and 6pm-8pm, with a range of independent craft distillers and modern drinks producers showing their wares.

Berry’s half-hour masterclass will be held at 2.30pm, followed by Felix Clarke from Ester Spirits at 4pm on Summer Drinks.

Each masterclass is strictly limited to 30 ticket holders so get in quickly to reserve your spot at drinkshow.com.au.