History

• Top Shelf International (TSI) is an Australian premium spirits company.
• According to their investor page, TSI was established in 2014 and is described as Australia’s largest and fastest-growing premium spirits company.
• They are building a multi-brand portfolio with NED Australian Whisky and Grainshaker Australian Vodka, and a future pipeline for an Australian Agave spirit.
• The company focuses on research and development and has its own R&D activities and partnerships.

Production / Manufacturing

• TSI owns and operates the Campbellfield distillery in Victoria with a mash tun for whisky, a distillation column and pot stills for whisky and vodka, as well as flexible packaging for its own brands and contract manufacturing.
• Storage facilities and bond stores are located in Somerton, Victoria and house oak vats and barrels for whisky inventory; the storage complies with the legal requirement of at least two years of ageing.
• Their agave farm in the Whitsundays region (between Bowen and Airlie Beach) supports the development of Australia’s first agave-spirit category; more than 230,000 agave plants have been planted, and a further around 245,000 plants are in nurseries.
• They have large, integrated capacity for production and packaging (also for third-party customers).

Products / Whisky Series

• NED is Top Shelf’s Australian whisky brand; the slogan is "It's how Australians do whisky".
• NED is among Australia’s fastest-growing whisky brands in both bottled and ready-to-serve formats and has more than 1.6 million liters of whisky ageing, the largest amount for a single brand in Australia.
• The Wanted Series constitutes NED’s super premium, small-batch whisky series and has won medals at the Melbourne International Spirits Competition (two silver and one bronze).

Visits / Experiences

• The company places emphasis on product research and development and has partnerships such as Adelaide University and Anther Experimental Distillation in North Geelong.
• Australian Agave Project is described as an initiative to create Australia’s first agave-spirit category; the project includes a farm between Airlie Beach and Bowen in the Whitsundays as well as an innovation hub and partnerships.

Philosophy

• The aim is to promote, celebrate and enjoy the distinctive Australian lifestyle by being bold, strong and proudly Australian.
• Top Shelf focuses on craftsmanship, quality and Australian provenance and operates with a large, vertically integrated production in Australia.