Winding Road Distilling Co. doesn't simply make spirits in the Northern Rivers. It sets out to create spirits that express something of the landscape, ingredients and subtropical character of the region itself.

Based in the small village of Tintenbar between Ballina and Byron Bay, the family-run distillery was founded by Mark and Camille Awad after a long-held dream began taking shape in 2015. By 2017, Winding Road Distilling Co. had become a reality.

Production remains deliberately small-scale and hands-on, spanning rum, single malt whiskey, gin, vodka and liqueurs.

Its Coastal Cane spirits demonstrate that connection to place particularly well. Fresh first-press juice from locally grown Northern Rivers sugar cane is slowly fermented before being twice distilled through the distillery's custom 1,250-litre copper pot still. For Coastal Cane Pure Single Rum, maturation in selected oak barrels allows the warm summers and temperate winters of the coastal subtropics to become another influence on the finished spirit.

Citrus and Sea Gin looks towards both hinterland and coastline, combining nine local, native and traditional botanicals including native pepperberry, strawberry gum leaf and NSW kelp.

Hinterland Single Malt Whiskey takes another path, handcrafted from grain to bottle using seven varieties of malted barley before double distillation and maturation in carefully selected oak casks.

Different spirits, different ingredients and different expressions, but the same underlying philosophy.

For Winding Road, provenance isn't simply where the bottle was made. It's the cane, botanicals, climate and landscape that helped shape what's inside it.