What's in a name? The Gospel explains

But in an alternate world, The Gospel may have been something else entirely—not just a different name, but a different ethos. In fact, there were a few close calls on the path to branding Australia’s only dedicated rye distillery.

Melbourne Moonshine

When Andrew and co-founder Ben Bowles first started distilling together ten years ago, it was in a garage in Carlton. Aspirations of a rye-focused distillery with honesty at its core were still far off. Instead, Andrew’s motivation at the time was more simple: curiosity. “We got to talking one night after a few after-work drinks,” remembers Andrew. I wanted to learn how to make whiskey. And Ben quickly pulled out his phone and showed me photos of his still back in South Carolina.”

That garage in Carlton was nothing like the state-of-the-art distillery The Gospel boasts today. Instead, it was cobbled together with “bits bought from eBay”. After that initial experiment Andrew and Ben got more serious about their hobby, moving to South Melbourne and building their first distillery. The brand was called Melbourne Moonshine. It still exists today.

Rye is the answer

“Why we ended up making rye whiskey sort of evolved like joining dots in a puzzle, lots of little things happened that made us think that's the right whiskey for us,” says Andrew.

A serendipitous encounter with a rye Old Fashioned during a research trip across the US sparked Andrew's fascination with the grain. “We spoke to a lot of bartenders there,” he says, asking them about what they were noticing in their bars. “What they thought was next was either mezcal or rye whiskey. And we had no interest in planting agave [in Australia]. So rye ticked the box.”

Andrew recognised the potential to cultivate rye in Australia's arid landscape, allowing them to keep the process as local as possible.

The birth of a brand

Collaborating with co-founders Kelvin Soh and Jamie Duff, the team set out to develop a brand that would reflect their ethos without being cliché.

“Between the four of us, we agreed that we wanted the brand to represent something that we were into as founders,” explains Andrew. “But not necessarily as vanilla as Fitzgerald Rye.”

While there’s certainly a ring to it, the team rightly decided to dig deeper than their last names. At one point, Kelvin and Jamie pitched the idea of Asta Rye after a defunct record-pressing plant in Port Melbourne.

“I'm kind of grateful that we had trademark issues with that name,” says Andrew.

Back to the drawing board

Inspiration can strike in the most unlikely places. Like on the road with a Bay Area hip-hop group. “One of their producers, Jumbo, and I were out digging for records, and we happened to be buying a lot of gospel records,” says Andrew.

It turns out Jumbo was on the hunt for a very specific gospel record, a tune called Fire, sung by a bunch of Australian nuns. “I was fresh out of digging for like two weeks,” remembers Andrew. “And because we went back to the drawing board with names, Gospel just happened to be one of that landed on the list.”

The name delivered on their initial brief but promised even more than they were expecting. Of course, there’s the obvious connection with truth and transparency, but it turns out gospel also has connections to whiskey making.

Melbourne at heart

With creativity pulsating through Melbourne's veins, Gospel Rye embraces its hometown as the beating heart of its brand. And for good reason. Andrew explains, “You can go to many cities all over the world, but few have the characteristic of Melbourne where creativity is such a part of the fabric of the city.”

In a city where culture thrives, Melbourne provides the perfect backdrop for a distillery committed to crafting authentic and exceptional rye whiskey.