So touched by our latest Harvest releases - created as an ode to Australia’s producers, their raw ingredients, and connection to the land - one avid Archie lover composed two contemporary poems in celebration of our Single Paddock Whisky Harvest 2018 and Lemon Scented Gum Gin 2021 and all that created them.

A celebration and a commemoration, we thought these poems spoke to the heart of why we do what we do and to the very essence of our Harvest series.

A Barellan Fable

Your secret wish, my crazy heart

that ill awaits and loves me not.

Spring flurries as the barley sways,

my fate on dry-grown summer days;

the lion crouched with some regret,

for now, it seems I’m in your debt.

From paddock to the hilltop crop,

heritage rye and washback drop,

malt saison yeasts for gumdrops got

this copper still sustains me not;

our rustic oak so sweet and smart

wildflowers from the beast impart.

Mandarin, yuzu, anzac scurry,

harvest salt in chocolate sherry.

How hard it is to break my heart,

a little vintage plays its part;

uisge beatha ~ amaze me not,

that fiery will it hits the spot.

Bunyip Hollow

A bushel of floral beauty fell,

sour-sweet cypress love compel.

Juniper berries steeped in cane,

coriander swag in mango rain.

Like tortoise furies fearless flung

the bunyip from its hollow sprung.

Orris and apple blossom bone-dry spill,

sherbet ice rosebuds colourbond fill.

Sunrise pinched lemon-demon gum,

epicure of emerald-lime succumb.

Troubadour trails, fairies dabble,

eau de vie ~ no idle babble.

Audacious summer nights distil,

love me bold I swear she will.

About the Author:

Poet Jon Chesterson writes under the pseudonym Barddylbach, a voice from the imagination which has lived in relative obscurity whilst Jon attends to the scrupulous functionary art and reality of living. Recently, Jon has published over 70 poems in numerous poetry anthologies from metered rhyme and sonnets to free verse, landscape poems, and a touch of the whimsical, melancholic and philosophical. And now, among other pastimes has succumbed to the pleasures of Australian wine, malt, and mountains.

A Barellan Fable and Bunyip Hollow are his two most recent poems, odes to the delights bottled from the stills of Archie Rose, which since 2014 has been making single malt and rye whiskies, gins, and other fine spirits sourced from local farmers and growers.

“It is not just the sustainable and nature-friendly methods of growing and making that inspire this poetry, but the landscape, myths, and people behind them - and so too the poetical frames, forms, and muses lightly touched upon,” Jon told Archie Rose.

‘I’ says Jon, ‘can taste the landscape in the malt and savour the lion in the spirit’, and we are only just beginning to see what can be achieved through trial and experiment, innovation and appreciation from the heart and stills of Archie Rose.

“I am no gin drinker, but the aromatics, flavours, and colours imagined breathe like the bush and myths of our natural world, as you walk through the garden”. That’s something worth writing about, and Barddy agrees - taking it to another level.

Both poems can be read on AllPoetry or listened to on Soundcloud.

A Barellan Fable (AllPoetry)

A Barellan Fable (Soundcloud)

Bunyip Hollow (All Poetry)

Bunyip Hollow (Soundcloud)

Barddy’s page on AllPoetry

Barddy’s page on Facebook