The future of Australia's liquor industry has arrived - with a new Whitsundays-based spirit set to pioneer a new era of agave.
It's seven years in the making - a blend made for margaritas and quick sipping.
"Just don't call it tequila" - teases distillers Top Shelf International.
The 100 per cent agave spirit, Act of Treason, comes from a progressive distillery at Eden Lassie, based between Airlie Beach and Bowen and home to over 600,000 agave tequilana plants - the same plant that has been used in the distillation of tequila for centuries.
The first bottles of the inaugural 'First Harvest Blanco' hit the shelves on January 17 2024.
The inaugural 'First Harvest Blanco' kicked off the brand's commercial sales after several years in the making.
"Act of Treason symbolises the pioneering spirit of a project that will create a new region of agave spirit. The Dry Tropics of north Queensland are the ideal place for that to occur," Top Shelf International CEO Trent Fraser said.
"Like many others producers, we feel there is an opportunity for agave to be shared with the world and for others to put their distinctive imprint on a category that continues to surge in popularity in Australia and overseas.
"Act of Treason has joined the new global era of agave. We're approaching this as an opportunity to create something new and expand the horizons of a category that has been geographically limited for centuries. In many ways it's no different to the evolution wine underwent three decades ago.
"If some feel that we're being treasonous, then so be it. The greater crime would be not doing it all."
The distillery, powered by renewable energy, is flanked with Eucalyptus trees and native wildlife, with the farm's creeks and waterways flowing into the nearby Coral Sea.
Spiked heads of agave plants sprawl across the farm in lined rows - a "mirror image of tequila's home in Mexico".
Top Shelf Distillery has a focus on craftsmanship, utilising "industry-leading" agronomy practices that produce plant growth and sugar levels ahead of schedule with bio diesel - one element of the distillery's commitment to "sustainability".
The "progressive distillery" uses game changing methods including carbon sequestration, cover cropping, sediment run off prevention, water management and ag-tech - involving care towards the land, waterways, coast and Coral Sea.
The distillery has an innovative flair - with features like up-cycled shipping containers, spectral drone technology, geo-tagged plants, energy-saving sub cooler, a custom-designed ultra small batch still, gravity-fed water preservation, double copper pot distillation, and a repurposed basket press.
Act of Treason is described as having an "elegant and soft profile", with a "familiar backbone of cooked agave, layered with notes of lime, fresh cut grass and tropical fruits.
While still a new product, Act of Treason has already attracted the attention of judges within the spirit industry.
In the lead up to launch, the trial spirit was entered into the Australian Distilled Spirit Awards in mid 2023, where it won a Gold Medal and Trophy for Alternative Spirit Of The Year.
Agave is a self sustaining plant, which requires plenty of sun and free draining soil - not heavy clay or overly wet soil, which can kill agave.
Flowering is very irregular for this hardy plants, and it can take up to 10 years - with debates still circling around what triggers flowering.
When agave's rosette does produce a flower, it will die away, to then be surrounded by new plants - often resulting in older agave plants growing in large, mounded clumps.
