Three Australian companies have been recognised at the 2025 Top Shelf Awards, honouring the Best of Class and Best in Show winners from the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits and Ready to Drink Competitions – Burdekin Rum, Callington Mill, and Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic.
North Queensland distillery, Burdekin Rum, took out the Best Overall Rum, Best Unaged Rum, and Best In Show Unaged White Spirits awards for its limited Distillers Edition Coral Sea Strength Unaged Rum.
The company thanked its entire team on LinkedIn for helping to make this recognition possible.
“Burdekin has just raised the bar for premium Aussie craft spirits. This award for our Coral Sea Strength Unaged Rum is true recognition of our team’s effort and reflects our unique terroir, with sugarcane grown just 8km from our distillery,” stated the company.
“By working closely with John Pierotti, our partner cane farmer, we’ve minimised the time between cutting and crushing to ensure the true flavour of Burdekin sugarcane is captured in every bottle.”
Tasmanian distillery, Callington Mill, was awarded the Best in Class award in the Australian Single Malt category, for its Pedro Ximenez Single Malt Whisky. The company also received two Double Gold medals at the competition last year, and was recognised in 2025 at the International Wine and Spirits Competition and the World Whiskies Awards.
Callington Mill founder, John Ibrahim, said the company was proud of the products it makes in Tasmania.
“It is a perfect, pristine part of the world, and we are even prouder of our Pedro Ximenez,” said Ibrahim.
“It's been picking up some great scores around the world and I think it’s a shining example of what Tasmanian whisky is becoming.”
The distillery announced it had secured four European distribution partnerships in August, after a successful performance on the international awards circuit, expanding the Callington Mill profile into Belgium, France, Germany, and Poland.
The Best Non-Alcoholic Spirit award was received by Lyre’s, one of the world’s most awarded non-alcoholic brands, for its Italian Orange. Since starting out in Sydney in 2019, Lyre’s has grown to be a leading brand with manufacturing hubs in Australia, the US, the UK and Europe.
The company describes Italian Orange as capturing the essence of a vibrantly red Italian bitter aperitivo-style with flavours that are distinct, crisp and contemporary.
