Woombye rum maker crowned national champion
Head Distiller Adam Chapman with Founder and Chief Imagineer Matt Hobson.
WOOMBYE rum producer Nil Desperandum has won two major national trophies and four gold medals after taking on distillers from across Australia and overseas.
The local producer was named Champion Australian Distiller (Medium) and received The Raymond ‘Spike’ Dessert III Trophy for Best Rum at the 2026 Melbourne Royal Australian International Spirits Awards.
It’s overproof rum The Triple Six secured the Best Rum title, marking the second time in three years Nil Desperandum has claimed the prestigious trophy.
The awards, announced in Melbourne on July 27, were opened to international producers for the first time in the event’s 12-year history.
Nil Desperandum also received gold medals for The Triple Six, Special, The Tropical Temptress and The Sherry Bomb.
Founder and Chief Imagineer Matt Hobson said the recognition was particularly meaningful because the Champion Australian Distiller title was based on a producer’s three highest-scoring entries.
“To win The Raymond ‘Spike’ Dessert III Trophy for Best Rum for the second time in three years, and to be named Champion Australian Distiller against such accomplished and loved competitors, is incredibly humbling,” Mr Hobson said.
“It’s not easy striving every day to make Australia’s Finest Rum, but we love doing it.”
The winning rums are made using Australian Certified Organic Queensland molasses, naturally wild fermented with Woombye water, dunder and muck, before being double pot distilled and aged in barrels at the Woombye distillery. Nothing is added following distillation.
Head Distiller Adam Chapman said the two trophies recognised both an individual rum and the quality of the broader range.
“The distiller trophy is judged across three rums and the rum trophy on one, so between them they cover everything we do,” Mr Chapman said.
“Wild ferment, organic Queensland molasses, nothing added after the barrel — that’s the whole method, and it held up.”
The latest accolades follow Nil Desperandum’s Best Pot Still Rum 5 Years and Under trophy at the World Rum Awards and consecutive Best Queensland Distillery titles in 2025 and 2026.
The award-winning rums are available online and from the Woombye distillery door, with the limited releases available while stocks last. Visit nildesperandum.com.au.
The Nil Desperandum team at the Woombye distillery.