That's the spirit: Distiller builds on global glow-up

An Illawarra distilling company is looking to further cement its international reputation after receiving some of the industry’s most prestigious global awards. 

Headlands Distilling Co was named runner-up for best Australian single malt whisky in the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, an award in recognition of their world-first Illawarra Plum cask whisky.

The company has been adding to its collection of awards including best Australian sloe gin at the 2023 World Gin Awards for an Illawarra Plum-infused gin, the first of its kind, and plans to release an alcohol-free gin this year.

Headlands Distilling Co is also active in the charity space. The company helped to raise more than $80,000 at a major fundraising event last year for SpinalCure, an Australian non-profit organisation which funds spinal cord injury research. 

The company has a deep personal connection with that cause: Dean Martelozzo, one of the company’s founders, is a paraplegic.

“I’m Wollongong born and raised," Dean said. "I completed high school and university here in the Gong and then after graduating [in 2011], I got myself a one-way ticket to Europe to go and live the backpackers’ dream. 

“I started off with a season snowboarding in the French alps, but I had an accident in the terrain park. I had a severe traumatic brain injury and a spinal cord injury that resulted in paraplegia. 

“After leaving hospital when I arrived home, I went back to university and did a master of business administration before moving into the world of financial analytics. I simultaneously started Headlands and have built that into the company we have today.

“We’re relatively unique in the distilling scene in that we actually make our spirit from scratch.”

Dean, who works full-time at an investment bank in Sydney as well as being one of the founders of the Headlands operation, says his involvement with SpinalCure as a community ambassador “is not quite as extensive as I’d like it to be” due to work commitments. 

“Fortunately, I’m part of a group, and given the large variance of spinal cord injuries, we all face different challenges and have unique experiences to share. 

“My key role is to represent the charity, to raise awareness and advocate the research and funding.”

For Dean, inspiration for Headlands Distilling Co was sparked in an appropriate scenario: “on a sunny Sunday afternoon over a couple of drinks with some mates”.

“Conversation went around to what we were drinking, how it was made, and the fact that if we put the skills we’d gained at UOW together, we could start our own company and create something special. 

“We’ve always been motivated to offer unique products that the world has never seen. We’ve created a gin that exclusively uses native Australian botanicals (including the native Australian juniper berry), and another gin that really represents the flavour of Wollongong.”

The company pivoted during the Covid years.

“We're in control, we’re able to make the decisions," Dean said. "We can be nimble when we do make the decisions and we can act relatively quickly, which when Covid came around, that was evidence of that. 

“We were actually one of the first distillers in Australia to release a hand sanitiser. 

“We'd already been thinking about doing a sanitiser [before Covid] with our off-cuts prior to that … because when we're going through fermentation and then distillation process, we have things like methanol and some other alcohols as off-cuts. 

“Then when Covid came around and we started hearing all the stuff on the news and we were like ‘Maybe this is time to pull the trigger and that's our sanitiser’ and we named it ‘single malt hand sanitiser’, sort of a little inside joke at the time because it was literally just about to go into a whiskey barrel.”

Dean says he faces myriad challenges day to day.

“Some challenges are small like needing help getting a round of drinks back to the table. That’s an easy one to overcome because there is almost always someone kind enough to offer their help, but for me, the harder challenges are the mental ones that I must face alone.

"One of these challenges is the obvious one: going from a life of infinite possibility as a 20-year-old backpacking around Europe to being confined to a wheelchair with an uncertain future ahead.

“I try to be objective and apply a “sunk cost” mentality where what’s done is done, where every decision you make should be based on your current position and the opportunities available to build the best future possible. 

“At risk of being too blunt, I can’t change the past so I just try to make each day better than the last.”

Dean remains grateful to those who have helped him and continue to help him.

“The obvious one here is my family. Without their love and support, I would never have achieved as much as I have or be able to live the life that I do. They have sacrificed more than I will ever know in order to give me every possible opportunity and continue to chase my dreams. 

“The group of friends that I have built has been there to carry me across the sand and throw me into the surf, to push me up the hills so I can explore ancient cities in Spain or being there to share a drink and remember it all with afterwards.

“They are always there to help me break down barriers and live life to the fullest, while my girlfriend is always there to bring me back down to earth and keep that ego in check.

“Then you’ve got the people that don’t even know how much they have been able to help. The ones that introduce me to their contacts so I can build the business, the ones access a new group while raising money for SpinalCure, the ones that donate to the cause... Sometimes the most valuable help doesn’t cost anything, so the lesson that I’ve learned is to reciprocate where I can."

Dean says highlights of his Headlands experience so far include the company’s humble beginnings.

“From attending our first farmers’ market in Wollongong and selling out on our first try, to the all-nighters during Covid, fermenting and distilling as Wollongong’s only manufacturer of ethanol for the hand sanitiser, to releasing the world’s first Illawarra Plum cask whisky and then having it be runner-up for best Australian single malt whisky.

“It’s been a wild ride. 

“We’ve achieved a lot, but I’m most excited about the things that we’re still going to achieve in the future.”

It’s a deep passion for Headlands products that drives him, Dean says.

“When I'm on the train up to the city at 6am [for his full-time job] I’m on my laptop doing work and it’s the same thing when I get home, but it's something that comes down to that passion – it's pure passion.

“We're really passionate about what we do and we have customers that come to the distillery – and customers that have been buying from us from for years – and when they come in you can sense that they're almost proud when they, when they turn up with their friend who’s visiting from another area to do a tour and hear about how we make it and to taste all the new products that we're making.

“They love it – and then that very much gives us energy as well.

“I’m proud of what we're doing and just very keen to get it out to the world.”