Islay is one of the famed homes of Scotland's most famous whisky distilleries, off the Scottish mainland's south-western coast - where daylight lasts from 10.30am to 2.30pm.

But for Neil and Dean Druce, visitng Islay was more about research with the licorice kings taking time to learn more about the ancient art of making liquid gold.

"They had no secrets, we worked with them, made the mash, separate the wash and distilled the spirit," Neil Druce said.

Wash is a by-product created in the distilling process - effectively it's beer without bubbles.

"The saying is bad beer makes good whisky ... some of their beers taste like wash," Mr Druce said.

The research is an important part of setting up the Corowa Whisky and Chocolate Factory as it will eventually host its own distillery.

Eight master distillers from Kilchoman to Laphroaig helped the Druces understand the secrets to creating great whisky.

"They don't share information generally with each other, but because we're setting up a distillery in Australia, they thought it was novel so they've helped us out a lot," Mr Druce said.

While each whisky has its own characteristics in brewing, Mr Druce said the craftsmen all agreed one thing - the speed.

"The secret is to go slowly," he said.

"A lot of them have been doing (distilling) a long time and they don't necessarily have an excitable passion.

"They're passionate about making a great product and doing it right however," Mr Druce said.

Mr Druce said the growth in the whisky market had left still builders with more work then they can handle with several Scottish builders not taking new orders until 2016.

He said the plan was to begin distributing imported whiskys before developing an organic single-malt whisky which would be sold at both Corowa and Junee chocolate factories.