Gin: West Winds, Four Pillars, Poor Toms, Applewood and other local distillers raise the bar

17-Aug-2015 THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 15, 2015 12:00AM

 Max Allen

 Wine Columnist

 Melbourne

 

 Jeremy Spencer from West Winds: ‘When we started out, nobody wanted to know about Australian gin.’ Picture: Aaron Francis Source: News Corp Australia

 Craft gin distiller Cameron MacKenzie is showing off his pride and joy: a 450-litre pot still nicknamed Wilma, a gleaming vision of polished copper and stainless steel pipes in which he produces his award-winning Four Pillars gin. We’re standing in a big shed in Healesville in Victoria’s Yarra Valley wine region. At this stage it’s more of a building site: tradies are busy wiring, polishing and hammering away to get the new venue ready for its public opening this month. Two more stills are on the way from the manufacturer in Germany to join Wilma here on the production line, and an impressive sales area and bar will allow visitors to taste and buy the ever-expanding range of products.

  Welcome to the booming, dynamic world of Australian craft gin: as recently as five years ago, no one would have dreamed of investing this much money and effort into a gin distillery but, almost overnight, Australians have developed an insatiable thirst for gin and producers are struggling to keep up with demand.

  “When we started developing Four Pillars back in 2011, the only other Australian craft gin on the shelves was West Winds, which had just started up in WA,” says MacKenzie. “Now there are about 40 craft gin distillers around the country, and I reckon there’ll be 50 by Christmas. It’s incredible how fast it’s grown.”

  In fact, gin consumption in Australia has increased by 36 per cent in the past five years, recent research by Roy Morgan shows, while consumption of other white spirits such as vodka and tequila stagnated or declined. At this rate, gin looks set to overtake vodka as our favourite white spirit by 2020.

  Pop-up events celebrating gin are, well, popping up all over the place, from the short-lived but lavish Bombay Sapphire-sponsored Project Botanicals bar to the low-key gin-making masterclasses run by small local distillery Bass & Flinders, and various events in venues around the country on World Gin Day in June.

  Local bars and restaurants are wallowing in the extraordinary number of local gins suddenly available: indeed, there is so much choice that one bar, the excellent Bad Frankie in Melbourne’s Fitzroy, serves only locally made examples — dozens of them, with not a single bottle of Tanqueray or Gordon’s in sight.

  Importantly, a lot of new Australian gin makers are actively engaging with their customers directly, in the flesh at distillery bars such as the one at the new Archie Rose Distilling Co in the inner Sydney suburb of Rosebery, and through social media. When Four Pillars launched on crowd-funding site Pozible in 2013 it was three times oversubscribed; when new Sydney distillery Poor Toms turned to Pozible in June this year, it was looking for $20,000 and received almost $70,000.

  People are falling over themselves to spend money on gin. When brand new ultra-boutique Adelaide Hills distillery Applewood released its first commercial batch of $75 gin a couple of weeks ago, it sold all 60 bottles in just two days. And it’s not just the product that’s in demand, but also the experience. At the Top Shelf drinks show in Melbourne last weekend, people lined up to give Tasmanian distiller William McHenry $120 for a hands-on, hourlong, gin-making masterclass.

  “When we started out, nobody wanted to know about Australian gin,” says West Winds co-founder Jeremy Spencer. “Now people want to know everything about us. They are hungry for information.”

  “The boom is being driven by gen Y,” says Kathleen Davies, founder of Australian craft spirit distributor Nip of Courage. “They’re the ones who are most curious — they want to know who’s making their gin and what botanicals they’re using. People are constantly asking us on social media: why did so-and-so use that certain botanical? What do you match it up with? What’s the best way to drink it?”

  One of the great things about Australian gin makers is how many of them are exploring indigenous ingredients. The botanicals (the spices, herbs, fruits and roots that give the spirit its distinctive character during the distillation process) used in old-world gins such as London dry are traditionally juniper (essential if the spirit is to be called gin) and the likes of coriander, star anise and ­orange.

  Here on the other side of the world, innovative distillers are replacing those ingredients with lemon myrtle, wattle seed, finger limes and more — even bush tomatoes and a splash of Margaret River sea water in the top gins from West Winds — to create, as Spencer says, “a drink that tastes like Australia”.

  What excites Four Pillars’ MacKenzie the most is the infinite permutations of flavour possibilities afforded the gin maker. One of his new stills arriving from Germany is small, at only 50-litre capacity, but this will allow him to do one-off bottlings in collaboration with chefs and bartenders. “There’s a lot of blue sky there,” he says, grinning. “There are so many botanicals, and so many potential new styles.”

  There is also the potential, he says, for uniquely Australian gins to do well overseas: the gin boom is even bigger in the US, for example, than it is here.

  West Winds exports to 12 countries, Four Pillars is on sale in Britain and Ireland, and later this year MacKenzie is travelling to Madrid to produce a collaborative gin with a craft distillery there. “There are some amazing opportunities,” he says. “I think Australia could be super creative in this space.”

  Behind the distillery door

  Most of Australia’s craft distillers like to hide in their sheds with their stills and their test tubes and their barrels. But, luckily for us, a few are happy to open their doors to thirsty visitors.

  Sydneysiders are blessed with two good urban gin makers: popular Newtown craft brewery Young Henrys (younghenrys.com) has recently turned to distilling, producing a punchy, powerful gin called Noble Cut, available through the rather laid-back on-site tasting bar at the brewery; and earlier this year the Archie Rose Distilling Co (archierose.com.au) opened the doors to its ambitious Rosebery venue, incorporating a cocktail bar and regular tours.

  For Melburnians, a visit to a distillery also means a day out in wine country. The paint and polish are still drying on the brand new home of Four Pillars Gin (fourpillarsgin.com.au) in Healesville in the Yarra Valley: as well as watching the distillers at work, visitors can enjoy a cellar door and bar experience and try rare small-batch bottlings such as the superb Spiced Negroni Gin (produced for Sydney’s Keystone Group of bars and restaurants), and an amazing, deep purple shiraz-infused gin made using local grapes.

  Bass & Flinders Distillery (bassandflindersdistillery.com) at Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula produces very good spirits (I really like its unusual, ginger-infused Monsoon Gin), and runs two-hour gin masterclasses for $140 a person — which includes a bottle of your unique gin to take home. Some of Australia’s best distilleries are more remote, though: gin lovers in far north Queensland should visit Mount Uncle Distillery (mtuncle.com) near Walkamin, an hour’s drive from Cairns and Port Douglas: as well as the excellent Botanic Australis reviewed above, Mark Watkins produces other spirits including the unforgettably named Big Black Cock whiskey.

  South Australian gin lovers should hop on the ferry to Kangaroo Island to visit the KIS (kispirits.com.au) distillery and cellar door at Cygnet River; taste gins such as the O (reviewed above), and seasonal small-batch bottlings such as Mulberry Gin.

  And any visit to Cradle Mountain in Tasmania should include a stop at the nearby Wilmot Hills Winery and Distillery (wilmothills.com) where the fastidious John Cole produces small batches of good Motorcycle Gin as well as fine cider and terrific apple brandy.

  Where to drink gin

  Melbourne is home to one of the oldest and one of the newest must-visit bars for gin lovers. The Gin Palace (ginpalace.com.au), just off Little Collins Street in the CBD, celebrates 18 years of martini-slinging this year — “Can you believe it?” says flamboyant founder Vernon Chalker. “My baby has finally reached legal drinking age!” — while newcomer Bad Frankie (badfrankie.com), just off Smith Street in Fitzroy, offers an extraordinary selection of all-Australian spirits: try the eye-opening $25 tasting flight of five local gins selected for you by owner Seb Costello.

  Award-winning Sydney bar The Barber Shop (thisisthebarbershop.com) in York Street in the heart of the city takes its gin extremely seriously: there are more than 60 on offer from around the world, including gin on tap, a range of Dutch genevers (the historical precursors to modern gin), and vintage gins from the 1960s and 70s.

  One of the best ranges of gin anywhere can be found behind the bar at The Salopian Inn (salopian.com.au) restaurant in McLaren Vale, South Australia. About 180 gins from Australia and around the world line the shelves, and self-described “innkeeper” Michael Armstrong is particularly adept at turning them into flavour-packed mixed drinks.

  Aussie gins to try (prices per 700ml bottle)

  William McHenry Classic Dry Gin, Tasmania $70: Bill McHenry is fast building a reputation as one of Australia’s best craft distillers: this is an exquisitely pure, delicate and harmonious gin that shines in a well-made martini. His Navy Strength Gin ($99) and Sloe Gin ($99) are also benchmarks. mchenrydistillery.com.au

  West Winds The Broadside,Western Australia $120: I really like the punchy flavours and sense of bravado in all West Winds gins — the zestiness of The Sabre ($55), the richness of The Cutlass ($75) — but this strong (58 per cent alcohol) addition to the range, made with the highly unusual inclusion of sea parsley and a dash of sea water, is a cracker. thewestwindsgin.com

  Mt Uncle Distillery Botanic Australis, Queensland $80: The use of 14 indigenous botanicals — including lemon-scented gum, river mint, wattle seed — make this one of Australia’s most distinctive gins. It’s a bold, unforgettable wall-of-sound tasting experience, and makes a fabulous, roller-coaster ride of a martini. mtuncle.com

  Archie Rose Signature Dry Gin, NSW $75: This fine gin from new kid on the block Archie Rose is all about juniper. There are also soft hints of Australian botanicals in here — Dorrigo pepperleaf, lemon myrtle, blood lime — but the main flavour driver is the distinctive, slightly resinous classic aroma of the traditional juniper berry. archierose.com.au

  Melbourne Gin Company Dry Gin, Victoria $70: Winemaker and now distiller Andrew Marks distils each of the nine botanicals (juniper, sandalwood, rosemary, orris root and so on) for his gin separately, then blends them like a perfume maker would to produce a complex, quite savoury, elegant style of gin. melbournegincompany.com

  Kangaroo Island Spirits O Gin, South Australia $75: This is not only a uniquely Australian gin, it’s also unique to Kangaroo Island: the “O” refers to the local coastal daisybush olearia axillaris, used as one of the botanicals in the distillation. It’s a refreshing, slightly saline spirit that makes a beautiful gin and tonic. kispirits.com.au

  Also recommended:

  Moore’s Vintage Dry Gin, Distillery Botanica, NSW, distillerybotanica.com

  Dobson’s New England Dry Gin, Eastview Estate, NSW, eastviewestate.com

  Copperwave Gin, Hunter Distillery, NSW, hunterdistillery.com.au

  Stone Pine Dry Gin, Stone Pine Distillery, NSW, stonepinedistillery.com.au

  Lilly Pilly Gin, Tamborine Mountain Distillery, Queensland, tamborinemountaindistillery.com

  Settlers Rare Gin, McLaren Vale Distilling Co, South Australia, mclarenvaledistillingcompany.com.au

  Forty Spotted Rare Tasmanian Gin, Lark Distillery, Tasmania, larkdistillery.com.au

  Oxford Scholar Gin, Bakery Hill, Victoria, bakeryhilldistillery.com.au

LINK: Gin: West Winds, Four Pillars, Poor Toms, Applewood and other local distillers raise the bar

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