Go West

A gin is a gin is a gin, right? Wrong!

Gin is based on grape or grain alcohol and although most gins are based on the heavy use of juniper and use roughly the same base aromatics, usually citrus peel, coriander seeds, cinnamon, nutmeg, angelica and cardamom, some use slightly more esoteric additions, like in the case of Cadenhead's Old Raj, saffron.

The exact combination of aromatics is usually a closely guarded distillery secret but when James Clark and Paul 'the doctor' White got together with distiller Jeremy Spencer and barman extraordinaire Jason Chan, they came up with a couple of gins that were based on Australian aromatics.

Australian flavours for a world-wide audience of spirit drinkers was a bold project but it paid off very quickly with wins at the 2011 San Francisco International Spirits Competition, that placed The West Winds Gin at the head of an emerging group of artisanal distillers from across both the Old and New Worlds.

They set up their distillery in Gidgegannup, Western Australia, which is in the hills and only a 45 minutes drive from Perth. They are using a Arnold Holstein Batch Reflux Still to create the two West Winds gins, one batch at a time, and it's a wonderfully clean spirit that really features the Australian aromatics, mainly lemon myrtle and wattle seeds in The Sabre (A$56) and cinnamon, myrtle, lemon myrtle and bush tomatoes in The Cutlass (A$76).

The Sabre is 40 per cent alcohol, which is where most gins' alcohol levels sit but The Cutlass is bottled at 50 per cent and brings with it a creamy, potent mouthfeel that is unique in the gin world. The Sabre is a wonderful gin to use in cocktails or a simple gin and tonic. The Cutlass deserves more exposure to your palate and needs to be savoured on the rocks, or maybe in a Cutlass-heavy martini.

For more details visit www.thewestwindsgin.com. To buy www.mywinestore.com.au or Nicks Wine Merchants in Melbourne, www.nicks.com.au.

LINK: Go West