The Foodies chat to Jeremy of The West Winds Gin

Did you know there is a Western Australian produced gin? Nope, neither did we! This is exciting stuff people! Based in wine region central in Margaret River where their seafaring ways have landed them, The West Winds Gin was started up by a few mates (as the best things always are… think Little Creatures). They’ve since scooped up some prestigious awards overseas, despite their short history, earning themselves an international reputation in the world of gin. So in true foodie style, as soon as Dave got a glimpse of the swish bottle designs, he’d ordered himself a glass of each and was already trying to chat up Jeremy from The West Winds Gin to find out more. Here’s what Jeremy had to say…

Salting the glass for a taste of The Cutlass by The West Winds Gin.

Tell us about West Winds, the crew behind it and how it all got started.

A friend from school who I play cricket with sat me down in secretive circumstances to elude to an amazing idea he had with a mate of his. After a significant build up, amidst clandestine surrounds, his great concept was to create… limoncello. To which I replied ‘sod off,’ of course after which he said perhaps gin was a second option. My reply was two-fold. ‘Now you’re talking but only if my large, kiwinese buddy can be involved.’ From there we tinkered for 6 months until we finally got serious and produced our 2 cracking little award winning libations.

Simple things first. Why Gin?

Why not? Firstly we love gin. Secondly it is such an open spirit as far as expressions go which allows us to utilise some amazing and unique Australian botanicals as well as some of the old favourites. On top of this, gin has really been in a renaissance period so the moons over the spirit world have aligned somewhat nicely.

Gin is a one trick pony! Do you agree?

Eau contraire! Being such a malleable spirit and whore to boot there is a drink for every occasion. How about the timeless Tom Collins, the bumbling Bramble, magnificent Martini and need we suggest Negroni? Gin can be used in most white spirit drinks… take the Southside which is really a gin mojito. Anything.

The names of your two gins are quite symbolic. What was the inspiration?

One of our platforms is seafaring, nautical behaviour. As The West Winds helped carry the sailors across the seas in search of riches from far-away places. You see we initially wanted to create a soft, entry level gin which tipped its hat to the styles of old London. Conservative and missionary position-esque, a London dry if you will, which isn’t made in London. We decided to call it The Sabre, the sword of the naval officers and English gentry. As many girls longed to be princesses when they grew up, we boys wanted to be pirates and so The Cutlass was born out a desire to rebel. Challenging the norm we were not going to be dictated to by fashion, fads, excise, history or other. Using native bush tomatoes we created a savoury gin which hadn’t really been seen before, which is The Cutlass. Aaaarrrrggghhhhhh.

The Sabre by The West Winds Gin.

The Cutlass by The West Winds Gin.

If you were a pirate, what name would you have?

Long Jez Silver due to my platinum highlights but my title is actually Rear Admiral. We also have a ship’s doctor, first mate, chief heavy petting officer and on the lookout for a cabin girl or boy.

You’re a parochial WA boy. Was Margaret River a natural choice for the distillery?

Yes, as three out of four of us misspent our youth down there chasing pretty girls, surfing and getting high. When ninety-odd-percent of your bottle is water we wanted a good source and story, and where better in WA than MR. The images it conjures of white capped surf, blue sea and green rolling hills was a natural choice.

What difference has your results at the San Francisco Spirit Show made?

For a small brand who had only been in the market for 3 weeks, taking out the top award for gin at the world’s most revered and notorious spirit competition was a major boost. The in-house gag is it cost us $1450 to freight and enter the comp and we had been paid a total of $1100 at the time so it was a solid business model. We knew it was good but never that good. People are like magpies, they love shiny shit right? Trophies indeed. It has certainly given us some credibility but there is a lot of work to do.

Is there going to be a repeat of the Dirty Harry Gin?

Damn right there is. Every year we will launch one or two limited runs from our series OHMSS – a collection of rare, random and rude releases. The Dirty Harry came about from Jason’s love of Tanqueray Export which sits 4% higher in abv than its little brother. This changes a G&T incredibly so we wanted to do something special for us and our loyal supporters so we loaded it into a 1.5 litre bottle (a magnum) and The Dirty Harry was born… 44 Magnum. We will follow up in November with The King of Hearts. The Sabre will be taken up to 52% and with The King of Hearts being the only one of the four playing card kings to have no moustache, we figured the synergies were perfect. We will donate a booty of cash to Movember keeping in with doing the right thing and penises.

The West Winds Gin Jez Spencer (left) and Jason Chan (right).

Who inspires you?

Lord Shackleton, Lita Ford, Henry the VIIIth, Ross Clarke Jones, Sonny Barger, Guy Fawkes, Tucker Max, Aretha Franklin, Noni Hazlehurst, William Burroughs, Sir Francis Drake, Hunter S Thompson and Mal Brown.

What’s next for West Winds?

Global domination followed by a couple of cheeky lunchtime G&Ts. Remember all good pirates keep their powder dry!

Where can we get some?

Clarence’s, The Classroom, Ezra Pound, Steve’s Nedlands, Old Bridge Cellars, Windsor or check our website . Jez.

We’re still amazed that WA makes such a mighty fine gin. To find out more, head over to their website: thewestwindsgin.com

Images courtesy of Jez of The West Winds Gin.

LINK: The Foodies chat to Jeremy of The West Winds Gin