The Auswine Forum

Lets start the ball rolling on spirits forum then
With new distillers starting in Australia and gin being quicker to market than brown spirits, there are now quite a lot on the market. What are people liking?
I have 2 Australian gins open at home at the moment - the Loch gin (which reminds me of musk sticks) and the Kangaroo Island O gin, which tends towards a drier style and uses a type of native rosemary that, as I understand it, is unique to Kangaroo Island. The O gin is probably my favorite gin at the moment.

Nice to see Gin getting the first post. I expected Whisky to take that title.

For Australian Gins it is hard to go past the Tambourine Mountain Distillery's Lilly Pilly Gin, I would be willing to say that this is the most interesting Australian made Gin and has been for some time. Quite popular in the Brisbane bars, works great in a Martini that pops up on a few menus here (Lilly Pilly Gin, Lillet Blanc and Cucumber).

In terms of pure quality though the guys at West Winds Gin have done some amazing thing with the Sabre and the Cutlass. The Sabre works well with any Citrus based Gin recipes and screams for Campari while the Cutlass stands pretty strongly on its own, fairly peppery compared to other Australian Gins I have sampled.

There are another 10 or so Australian Gins that are floating around that I have found to be quality but these 3 used to jump to mind when a customer or fellow bartender would ask me to recommend an Australian Gin.

Haven't managed to get my hands on it yet, but apparently Dobson's is pretty good.

Unfortunately Australia is not in my good books with gin, we water down the main stream stuff and charge an astronomical price for full strength foreign gins or foreign small batch boutique gins. At prices approaching single malt whiskey, for a process that involves no barrel aging or storage, hell if you are unhappy with the final product just run it through the still again.

Tonic is another issue altogether, not much in the way of quality at anything less than an extortionate price. I have resorted to making my own, which I might add is both fun and tailorable to your taste or even a specific gin.

West winds, MGC and 4 pillars have been my go to gins for the last few years. Have to agree that the local stuff does carry a premium.

I have taken to either using a tonic cordial from a local market (not making my own yet but great idea) and mixing far more soda or mineral water. I find most tonic far too sweet, so much so to hide the gin flavour.

In the warm weather I also make up a batch of cucumber sorbet that I have with a gin that takes a savoury garnish.

Here in Adelaide we have a new local producer - Ounce Gin. Bought some for my wife as she is a gin junkie.

Exy, as they all are, but even as a non-gin drinker, I loved the aroma.

-- George Krashos

I like Moore's VIntage Dry Gin produced by Distillery Botanica. It's called Vintage for reason: the distiller experiments with recipes and every year (vintage) his gin is different. One that I bought a couple of years ago in a round bottle had a savoury taste and was great in Gin Martini with Extra Dry Martini Vermouth. They seem to complement each other perfectly.

The latest bottle was square and had a completely different taste - fruity, citrusy. That one was better with Extra Dry Cinzano Vermouth and I expect it to blend well with Noilly Prat.

BTW, any advice on a good place (in terms of variety) to buy vermouths in Sydney? My local Dan Murphy's has a pretty limited selection.

Vlad wrote:I like Moore's VIntage Dry Gin produced by Distillery Botanica. It's called Vintage for reason: the distiller experiments with recipes and every year (vintage) his gin is different. One that I bought a couple of years ago in a round bottle had a savoury taste and was great in Gin Martini with Extra Dry Martini Vermouth. They seem to complement each other perfectly.

The latest bottle was square and had a completely different taste - fruity, citrusy. That one was better with Extra Dry Cinzano Vermouth and I expect it to blend well with Noilly Prat.

BTW, any advice on a good place (in terms of variety) to buy vermouths in Sydney? My local Dan Murphy's has a pretty limited selection.

This website has a good range, especially of bitters but also has a few vermouth options... unfortunately not cheap

http://www.onlybitters.com/

This one (Carpano Antico Formula Vermouth 375ml) is my absolute favourite for a Negroni or Manhattan

George Krashos wrote:Here in Adelaide we have a new local producer - Ounce Gin. Bought some for my wife as she is a gin junkie.

Exy, as they all are, but even as a non-gin drinker, I loved the aroma.

-- George Krashos

Hey George,

Just thought you would like to know that I am organising a Gin and Wine tasting at the Ounce distillery this weekend. I posted here in the other message board:
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16336

I am quite a fan of the Forty Spotted Gin from Tasmania - the addition of pepperberry gives it a pretty unique twist. Fantastic as both a G&T or Negroni.

markg wrote:

George Krashos wrote:Here in Adelaide we have a new local producer - Ounce Gin. Bought some for my wife as she is a gin junkie.

Exy, as they all are, but even as a non-gin drinker, I loved the aroma.

-- George Krashos

Hey George,

Just thought you would like to know that I am organising a Gin and Wine tasting at the Ounce distillery this weekend. I posted here in the other message board:
http://forum.auswine.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=16336

Unfortunately already have plans for Saturday evening, but love the concept. Will be happy to participate in anything else that pops up.

Cheers.