5 new-school distilleries that are redefining gin

Travel, food and drink blogger Kirsty Le Juge uses her olfactory flare to follow the scent of Australia’s new breed of gin producers. These 5 regional distilleries are taking Aussie gin to a whole other level.

There’s an indisputable truth that few things go together as well as gin, vermouth and Campari to create something as perfectly delicious as a Negroni.

Perhaps this versatility is partly to blame for gin’s reputation as a spirit often exclusively reserved for mixing in cocktails.

Nowadays, the rules are changing. Here are five Australian distilleries taking their gin game to the next level and proving that the only thing you need to enjoy this tipple is a glass. And even that part’s optional!

1. Loch Brewery and Distillery, Loch, South Gippsland

Tucked away in the quaint town of Loch, amongst rolling hills peppered with grazing cows in beautiful South Gippsland, you’ll find Loch Brewery and Distillery.

Housed on the main street, Victoria Road, inside a former bank built in the 1800s, owners Craig and Mel Davies are busily taking advantage of local botanicals to produce high quality, small-batch gin.

Craig had a superlative teacher – Bill Lark from Lark Distillery, to be specific – and he and Mel now produce three varieties themselves.

As much as possible, ingredients are sourced from a farm just up the road. A quick poke around in the botanicals room reveals a host of poetically named ingredients – strawberry gum and lemon myrtle, to name a couple.

Add some juniper to the mix and you’ve got, from weakest to strongest, a Gin Liqueur, a Classic Dry Gin and The Weaver (50 per cent).

Drop by for a tasting and a chat up at the bar, and learn about the beer they brew and the whisky that’s on the way too. The beautiful setting, combined with two friendly hosts and, of course, the high quality gin, make this the perfect day trip from Melbourne.

Better yet, make a weekend of it; the Kernot Food and Wine Store is the place to be on a Saturday night, but that’s a whole other story…

2. Four Pillars Gin, Healesville, Yarra Valley

In keeping with the theme of ideal getaways from Melbourne, may we suggest Healesville in the Yarra Valley? If you do heed this advice, and find yourself in Healesville, then you should promptly make tracks to Four Pillars distillery

Cam Mackenzie heads up operations here; he’s quite a superstar in the world of gin. With 10 trademark botanicals, including cardamom, lavender and star anise, you can’t go past favourites like Navy Strength and Rare Dry Gin.

But Four Pillars is as renowned for its limited-edition bottles as it is its standard range, and this experimental nature is a big part of the success.

For example, the Australian Christmas Gin was created by adding actual Christmas puddings during the distillation process, which took place in Rutherglen Muscat aged barrels. Apparently you can have your gin cake and eat it, too.

Or perhaps you fancy the deep purple colour and sweet flavour of the Bloody Shiraz Gin, made by steeping Yarra Valley shiraz grapes with gin.

An afternoon well spent includes dropping by the distillery for a glance at Wilma, the copper still named after Cam’s mum, while sampling the fruits of her labour.

Need tips, more detail or itinerary ideas tailored to you? Ask AT.

3. The West Winds Gin, Margaret River

It’s hard to imagine anything less than amazing coming out of Margaret River, and Australia’s most awarded gin is no exception.

The tipple in question is none other than The West Wind’s The Cutlass, just one of the uniquely Aussie offerings in this family of five gins, including The Barrel Expedition Gin. Aged in vermouth barrels in collaboration with Australian vermouth producers Maidenii, this is the first of a series of barrel-aged expressions.

Mixing juniper alongside flavours like Australian bush tomato and lemon myrtle, it’s these unique elements that have seen the company do our humble island proud.

It all started in 2010, in the style of ‘four guys walk into a bar…’ the punch line being that they left with a goal of producing “damn fine gin".

The very next year West Winds went on to win double gold and gold awards with its first two (damn fine) offerings at the 2011 San Francisco International Spirits Competition.

It didn’t stop there, either: these guys haven’t really stopped kicking award goals since then.

4. Distillery Botanica, Erina, NSW Central Coast

Here’s one for Google dictionary: enfleurage. This fancy French word describes the NSW Central Coast-based Distillery Botanica’s process of extracting the purest fragrances from its ‘hero botanical,’ Murraya (a flowering citrus plant with white flowers, it smells like orange blossom).

The process involves using a fat-based medium, in this case coconut oil, to absorb the citrus aroma of the white flower without heat. The aim is to capture the garden-grown ingredients as purely as possible, so that the jasmine, honeysuckle and orange blossom speak for themselves.

Distillery Botanica’s Garden Grown Gin is what you get when a horticulturist/herbalist turns his green thumb to distilling.

After growing and sourcing the botanicals, Philip Moore hand blends each of the distillations to create a couple of different gin varieties along with liqueurs and even candles. So pure it’s basically like doing yoga, right?

Weekly travel news, experiences
insider tips, offers, and more.

5. Shene Estate & Distillery, Pontville, Tasmania

We’re well aware that Tassie’s at the forefront of all things food and drink, including the swelling gin scene at Shene Estate & Distillery.

At the ripe old age of 197, the estate’s well and truly still got it. Steeped in all the culture and stories of a life well-lived, this grand and iconic building originally served as early colonialist Gamaliel Butler’s country residence and even has links with King George III.

Owners (since 2007) the Kernke family, are painstakingly passionate about the preservation and sharing of the estate’s heritage and began producing gin within its walls in 2015

If atmosphere alone isn’t enough for you, then rest assured that the San Francisco World Spirits Competition made no mistakes in 2016 when they awarded gold and silver medals to both entries from Shene.

Master distiller Damian Mackey, of Mackey Whisky fame, brought his unique brand of knowledge and experience gained under the wing of Bill Lark to the old hayshed at Shene. The result is two varieties of Poltergeist Gin: A True Spirit and Unfiltered.

Your best bet is to heed the advice of Shene and enjoy it with fine company, gossip and in the dead of night.

Why stop now?

> Follow Kirsty Le Juge and Denver Cramer in their search for the “cool shiz" in food and drink at Whisky & Peanuts

> Let’s meet Sydney’s Gin King

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star, is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.