Well…if you are not drinking Gin, especially Gin from a boutique Australian distillery, you are seriously out of the loop. The current trend is Boutique Australian Gin, which can only be drunk with boutique flavoured tonic water and other forms of very special mixers made only for gin.
My husband and I were enjoying a gin from Western Australia recently, with…yes, a very groovy specially brewed tonic and noticed “London Dry’ on the label. Why would an Australian gin have London Dry on the label? London Dry is simply a category of gin. Contrary to what the name suggests, it does not have to be produced in London.
TYPES OF GIN
Basically, there are three categories of gin. London Dry (the best), Distilled Gin (the middle) and compound gins (the…I will find that on the bottom shelf of my local bottleo). Compound gin is basically flavoured vodka – Distilled gins can have flavouring added after distillation and London Dry gins cannot have any flavourings added (except for a tiny amount of sugar) after the distillation process. You could say London Dry is gin in its purest form.
Flavourings are what we refer to as Botanicals, which is anything that grows out of the ground and what gin is essentially about, apart from the juniper berries of course. Gin is a neutral spirit, flavoured predominately with juniper berries and various seeds, roots, herbs, fruits, and berries. Distillers are pushing the boundaries with botanicals these days and Australia is leading the charge.
WORLD CLASS AUSSIE GIN
Australian gin seems to be on everyone’s lips now and we are producing world class Gin. In 2013 there were 10 domestic gins on the market. Now there would be more than 700. I do not want to play favourites and I have not tried every one of the 700, but I am very partial to Archie Rose Signature Dry Gin or Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin. However, if you have not had the pleasure of tasting the North QLD Gin from Wolf Lane Distillery you are missing out.
I stopped into Shaw & Co this week and was recommended the Wolf Lane Tropical Gin. It was served to the table in a beautiful glass, with plenty of ice and was delicious. The ice is important, trust me.
So next time you are ordering Gin ask for an Aussie Gin with bottled tonic add plenty of ice.
