You may be thinking with the recently released Matrix sequel that Rachel and Hamish named NEO gin after Keanu Reeves’ famous character. In fact the story is somewhat more convoluted. Back in 2019 Reed & Co. released the first distillation of this gin under their Spirit Lab label and called in NE 07. NE represented their location in N.E. Victoria and 07 came from the 7 botanicals featured in the recipe. The way the name sat on the bottle had customers calling it Neo, so the team ran with it and rebranded it NEO for it’s next release. Neo means new and this is very much a new world gin, so ..read more

As the winner of Best in Show at this year’s Australian Gin Awards, you should expect Three Cuts Distiller’s Release to be a cracking gin, and it is. It’s full of flavour, the right amount of juniper and a bold, balanced profile that means it’s versatile in drink choices. Justin at Turner Stillhouse explained a few of the key things that make it the gin it is. Firstly, was the choice of still. T.S. employ a 500l iStill from Europe, a high tech, all stainless steel, automated still. Having spent time on one in the US, Justin was impressed with the bold flavours he could extract from his botani ..read more

While some gins come together fairly easily, our conversations with distillers show that great gins like the Rainforest Gin, take more than a little work. In fact this one took around 38 distillations to get right. With the experimentation Mark wanted to do on both botanicals and the distillation processes, this isn’t’ entirely surprising. If we’re to simplify a fascinating part of our conversation with Mark on his distillation process, it might go something like this: Some distillers use a ‘one shot’ distillation method, others might use vapour infusion methods, while still others might comb ..read more

There’s an understanding in business that times of strong adversity can result in spikes in innovation and creativity. It seems we’re lucky to see this happening in the gin industry. Several of our gins over the past couple of years were born in lockdowns and our latest is no exception. We spoke to Mark, 1/3 of the trio behind Devils Thumb Distillery about their Rainforest Gin and all things distilling in Port Douglas. While the idea of a distillery had been on the cards for some time, it was primarily with the view towards producing rum. Not such a surprise being base in Far North Queensland ..read more

There’s a couple other gins Noosa gin reminded us of, in a very good way. Completely different flavours involved, but featuring the same care, balance and complexity in their creation. It’s not always something you associate with gins in a ‘summer’ style, but Poor Toms, Wolf Lane and now Noosa gin for us are super examples. In Noosa’s case the botanical mix includes juniper – Queensland sugarcane – coriander seeds – hibiscus petals – cassia bark – green mango and valencia orange. It’s safe to assume, like us, you may have seen orange on that list and expect a big citrussy orange gin. It’s abs ..read more

January’s gin of the month, Noosa Gin, comes to us straight from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The gin is one of the headline acts for local distillery Noosa Heads Distillery. You’ll no doubt see its distinctive label popping up in many more bars and bottle shops soon. The man behind the gin itself is Jackson Boyd, a chef by training. We’ve said it before and will again, chefs bring an incredible skill set to gin, that’s resulted in some of our all time favourites. The knowledge of bringing flavours together in a balanced way is ultimately what great gins are about. Ester and Reed and Co are j ..read more

As the winner of Best in Show at this year’s Australian Gin Awards, you should expect Three Cuts Distiller’s Release to be a cracking gin, and it is. It’s full of flavour, the right amount of juniper and a bold, balanced profile that means it’s versatile in drink choices. Justin at Turner Stillhouse explained a few of the key things that make it the gin it is. Firstly, was the choice of still. T.S. employ a 500l iStill from Europe, a high tech, all stainless steel, automated still. Having spent time on one in the US, Justin was impressed with the bold flavours he could extract from his botani ..read more

Turner Stillhouse is consciously treading a path of their own in the Tasmanian distilling scene. At the helm is Justin Turner a Californian native, now transplanted to the Apple Isle where we’re fortunate to have him! Justin grew up in Northern California near the famous wine country of Napa Valley. Growing up his playground was a winery, so no surprise perhaps that he’s ended up in the broader industry. While a distillery has been a long-term goal for Justin, neither gin, nor Tasmania featured in that planning until fairly recently. While he expected a stay in corporate finance to be relativ ..read more

Ok, we’re not going to lie, the end of 2021 is lining up to showcase some of our finest gins yet! This year we came across some absolute stunners, so we’re going to finish things in style. We need it after a horror year, right?? Our last three gins of the year all came away with gold medals at the 2021 Australian Gin Awards. Better yet, two of them won best in class and the final gin of the year was named Best in Show at the same awards. We’re not ready to reveal it just yet, but some sleuthing on your part will give you a sneak peak into our final gin of 2021. We digress though, so back to o ..read more

Darling Distillery is the project of three mates, Ben, Karlos and Sean. It’s situated inside the historic 130 year old Royal Hotel in Melbourne’s inner suburb of Clifton Hill. The hotel was owned and operated by Karlos’ family since 1988. In recent years however they took the tough decision to close the hotel for health and family reasons. Not wanting to see the space empty for too long, Karlos and Sean began with revamping the bottle shop next door. They shifted their focus to more locally produced spirits and beers, which undoubtedly got the creative juices flowing. More recently the pair w ..read more