I began 2017 by moving from easily the most distillery
dense state in Australia, Tasmania, to easily the most public servant dense,
the Australian Capital Territory. Canberra and the ACT in general is highly
regarded for wine production with some of Australia’s best wineries are located
nearby, but what about distilled spirits? I enlisted the help of local
entrepreneur and founder of Local Spirit tours, Ben Osborne to take me and my
friends on one of his Luxury Distillery Tours.
We met at Grease Monkey, not a distillery, but a great place
to grab a tasty burger on the north side of Canberra. From there, bellies
appropriately primed with food, we climbed into Ben’s van and travelled to
Plonk, a highly regarded bottle shop at the Fyshwick Fresh Food Market.
Our tour took us here to meet Tim Reardon, owner/operator of The Canberra Distillery who just so happened to be conducting a tasting that day. On offer from The Canberra Distillery included their Classic and Winter Gins, Canberra Fog, Coffee Liquor, Blood Orange Gin, Negroni and Limoncello. The Classic Gin as the name suggests is a classic London Dry style vapour-infused gin with a commonly Australian citrus bias, whereas the Winter Gin is more of a robust local creation with a familiar juniper nose but with strong refreshing notes of basil and a spicy cinnamon finish – perfect for a cold Canberra winter.
Our tour took us here to meet Tim Reardon, owner/operator of The Canberra Distillery who just so happened to be conducting a tasting that day. On offer from The Canberra Distillery included their Classic and Winter Gins, Canberra Fog, Coffee Liquor, Blood Orange Gin, Negroni and Limoncello. The Classic Gin as the name suggests is a classic London Dry style vapour-infused gin with a commonly Australian citrus bias, whereas the Winter Gin is more of a robust local creation with a familiar juniper nose but with strong refreshing notes of basil and a spicy cinnamon finish – perfect for a cold Canberra winter.
Keeping with the cold Canberra theme was the Canberra Fog
(notorious to anyone who has tried to catch an early morning flight into or out
of Canberra in the winter) which is an aniseed-based liquor made from distilled
Murrumbateman Shiraz. If you enjoy the flavour of the Greek classic, Ouzo, you
will likely enjoy this creation which tastes like liquid black jellybeans. The
Blood Orange Gin tastes as is suggested by the label, drawing on the local
provenance of small growers and produces. The Negroni is a pre-mixed cocktail of
gin, vermouth and bitters, barrel-aged in heavily charred ex-red wine casks
from the local Canberra region. The Coffee Liqueur would be perfect for an
Espresso Martini or a boozy coffee, but I found it to be very sweet for my
tastes; nothing some extra vodka couldn’t fix. Finally, the Limoncello cleansed
the palate with a refreshing, yet still very sweet, lemon infused spirit.
As you can see, the Canberra Distillery produce a large range of spirits and liquors that draw from or directly showcase local ingredients. I am very keen to sample some of the other products Tim has planned for the near future.
As you can see, the Canberra Distillery produce a large range of spirits and liquors that draw from or directly showcase local ingredients. I am very keen to sample some of the other products Tim has planned for the near future.
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| Underground Spirits Head Distiller, Ross McQuinn |
Next stop was Underground Spirits in Kambah where we were
greeted by Head Distiller, Ross McQuinn. Underground Spirits’ point of
difference is the use of a patented sub-zero, sub-micron filtration system
adapted from technology used to filter impurities from blood. When producing
their products, Underground Spirits begin by filtering neutral spirit with common
carbon micron filtration followed by their own patented method. When testing
their sub-zero, sub-micron filtration system, they confused the Australian
National University test equipment by producing a spirit of higher purity than
the pure control sample! There is no doubting that Underground Spirits make
their products using the purest neutral spirit available.
Underground Spirits produce a traditionally juniper-forward
barrel-aged gin using a triple infusion method of maceration, vapour infusion
and botanical tinctures. They also produce a range of flavoured vodka including
a vanilla, caramel and hazelnut version. Now I’m not a flavoured vodka
kind-of-guy, but I actually purchased a bottle of the hazelnut variety which
smelt and tasted too good to pass up; I can see it making its way into a
variety of boozy deserts. Underground Spirits are currently experimenting with
options to produce whisky in the future and I will be following their progress
closely.
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| Baldwin Whiskey Company's Premix Whiskey & Cola and Premium Whiskey |
Last distillery visit of the day was to Baldwin Distilling Company in Mitchell, who produce a spirit with a bourbon-style 51% corn mash bill and age it in medium-toasted, heavily-charred virgin American oak barrels. Baldwin have positioned themselves to capitalise on premium whisky (or whiskey with an ‘e’ to reflect their bourbon-style) market, rather than the small batch single malt route that most Australian craft distilleries follow. This puts Baldwin in direct competition to some of the biggest names on the mass produced whisky market and as such they have produced their own premix premium whiskey & cola ustilising their own in-house cola which has approximately one-fifth the sugar as Coca-Cola.
Baldwin
owner/operator Anthony Baldwin and I share the opinion that you should be free
to drink your whisky however you damn please without suffering the criticism of
whisky snobs. I personally do not drink whisky with sweet mixers, but I quite
liked the taste of the Baldwin premixed whisky & cola and I strongly
encourage you to give it a try if bourbon & cola premixes are your thing.
In my opinion, it tastes infinitely better than Jim Beam & Coke premix and
supports a local Australian business rather than a massive multi-national.
I had the opportunity to sample the Baldwin ‘Premium
Whiskey’ on its own, which is also sold by the bottle and to be honest it was a
little too rough to drink neat. It seemed to have gained little from its time
in the cask and I suspect it would benefit from aging longer or even aging in a
different location with more atmospheric and temperature variations to force
the spirit in and out of the cask wood. To be fair, it is intended to be drunk
with a mixer and I would definitely recommend this approach with the current
entry-level Baldwin premium whiskey.
Next in the range is the unfortunately
named ‘Caramel Whiskey’ which from the name you no doubt assumed is a flavoured
whisky. This is not the case as it is made using ‘Caramalt’ malt, rather than
having any flavouring added. Caramalt is a variety of malted barley with a
slight toffee flavour and the resultant whisky, in Baldwin’s case, is an
improvement over their base whiskey. Next in the range is a US 100 Proof (50%
ABV) Rye whiskey. This was my favourite Baldwin whiskey and one that I am quite
happy to drink neat. Go here, for my detailed thoughts. In addition to their
whiskies, Baldwin also produce a variety of US-style Moonshine including,
unflavoured, Apple Pie, Honey and Peach.
After leaving Baldwin Distilling Company, we finished the
day at the White Rabbit bar in central Canberra where we eventually bid
farewell to our host Ben and went on our merry ways with a new knowledge and
appreciation of the local Canberra distilling scene. I really should have
explored my new local distilling scene sooner, but it’s good to know that
people like Ben exist who can guide you around not only the local distilleries
but breweries and wineries as well.
If you live locally or are visiting the
Canberra region, go to www.localspirit.com.au/ for details of what alcohol-centric
tours are available.
