Calvados, Tokaji, Gin, Caberne...

Frank Moorhouse in his book Martini - a memoir states, "Every time it is served, the martini represents a journey towards an unattainably ideal drink". The idea of endlessly pursuing a perfection that does not exist is something well known to passionate winemakers. Having a winemaking background we thought we would delve into the mysteries of gin production. This was largely brought about by our fascination with martinis and all things gin.
The notion of the "unattainable ideal drink" led us into a series of trials and experiments and we have become fully immersed in the alchemy of batch distillation and the extraction of exotic and local botanicals. The MGC doffs its hat to London Dry Gin with the two major components being juniper berries and coriander seed. There are 11 botanicals in total (not including a lot of love) with the grapefruit peel and rosemary coming from the garden at Gembrook Hill Vineyard. The other botanicals are macadamia, sandalwood, honey lemon myrtle and organic navel orange, which are all sourced from Australia. The exotics in the mix are angelica root, orris root and cassia bark.

Each botanical is distilled separately and then blended to our recipe - essentially a winemakers approach. We use a copper pot baine-marie alembic still. A still traditionally used for making perfume. This allows us to preserve the delicate nature of the botanicals we work with. The final component is the water used to break the gin back. We use Gembrook rainwater which is pure and fresh and allows the botanicals to shine through. At only 60kms from Melbourne this local source contributes to the definition of the unique "Melbourne Dry Gin" style.

The MGC is not chill filtered. We didn't want to take out the oils that contribute so much to the aromatics and mouth feel of the gin. So when the gin is very cold the oils become slightly insoluble and form a light haze. The French use the word louche to describe this. In a different context someone who is louche is of a shady character! Each bottle is numbered to reflect the small batches in which it is made. ANDREW MARKS, Distiller & Winemaker

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

The 2019 Lafon-Rochet is every bit as compelling today as it was from barrel. There is a feeling of elegance to the 2019 that is so striking. Sweet dark cherry, plum new leather, tobacco, licorice, spice and rose petal all grace the 2019 as it unwinds to its long finish. Lafon-Rochet is not huge nor obvious, as some Saint-Estèphes are, but it is absolutely compelling. (95) ANTONIO GALLONI

The 2019 Lafon-Rochet, which was picked from 25 September to 5 October, requires a little coaxing from the glass, eventually unfurling with blackberry, bilberry, violet and light crushed stone/clayey scents that is quintessential Saint-Estèphe. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-boned tannins, fresh and saline in the mouth, old school in the best sense of that expression. No, it is not the most flamboyant Lafon-Rochet, but it is imbued with a sense of nobility and classicism that I much admire. Tasted three times with consistent notes. (95) NEAL MARTIN

Brilliant stuff, the 2019 Château Lafon-Rochet shows the best of the vintage with its pure, precise, elegant, yet at the same time concentrated style. Showing lots of ripe currant, plum, tobacco, Asian spice, and cedar pencil aromatics, it's medium to full-bodied, has nicely integrated acidity, and just seamless tannins. It's beautifully done and well worth seeking out. It's going to evolve for 20-25+ years. (95) JEB DUNNUCK

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The flagship 2018 Château Lagrange is a more dense, backward, serious wine, offering an unevolved yet incredibly promising bouquet of cassis, blackcurrants, scorched earth, graphite, and violets. A big, rich, full-bodied Saint-Julien, it delivers thrilling purity of fruit, plenty of background oak, ripe, silky tannins, and a great mid-palate. This is serious stuff, but it's going to require patience. Hide bottles for 7-8 years, count yourself lucky, and enjoy over the following two decades. (97) JEB DUNNUCK

Medium to deep garnet-purple colored, the 2018 Lagrange explodes from the glass with bombastic notes of crème de cassis, chocolate-covered cherries and baked red and black plums with suggestions of rose oil, cedar chest, pencil lead and hoisin. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has fantastic vibrancy for the ripeness, packed with juicy black fruits and compelling tension with a finely grained texture to support, finishing on a lingering mineral note. Nicely done! (95) WINE ADVOCATE

The 2018 Lagrange is off the charts. Bold, plush and beautifully resonant in the glass, the 2018 possesses tremendous richness and textural intensity. Super-ripe dark cherry, plum, espresso, mint and licorice build in a racy, sumptuous Lagrange loaded with personality. The 2018 is one of the best recent vintages I have tasted. Tasted two times. (95) ANTONIO GALLONI

This 125-acre vineyard is beautifully situated in the southern sector of the appellation of Margaux. Dense ruby/purple, with sweet cassis fruit, Du Tertre's 2012 has a perfumed, elegant, lush, velvety-textured mouthfeel and impressive purity and depth. Drink it over the next 15-20 years. WINE ADVOCATE

The 2012 du Tertre has a well-defined nose: fully-mature with hoisin, dark plum and a light, ferrous edge, not powerful but focused. The palate is well balanced with saturated tannins, fine acidity, quite cohesive and poised with white pepper and clove lining the finish. This is a stylish Margaux NEAL MARTIN, tasted 2022

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

As soon as you put your nose close to this wonderful single vineyard Cabernet you know you are in the heady zone of Coonawarra. The vineyard is located in the southern end of the Terra Rosa strip and displays a silky smooth and highly perfumed character. Bright red and black fruits on the nose with a subtle cedary oak influence. Fine chalky tannins and super fine-grained oak work their magic to bring the wine to life. Brilliant and alive through its long finish. Outstanding. (97) RAY JORDON, the west Australian

The Messenger Vineyard, a dry-grown plot in the southern section of Coonawarra’s Terra Rossa strip, shows perfume and silkiness in a mild year like 2021. It’s deceptive, with the flavours running long and fine on the current of a long, slender acid stream, but there’s lots of dark muscle lurking beneath the pleasant blackberry entry – a brooding, heavy-browed dangerman, reclining back in a creaky old leather Chesterfield, but when exactly will he pounce? That coiled-spring element of danger keeps you returning to this wine. So testy and willing for a medium-bodied wine, showing that Cabernet doesn’t have to be bloated and hefty to pack a punch. (96) DAVID SLY, decanter

Very deep, dark, brooding purple-red colour with a similarly brooding bouquet of blackberry, licorice, soy sauce, coffee grounds and creme de cassis, without any of the greener herbal elements of cabernet. The palate is intense and concentrated and backs up with taut, firm tannins which are nevertheless well measured and balanced. A very concentrated, plush, almost essency cabernet with a terrifically long carry, which will reward long-term cellaring. (97) HUON HOOKE, the real review

15 months in new and seasoned French oak hogsheads (16% new). A basket of collected blackberries and thistle. Fresh prune plums and bilberry. Allspice, clove and black peppercorn. Turned earth, granite and coal. Morello mushroom and undergrowth. There is juniper and wisps of lavender. Pinpoint acidity and laser focus to this cabernet. It drives seamlessly across the palate and pulls at the heartstrings. A stunning drink now and in 15 to 20 years. (96) GOLD MEDAL, SHANTEJ WAHL, www.winecompanion.com

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

Plenty of blackberry, currant and floral aromas. Some mint as well, following through to a full-bodied palate with layers of ultra-fine tannins and wonderful length. This is sophisticated and beautifully crafted with style and personality, displaying its terroir. Extremely well done. Drink after 2025. (96) JAMES SUCKLING

Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2019 Langoa Barton is a very pleasant surprise, singing of Black Forest cake, raspberry preserves and warm blackcurrants notions with suggestions of chocolate mint, forest floor and pencil shavings plus a hint of cinnamon toast. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has jaw-dropping tension and intensity, featuring ripe, grainy tannins and bags of evocative red and black fruits, finishing with a lively lift. The style of this 2019 is worlds away from the also very impressive 2018, showcasing an even brighter, immediately impactful and downright flamboyant side to the estate. Color me impressed! (95) WINE ADVOCATE

Checking in as 67% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc, the 2019 Château Langoa Barton offers up a dense purple color as well as notes of blackberries, smoked earth, chocolate, and leafy herbs. This rich, medium to full-bodied effort has an expansive, mouthfilling texture, beautiful mid-palate density, and outstanding length. It's going to have some upfront appeal, but my money is on it benefiting from a solid 5-7 years of bottle age. (95) JEB DUNNUCK

The 2019 Langoa Barton has a very typical Langoa nose, which is a good thing, sporting vivacious black cherries, blackberry, crushed iris, cedar and light blood orange scents lurking offstage. Lovely oak integration here. The palate is beautifully defined on the entry, a structured almost big-boned Langoa with enormous grip on the spicy finish. I love the generosity of this Saint-Julien, one that I suspect will be seductive on release but don't be deceived - it deserves cellaring lest you get a smacked wrist for being impatient. (95) NEAL MARTIN

We were first introduced to the distillery by Melbourne (and San Sebastian) bar owner, Gerald Diffey. He was fairly passionate about this range of gins he'd seen on a trip back to the UK and urged us to import some. We knew Gerald knew his stuff so we were interested but wary given the number of Gins in the market, but once we delved deeper into the operation and then tasted the range we were sold.

The distillery is a relatively new operation headed by Bob Russell and sons, Matthew and Stephen. It is unique in several senses but first off it is housed in a Victorian-era pumphouse in the now derelict Chatham Dockyard south of London. The dockyard was at one time of huge importance to the Empire building ships for the Royal Navy from Napoleonic times through to the Falklands. The pumphouse # 5 was used to pump out water for the dry docks. Russell saw an opportunity to revitalise a magnificent piece of English architecture, give some locals a job and indulge his passion for making bespoke spirits. To do this he decided to take the road less travelled in distilling and instead of buying in bulk spirit to make his Gin

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Distilled using locally grown barley and Kentish water, this is as fresh and bright as a sunny spring day in the countryside. Elegant and refined gin, with a lovely, half floral, half herbal lift. I tasted it before learning what botanicals had been used in its production, and suspect its fragrant quality comes from the local elderflowers. MAX ALLEN

Ingredients: Italian Juniper berries, locally sourced elderflower, Bulgarian Coriander seeds, Spanish orange peel, Italian lemon peel, Guatemala green cardamom, grains of paradise from Africa, European Angelica root and Orris root, our own neutral grain spirit and Kentish chalk filtered water.
 

Aged in small apple brandy casks for over 12 months, this rich and generous liqueur is a result of blending pressed French and British heirloom apple varieties with our apple spirit.

Complex and well-structured with baked apple and spice, balanced with firm tannins and cask influence.

Our take on the traditional aperitif from North-West France – enjoy as such or serve with blue cheese or dessert. WILLIE SMITH

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More product information will be added here soon! In the meantime, if you do have any questions at all about this product or others in our store, you can contact us by phone or email. Our friendly and experienced team are always happy to assist - we love drinking, selling, talking about and being in and around wine!

We wanted to taste the Juniper. We wanted it to taste different to our Melbourne Dry Gin. We wanted it to taste amazing.

The Single Shot is a gin made in a single distillation, unlike the MGC’s original Melbourne Dry Gin, in which botanicals are individually distilled then blended together. The result is a full flavoured gin, so much so it may louche (form a fine glazy mist) in a G&T or Martini, which MGC celebrates as a mark of distinction.

Even before its release, Melbourne Gin Company has received major international accolades for Single Shot becoming the most awarded gin that no one has yet tasted.

Double Gold at the 2018 San Francisco World Spirits Awards;
Gin Master at the 2018 Gin Masters Awards London,
Gold Medal at the 2018 World Gin Masters – Asia (Hong Kong)
Since 2013 when MGC launched their first pioneering product, Melbourne Dry Gin, their fascination with the alchemy of gin has kept them busy conducting trials, perfecting their techniques and playing with different botanicals to create Single Shot.

Described as a "cask-finished English grain spirit" because it hasn't spent enough time in barrel to be designated as whisky (there is a whisky in the works, due for release this year), this has just the faintest hint of pale golden colour and is bursting with ethereal aromas of sweet, freshly milled malted barley, a touch of honey, some lightly toasted linseed and sesame. It's sweet and fine on the tongue, with a deliciously seductive, gently oily texture. An intriguing and unique spirit. MAX ALLEN

Ingredients: With a specially selected blend of our holy trinity of grains mixed with our Kentish water before being distilled carefully through our traditional pot still.
 

Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin is crafted to deliver the best of all worlds: a perfect, classic gin and also something that would fascinate and delight even the most hardened gin fanatic. It’s spicy but with great citrus, a truly modern Australian gin.

Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin captures the essence of contemporary Australia’s heritage in Europe and Asia. We’re using whole oranges which is unusual but Australian citrus is highly aromatic and supports the spicier botanicals like cardamom.

The cinnamon and star anise add rich fruitcake tones, the Tasmanian pepperberry leaf provides warmth rather than heat, and the lemon myrtle is a beautiful alternative to lemon peel.

Our Rare Dry Gin has been awarded medals at a number of prestigious international competitions: Double Gold in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2014 and 2016, Silver in the London International Wine & Spirits Competition 2014, and Gold at the Hong Kong International Wine & Spirits Competition 2014.  fourpillarsgin.com.au

Distilled in Battersea, south London, this is named after Ralph Dodd, an early nineteenth-century entrepreneur whose many schemes included the creation of the London Distillery Company. The venture failed - indeed Dodd was taken to court for his innovative notion to issue transferable shares - but his sprit lingered on. So when the brand new London Distillery Company started producing gin in 2013, it was called Dodd's. The bulk of the botanicals, including the honey, are distilled in a copper pot still, while the more delicate ones are cold distilled in a vacuum still. The two streams are then blended and married before bottling.

The nose is creamy, then a leafy shiso-like aroma emerges with fat fruits behind. In time there is subtle juniper, a menthol hit, some celery, and sweetness. The mouth feel is very silky, which distracts you initially from the high, fresh and brightly warm perfume. You're inside the pine forest eating ras el hanout baklava. DAVID BROOM, Gin: The Manual

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Robust and wonderful, Claude Navy Strength is our full flavoured, full bodied gin with a hint of Australia, carrying a delicate touch of Southern Sassafras foraged from the Victorian mountains. Despite its humble beginnings, Claude has won the hearts and tastebuds of gin lovers and critics around the world, winning double gold at the World Spirit Awards. It continues to be one of our most popular gins and a staple for any drinks cabinet.

Beautiful on ice or as a Gibson Martini. We also love it as a G&T using a good quality tonic. BIG TREE

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The botanicals are steeped for 24 to 48 hours then additional Juniper and Liquorice Root are vapour infused in the neck of the copper pot still to give a traditional Juniper flavour at the front of the palate through to a sweet liquorice finish. This gin is triple distilled giving the spirit an ultra-smooth flavour despite the higher than normal ABV. It contains 11 Botanicals including 3 local botanicals - Native Bush Pepper, Lemon Myrtle, Tasmanian Wattleseed. SPRING BAY DISTILLING

For me this is an altogether gentle and delicate gin not that it doesn't have presence or flavour. More that it relies on its quality through craftmanship and quality ingredients. Juniper driven but highlighted with native bush botanicals that give a unique flavour and aromatic profile. I often find (Australia) native botanicals in gins overpower everything else but these are judiciously used and create a wonderful tasting gin. There is sweet oiliness on the finish that carries everything to gentle, clean and clear finish. A really well made and poised Aussie gin. MYLES,PWS

If you haven’t noticed the explosion in the craft gin scene in Australia then you must be living under a rock. As a Gin fanatic that has been pretty exciting for me in the last few years watching this category re-energised. Matt and Dave from Patient wolf are one of the newest kids on the block and they have done a fantastic job with their super locally crafted Patient Wolf gin. Yes -  I know its not wine!

With the help of their 230L Muller copper still, custom built in Germany they have made what is one of my favorite Aussie Gins to date - and there are a lot of them! Grapefruity-Citrus opens on the nose that breaks and revels a lovely savoury, earthy bent to this gin that I absolutely love. Orris root and peppry corriander compliment the underlying juniper drive. There is an almost forest floor like edge to the pithy citrus flecked core that just works brilliantly and sets it apart from so many Gins that are making their way on to the scene.

Perfect Gin and tonic gin with a slice of ruby grapefruit or try it as a Gin buck with lime, mint and dry ginger. Yum!

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I can't remember a Haut-Batailley this tannic, yet the tannins are savory and very ripe with beauty and purity. Full-bodied, chewy tannins and a long and intense finish. (95) JAMES SUCKLING

The grand vin 2018 Château Haut-Batailley is a beauty and is comprised of 59% Cabernet Sauvignon and 41% Merlot brought up in 60% new French oak. It's an attractive, elegantly styled wine that has lots of juicy Merlot notes of black cherries, graphite, scorched earth, and spice. Rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced, and with terrific purity on the palate, this brilliant Pauillac is going to be approachable in just a few years and will evolve gracefully. This wine hit 14.3% alcohol with 3.61 pH and an IPT of 81. My money is on it being one of the best to date from this estate. (95+) JEB DUNNUCK