If you’re being sober look away right now. It’s the middle of the week and I’m off to go drink some booze at The Deck Bar where Jeremy, co-founder of Aussie distillery The West Winds Gin, is enlightening us on the history of gin and how his company is shaking up the Aussie spirit scene. Jeremy speaks with great knowledge and passion about gin and alcoholic beverages in general, his words almost as impressive as his super masculine beard.

Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m not much of a drinker, but I do like my spirits in small quantities every now and then, particularly scotch and vodka, the latter of which isn’t too far off from gin I’m told, making me the perfect audience for one of The West Winds distillations.

I’m early-ish so I get warmed up with a gin and tonic – of course. This one has a shot of the Sabre in it and I’m liking it a lot. It’s slightly sweet with vanilla-ish softness and is helped along by an undercurrent of citrus flavours. Yes I took plenty of notes whilst Jeremy was talking.

The Sabre is modeled on a traditional English gin so as to not upset the establishment but has some Aussie bits thrown in, notably wattle seed. Not just the stuff that birds eat, I had a good sniff of the stuff and it gave me a delicious hazlenut like flavour – someone should seriously bake a cake with it!

Some more people arrive, mostly bartenders and those in the business and the drinks start flowing more freely. We also get some food brought out - the springs rolls at The Deck Bar are to die for. Totally brings me back to street side Vietnam at the night time Ben Thanh food stalls. Out next comes the big bad Cutlass. Where the Sabre is safe and traditional (40%), the Cutlass is the rebellious and head strong sibling sitting at 50%. This one will punch you in the face and kick you in the nuts if you're not prepared. It's got Aussie bush tomato and ups the coriander seed content to give it bigger and bolder aromatics. This one went up my nose at first sip - I forgot to inhale and drink at the same time like Jeremy said. Once I remembered what I was doing, it went down well. Oddly enough, it is served with a slice or two of green capsicum, my most hated vegetable, but in an ice cold gin and tonic it works well.

 

Jeremy says that if us Aussies can make some of the best beer in the world then we can certainly stick it to them in the spirits department.  Which is exactly what The West Winds boys did when they won old and double gold at 2011 The San Francisco World Spirits Competition for the Sabre and Cutlass respectively. Gold stickers on the front of the bottle means epic brownie points folks and these ones are well deserved. Of the two gins, I like the Sabre better. It's softer flavours sit better with my less hard core Asian taste buds whilst the Cutlass will go down well with those who like it stronger. Either way, I still had to call the missus to give me a ride home. One too many shots of white liqueur to be driving. If you thought gin was just for old ladies and poms, think again. So the next somebody asks you if you are a gin drinker, the correct answer is "not yet".

Where do you get it?

Get  your fix of The West Winds gin at any decent bottle shop. Parap Fine Foods stock it too I'm told.