By Andrew Spence, The Lead South Australia
The Barossa Distilling Company is releasing a limited edition gin, which has spent seven months in tawny port barrels.
It is the company’s third gin following the release of the Generations Gin in 2016 and its Budburst pink gin later that year.
The barrels originally held Barossa red wine and then spent eight years ageing Tawny Port before being cut down to 100 litres at a local cooper, oak charred to a crocodile char and filled with Generations Gin. The same style barrels were also sourced to make the company’s first whisky, which is still at least 12 months away from release.
Barossa Distilling Managing Director Neil Bullock said the gin was barrel-aged in the same way as whisky is traditionally matured.
“Back in the old days they would store the gin in an oak barrel in a ship’s ballast and effectively by the time it got to its destination it would have been barrel aged, depending on how far the journey was,” he said.
“It’s confusing to the palate in a way because it’s got a little bit of a whisky characteristic – it’s very much a gin but it sits somewhere between the two in terms of the flavour profile it’s delivering and you get those toffee and honey characteristics that you would find in a Speyside style sherry or port cask finished whisky.
“It’s a cracking sipping gin, over ice it’s just beautiful but we have tried it here with a splash of dry ginger ale and a bit of fresh lime squeezed over the glass.”
The Barossa Distilling Company is located at the original Penfolds distillery, which was built in 1913 and which produced brandy and fortified wines for Penfolds for almost a century.