briefs
A DIFFERENT TAKE ON GIN
TAYLOR and Smith's Dry Gin, made in a tiny distillery in suburban Hobart, was named the winner of 2020’s Best Small Batch Spirit Award at the Tasting Australia Spirit Awards. The Taylor & Smith Dry Gin ($85) also won gold in the London Dry Gin category, and the Taylor & Smith Gin ($85) won bronze in the Best Contemporary Spirit section.
Taylor & Smith’s Dry Gin is billed as "a beautifully aromatic gin with a unique character and an array of striking botanicals and other ingredients, including abalone shell, paired with a quintessentially Tasmanian ingredient: the needles of the native Huon Pine tree".
“We love experimenting,” says Natalie Smith, one half of team Taylor & Smith. “Huon Pine always makes me think of being in the Tasmanian landscape, of rivers and crisp clean air. It’s an icon of Tasmanian flora and Tasmanian timber, too so it just made sense to try it in the Dry Gin.”
The water that feeds directly to the distillery comes from a lake of snow melt at Mount Field National Park. Taylor & Smith Distilling Co. is an artisan distillery based in the Hobart suburb of Moonah that is owned and run by Smith and Ben Taylor.
“All ingredients are as local as possible, even the abalone shells are sourced from family dives on the East Coast of Tasmania. Abalone shell is used in Chinese medicine and the calcium carbonate neutralises acids while adding a slight salinity,” says Taylor.
Visit www.taylorandsmith.com.au for more information.
RETIREMENT OR REBOOT?
WHAT do you do when you retire from the family business after 40 years of crafting fine wines - particularly riesling?
If you are Neil Pike you start your own wine label and relax by spending some time in the kitchen. Pike retired from the family Clare Valley winery last year but has now started his own label: Limefinger, with a 2020 riesling grown just a couple of minutes from Watervale Township.
The Limefinger 2020 The Learnings Riesling was made in tiny quantities, just 3,000 bottles, and retails for $37.50.
"After 40+ vintages working in the Clare Valley/Watervale one learns a few things along the way," Pike says. It has been a privilege to be able to apply those learnings to such a gorgeous parcel of fruit."
Pike has also been cooking up a storm, including crafting some Limefinger lemon/lime oil pickle that he recommends using when cooking chicken. Paired with riesling, of course.
HISTORIC VENUE EXPANDS
THE historic Knappstein Wines site in the Clare Valley is enroute to being one of the snazziest cellar door facilities in South Australia. The first of three newly renovated cellar door venues on the heritage-listed site has just been launched with two more on the way. The new Knappstein tasting room is now open to the public and more than triples Knappstein’s tasting room capacity. Later in 2020, the Knappstein wine lounge and underground cellar venue will be unveiled.
