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Water of Life

Noosa Heads Distillery / Fortune + Ginny Pig Distillery

Amongst the myriad of gin distilleries mushrooming on terra australis there is no shortage when it comes to the distilling of innovative and varied gins. However, every now and then one comes across a distillery that stands out because of its attention to detail and refined approach to channelling its alchemy.

Enter the entity founded by Tim Crabtree and the team around his head distiller Jackson Boyd, i.e. Noosa Heads Distillery.

With one of the focal points being set on provenance and paying homage to their home state of Queensland via tropical flavours courtesy of locally sourced botanicals, which infuse the distillate emanating from Noosa Head’s behemoth of a still.

With a volume of two thousand litres and a weight clocking in at close to four tonnes, it is not only of massive proportions but equipped with the capability to produce unique flavour profiles courtesy of the variants between each column of Copper Pot Reflux Still and the fact that Noose Head Distillery’s approach is centred around traditional distilling methods with their gin being bathed and boiled not unlike a traditional London Dry.

Being a whisky head, I love their Barrel Aged Gin, which saw their Navy Strength Gin aged for over five months in custom made, re-coopered and specifically toasted Shiraz Casks. With Queensland unique climate and its fluctuations I humidity, this expression has idiosyncratic notes of spicy traditional Christstollen cake with cinnamon nuances. Beautiful.

A gin that intrigued me was Noosa Head’s Sum Yung Guys X Fortune Pho Gin. With the former being a restaurant institution, the aim behind joining forces was to marry the vibrance and creative spirit of Sum Yung Guys with the well-calibrated flavour profiles of the distillery.

Clocking in at 46% ABV, this expression is in essence a gin replica of a Pho dish, with all variants being catered to, from fish sauce via chilli, seaweed and porcini mushrooms for some meaty impact, which sits against the backdrop of herbal freshness?

Sounds odd and gimmicky? It is testament to Noosa Head / Fortune that the result plays in its own league  and qualifies as a must-try for any juniper juice aficionado.

Let’s head down south, shan’t we, down to the Fleurieu Island in South Australia to be precise.

Ginny Pig Distillery is essentially a wife and husband operation, both of which started their careers in Nursing before they ventured into channelling their creative sides in the distilling of gin.

The interesting thing about Ginny Pig Distillery is that it was incepted with the mission to create the artisan gin equivalent to a hot cross bun, which was crowned with success with their Hot x Gin and soon after a Christmas Gin infused with the ingredients know from making Christmas puddings the delight they are.

Based on the fact that Ginny Pig’s gins may have exotic flavour nuances yet could not be farther away from novelty territory, makes them one of the more interesting distilleries in Australia.

The three creative gins I have had the pleasure to sample included their core Dry Gin, which unveils floral, musky and sweet notes sitting against a backdrop of citrussy and grapefruity highlights.

My favourites, however, are the spiced-fig gin, which is ideal for the current colder months with its ginger, clove and cinnamon flavours that sit on top a foundation of juniper, and especially the mouth-watering blueberry and vanilla expression. The latter is made with real blueberries which are expertly counterbalanced by tart and pine like flavours, crowned by just a hint of vanilla. Delicious.

Needless to say, Ginny Pig Distillery took its love for sweet treats to the next level with the creation of their Boozie Berry Jam – a telling name really, as it makes great used of the gin soaked berries left over from their gin production.

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images from company websites

Thus Let Us Drink Beer (and eat meat)

Tinnies and Tomahawks

There are many benefits to vegetarian and vegan eating and I tend to live a vegetarian lifestyle 99% of the time.

However, I love great steak and every now and then I treat myself to one.  Given that I reserve steak dinners for special occasions and when choosing restaurants, look for ones that age their beef to improve the tenderness of the cut and intensify the flavour. Specifically dry aging can add depth by allowing the enzymes to break down the tissue and thereby tenderizing it and concentrating the flavours. Needless to say, it needs to be done professionals as the process poses the risk of spoilage and other undesirable side-effects.

A good steak also has delicate marbling, i.e. pockets of ideally monounsaturated fats that break down during the cooking process to add to the juiciness.

However, an integral and vital component is the way the steak is cooked and seasoned, which is where the expertise of the chef comes in.

Enter Chef, restauranteur, ‘paddock to plate’ evangelist and Australian icon Matt Moran and his Chophouse, whose team has not only perfectioned  ticking all the boxes when it comes to the aforementioned elements,  but whose pedigree is in farming and whose expertise is informed by a lifetime of produce passion, rearing ethically farmed hormone-free beef, lamb and pigs. 

An epic collaboration between one of our favourite breweries, i.e. Young Henrys (the delicious liquid emissions of which we have covered numerous times as part of our beer-centric series), and the Chophouse, appropriately titled ‘Tinnies and Tomahawks’ saw a three-course dinner eventuate with a tomahawk steak taking centre stage, flanked by five YH tinnies and their Noble Cut gin, which we have individually reviewed before as part of this series.

For the uninitiated, a Tomahawk steak is a behemoth of meat and visually impressive the extent that it looks like it has been lifted straight out of an episode of the Flintstones, with the large bone handle. Comprised of a thick chunk of ribeye at one end and a minimum thickness of two inches, this is a steak which should be preferred by experts and in that regard we were in the best hands at the Chophouse. Using a simple indirect heating method, Chophouse’s head chef absolutely nailed the perfect medium rare of this impressive meat experience.

All the meaty expertise aside, what made the evening was the genuine  hospitality extended by the each constituent of the Chophouse team, which saw us being invited to the kitchen to witness the team up close channelling their alchemy.

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photos by @k.a.vv

Ed Kuepper and Jim White

Opera House

Sydney, Australia

June 13, 2021

My first exposure to Ed Kuepper and his oeuvre must have been in the early 1990s, when I acquired a Spanish pressing of The Saints’ (I’m) Stranded LP on Harvest Records, which curiously had a “Punk Rock!” logo on the front cover.

Once I settled on terra australis, I sought out any opportunity to see to man and his incarnations – be it as an opener for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, or him and parts of the original Saints line-up performing the aforementioned proto-punk album in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrows Parties festivals in 2009.

Same goes for the open-ended, genre defying improvisations of the Dirty Three, whose melange of free jazz, rock, ballads, blues and pretty much everything else in between, fascinated me ever since I came across their “Horse Stories” album.

Needless to say that when I heard about Ed Kuepper teaming up with Dirty Threes’ drummer Jim White, I was more than mildly excited to witness what them joining forces would culminate in.

With a stripped down and lean set-up comprised of Ed channelling his alchemy via a couple of electric guitars and White accompanying him on drums, their second show of the day commenced with not much ado with the focus firmly set on the songs, which traversed the stages of Kuepper’s close to five decade long repertoire and prolific career.

It did not take long to realise that the duo must have clicked from the get go, with White effortlessly infusing Kuepper’s songs with his idiosyncratic pulse and thereby stretching songs into new directions without ever running danger of sounding contrived.

A wonderful evening with two of the most iconic players in Australia’s music history converging, which everyone in attendance seemed to know to appreciate as in this day and age of finiteness and impermanence, there was a palpable sense of witnessing something unique that might never happen again after this tour.

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image from artist website

Amy Shark

Qudos Live Arena

Sydney, Australia

June 12, 2021

Between the time when I first saw Amy incarnate at the beginning of her career when she still performed under the moniker Cushway within the confines of a pub show and tonight’s incarnation at one of the biggest indoor live venues that terra australis has to offer, lie worlds and her ascent to a confident performer that has achieved mainstream success on a massive scale, specifically with her latest album Cry Forever.

Needless to say, her show and delivery has been polished and grown in scale quite a bit along the way, with the lion’s share of tonight’s higher energy offerings offerings seeing her trademark sombre song writing paired with what has become radio mainstay danceable pop beats.

Pervaded by engaging, warm and at times self-effacing banter, the moments that stood out for me during the set were when the rawer, indie / pop punk components of her song writing DNA shone through.

It was during the songs with lyrics spawned by frustrations and the more tumultuous times of her existence before her career has taken off with Platinum-selling hits, that she emanated the charisma that is needed to make a show on such a great stage a unifying experience.

A evening that was the celebration of a determined artist who managed to organically cultivate a following for her original music and despite having arrived at an arena level, was testament to the fact that she has never attempted to distance herself from her songs.

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image from artist website

Water of Life - Whisky Live

Randwick Racecourse

Sydney, Australia

June 5, 2021

Now, this one has been for the longest time in the making. While we have covered quite an array of whisk(e)y tastings over the course of this series, one of the most pre-eminent ones has almost gotten away.

Over the years, Whisky Live has established itself to be quite the institution on the whisky event firmament on terra australis, with its incarnations across Australia exciting the uninitiated as well as the connoisseurs.

While expectations were high, it could have hardly been a better experience, starting with the friendly reception we got as we stepped entered the premises down to every distiller, sales person and ambassador we engaged with, with almost all of them not only sharing informative titbits but evoking some belly laughs with their hilarious anecdotes that let their passion for whisky and the craft behind it shine through.

Equipped with a customised WL event glass and a printed Whisky guide to assist with tasting notes for all expressions on offer, one was unleashed to freely roam the spacious, well-planned territory, which offered ample opportunity to manoeuvre between the tasting stations and sample from the more than forty stands, all of which had a variety of expressions on offer and some even offering tastings arranged in a vertical manner.

Being an Islay-head, I loved the fact that with Bruichladdich, Ardbeg, Finlaggan and Laphroaig peat, iodine and PPM was well-represented, with the welcome addition of Ailsa Bay’s sweet smoke.

Despite the heavy weights of the big houses being present with their top shelf offerings, it was nice to see not only love given to Australian distilleries but some up and coming locals got exposure with St Peters’ Otter Craft and Marrickville’s excellent Moreau, the latter of which is one that had not been on my radar before and having sampled their emissions, warrants a dedicated instalment of our series.

Quality, well-proportioned food to graze on of the calibre offered at WL is rare at other whiskey events and the Rare & Old bar was a nice touch, which enabled me to close a gap or two and the addition of other selected spirits helped to expand one’s horizon.

Multiple masterclasses to educate the curious mind specialising on special aspects of particular whiskies were offered free of charge for those interested to dig deeper into new discoveries or old favourites.

Summa summarum, WL lives up to its name in that it is clearly an event with a wide and impressive list of offerings that is being curated by connoisseurs and industry experts. The fact that one had the chance to purchase the offerings while exiting through the gift shop did not hurt either, except for the budget as they had event specific discount in place.