Bloody Shiraz Gin 70cl, 37.8%

Four Pillars Distillery is in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley, beautiful cool climate wine country. You’d have to be crazy not to take advantage of it.

So back in 2015 that’s what these guys did. They were happily making gin out the back of their mate Rob Dolan’s winery, and in late April a tiny parcel of Shiraz came in from one of the region’s best vineyards. Rob wasn’t sure what to do with it, so they took it off his hands – perhaps without his knowledge…

It seemed perfectly obvious to Cam Mackenzie that they should steep these grapes in Rare Dry Gin to see what happened.

The result was alcoholic alchemy… the juice turned a magical purple colour and found a sweetness straight from the ripe grapes.

So now each year they take local Shiraz fruit, steep the whole berries in high-proof gin for eight weeks before pressing.

The colour remains a deep, rich, reddish purple. Aromatically it shows fresh pine needles, citrus and spice, and distinct peppery, dense raspberry notes. The palate is lovely and sweet with a long juniper and spice character on the finish.