March 27, 2025 • 14 mins
This week on iHeart Tassie, Jackie Lymn explores our state's booming gin scene.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My heart Tazzy.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Can you do something for you, mister Bondu Just a drink?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
A Martini shaken.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Muster, the Martini drink of choice for superspies like James
bond and the rich and famous, including Churchhill, Sinatra, Madonna,
even Queen Elizabeth II, not to mention lonely business travelers
around Australia and across the globe. Four parts gin, a
splash of drive Vermouth and there you have it, class
(00:31):
in a glass. Hi, I'm Jackie Limb with iHeart Tazzy.
This week we're looking into Tazzi's long history with gin
and whiskey in the state's now booming industry. Australia is
at the forefront of a global gin renaissance, and the
heart of that resurgence is right here in Tazzy. In fact,
Tasmanian gin is enjoying massive popularity, not just at home
(00:51):
but across the world. But how did a drink that
was once concocted in bath tubs end up where it
is today, putting our state on the world alcohol map. Well.
Gin and Tasmania dates back to the eighteen hundreds, where
early settlers brought the clear fragrance spirit with them from England. However,
with the rise of Prohibition, many of the small distilleries
which it opened throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century
(01:14):
were forced to close. It wasn't until the nineteen nineties
that it started to make a comeback in a big way.
I spoke to head distiller at bright Night Gin in Newtown,
Damian Macki, about the history of the industry and how
Tazy is taking.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Over the Tasmanian craft distilling industry, which really started off
about thirty three years ago by Bill and Lin. Lark
has always been very collaborative and Bill and Lynn really
cut the pathway and with a lot of contacts and
investigations back in Scotland and elsewhere around the world, really
worked out the best way to make whiskey and gin.
(01:50):
And then they really helped build the industry by passing
on their knowledge to all the other people who came
in after. And so that's left a really strong legacy
of cooperation and collect aberration amongst all the distilleries here
in Tasmania. Plus we of course we have our beautiful
clean air and water, fantastic aging conditions for whiskey, and
(02:10):
wonderful unique botanicals that we can put into our gins
and help them make genuinely unique and genuinely Tasmanian.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, So going back to the history of it all
and Bill Larks, you know, coming in and the early
nineteen nineties to kind of get the ball rolling and
pushing the subject, if you like, after one hundred and
fifty years of nothing going on in Tazi. Why do
you think it took that long.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Well, we actually did have a thriving distillery industry in
the early colonial days. So there were legal distilleries in
Hobart and I think one in Loncheston, and probably hundreds
of illegal distilleries. But within the eighteen thirties when Governor
John Franklin and Lady Jane Franklin came to Tasmania and
(02:55):
they were very worried about the population. Apparently half the
popular were paralytic half the time, and the infamous New
South Wales Rum Corps had transplanted itself down to Van
Diemen's Land very early on, and so they brought in
laws which basically outlawed distilling. They purchased the licenses back
from the legal distilleries, and so from about the eighteen
(03:18):
thirties to the nineteen nineties, there was no distilling legally
going on in Tasmania and it took Bill to say, well,
we have the perfect natural ingredients for making great whiskey,
the perfect aging environment. We have all the you know,
we have highland peat bogs, we have all the same
ingredients of Scotland and Irelands to make fantastic whiskey, and
(03:40):
we should be making it. He had to go and
get federal legislation changed in the early nineteen nineties to
make small craft distilleries legal and everything's gone from there.
And of course Phil's life. Lynn was really the person
behind the gin side of things, with an amazing palette
and amazing ability to mix flavors and come up with
beautiful gins. So they were a godsend for Tasmania really
(04:03):
and helped get a whole new industry started.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, and now it's a very populated industry. There's seventy
odd distilleries or something crazy in TASiS, so that's a
huge amount. How does everyone find their own little flavor if.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You like, that's a really good question. We're not sure
how many distilleries there are on the association, and I
think we've got about seventy members and we know of others,
but then we know that there are others that we
don't know of, and so we think there might be
maybe a hundred distilleries in Tasmania. So it is a
real thriving craft industry. So in terms of everyone finding
their own niche, that's the great thing about gin is
(04:38):
that there are so many combinations and permutations of botanicals
to put into the still to make your own particular gin.
The ability to create your own special flavor by exploring
the whole botanica of Tasmania, which everyone's been doing for
the last thirty years to find the next great gin botanical.
The Tasmane mountain pepperberry and they're only harvested at a
(05:00):
certain time. Potential for a plant or a berry or
a leaf to be used as a gin botanical has
been thoroughly explored over the last two hundred years. Of course,
when out Tasmaim distilling industry started up thirty years ago,
we realized the whole world of interesting native botanicals in
Tasmania to explore. Our state is becoming a genuine whisky
(05:22):
region in its own right.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
How do you think that our Aussie and Tasmania specific
gins compared to the ones that have been produced since
the fifteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I do put it down, as I said, to everyone
having a very collaborative that attitude and helping each other.
And one of Bill Lark's favorite things was a rising
tide floats all boats. So that's what we're trying to
do as an industry. We're trying to all come up
together and if we help each other to be very
very good distillers in that way, we keep the whole
reputation of all of Tasmanian spirits at a high level.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I've got a quote here from Bill Lang says, if
you'd said to me thirty years ago that they're be
that many distilleries, I've said, mate, you're mad. What do
you have to say to that?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, I kind of a new Bill back in the
early nineteen nineties when he was just starting off, and
a lot of people did say he was mad just
to start one distillery. You know, people were saying, well,
what you can't make whisky in Tasmania. You know you're
not going to peek with a Scottish single maltz. I
think that's another part of being Tasmanian. We are sort
of isolated or from the rest of Australia, but the
(06:27):
whole rest of the world as well, and so we
have a really significant tradition of getting on and trying
things and doing things ourselves and you know, not taking
any notice of the nasayers.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
We'll have more after the break.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Why high hearty, high hearty.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Welcome back. We're talking about the wonderful world that is
gin distilling in Tasmania. With over seventy distilleries in our
state alone, we figured there must be a reason, perhaps
even a secret, to why people gravitate down south. Our
reporter Rob McLennan spoke to Christy lark Booth, the head
distiller at Kolara Distillery in Richmond, about what Tazzi has
(07:07):
that allows the state to produce such high quality gin.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I think it sort of stems from that can do attitude.
You know, we've got the distilling industry where all the
you know, the modern craft distilling industry here in Australia
was really kicked off here in Tasmania, and so we've
sort of got that pioneering instinct down here and it's
a fantastic place to be creating premium spirits.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
It just seems to have taken off. It's a fairly
recent thing. I know gin's been around for you know,
five hundred years or more, but it just seems to
have taken off in Tasmania recently.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, definitely. I mean everything is cyclical, so you know,
gin was quite popular, like you said, a couple hundred
years ago, and now it's seeing a resurgence. We've got
lots of distilleries here in Tasmania producing Tasmanian gin that
we utilize a lot of the native botanicals down here
in Tasmania, Pepperbury being the main one, and now we've
(08:00):
even got people growing their own juniper like myself and
several other distilleries, so we can sort of have that
really closed circle of produce and know where it's been.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Grown Tasmanian plants that are kind of native to Tassy.
Is that something that's helped Tasmania develops such a great reputation,
I think so.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I think it's also the fact that the distillers down
here have got such care and attention to detail that
you know, you go to any distillery and they're just
so passionate about the products that they're making. And I
think that passion and that care and that love that
goes into their product really shines through in what you're
tasting in the glass. So whether they're using you know,
native botanicals or more traditional botanicals, I think it's it
(08:42):
all comes down to that passion and that love of
the product.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Is it considered to be a drink of the upper classes.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It's certainly a classic and a classy drink for sure.
I just love that there's so many different flavor profiles
that really, if you don't like one, try another one,
because there's so many different ones out there that you
can try and have different flavor profiles. And you know,
that's what's really exciting about jim if you can be
really creative with the recipes that you come up with.
You know, if you want a gin to just drink
(09:08):
on its own over ice, so if you want something
to mix the tonic something in cocktails, there's certainly the
gin out there for everyone. I think that's why we've
seen such a massive resurgence in the popularity of gin.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Is it true that no two gins are the same.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Definitely, definitely. I mean you could have the same botanicals,
but the recipe profile might be different. And the type
of still that you distill those botanicals on. If that's different,
then you'll get a different flavor profile as well. So
whether you use dried or fresh botanicals, all of those
things can make a difference.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I suppose the resurgence in gin in Tasmania has been
fantastic for the industry and also for.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Jobs definitely, So the Tablinian industry, we're sort of reaching
up around the eighty to one hundred different distilleries and
most of those are in regional areas, so we're getting
a lot of regional dispersal around the state with increasing tourism,
especially the one that have got teller doors. They're inviting
people out there to taste and to view and to
(10:05):
see the process involved in making gins, which then that
interprets himTo jobs for the local economy. It has a
flow on effect which is fantastic.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
McHenry Distillery in Port Arthur is a family run business
that has reached national and world acclaim. The owner, William
Fraser mckenry, was once told by a neighbor that with
a name like that, he should learn to play the
bagpipes and make whiskey, and that casual comment got the
ball rolling for the mckenry's with a family moving from
Sydney to Tazzy to build Australia's southernmost distillery.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Early days, it was a tough market to crack. I mean,
I tell the story of making a couple of their gym.
So we did a classic London dry and walking in
the bars with our gin, trying to get the bartenders
and restaurants to stock it and put on their measureless
and literally getting knocked back because people would tell me, look,
(10:57):
we've got enough to bill, We've got a we've got
a tankeray, we've got a Hendrix if we need something
special in the Bombay sapphire, so we don't need more gin.
So and that was the story I used to get
all the time. So the early days of selling Australian gin,
making it marketing, it was really tough. Slowly, the environment's changed,
(11:18):
consumers have become more receptive the products may here awards
that we've won around the world and locally has helped
build trust in the quality of the products to a
point now where from what we started out where there
was just a handful of distilleries, so now something like
eight hundred and I suppose the noise that eight hundred
distilleries make selling gin, we certainly change it. Drinking habits
(11:41):
in Australia.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah, definitely has been you know, obviously, you know we've
got James Bond talking about his gin martini, but we've
got many other people just having that gin and tonic
on a summer's afternoon and that's pretty much all you
could ask for.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And it looked a lovely thing about gin too, that
Jack us it it. Actually, it's quite a wide range
of different styles of gin. Not only you have London
dry style, but you can create modern gins. We're using
really interesting botanicals that haven't been experimented before. We made
shipping gins, we make age gins. You know, there's a
whole variety and so within that category there is often
(12:19):
a style of gin that appeals to everyone.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Yeah, and of course you use Tasmanian water or the
natural you know, elements of the local environment. That's a
pretty cool thing to put on a bottle as well.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah. Well look when you think about it, I mean
it sounds a bit mundane, but look a bottle of
gin is forty percent alcohol and by default it's sixty
percent water. So the quality of the water is crucial
and so we actually moved as a family from Sydney
to Tasmania fifteen years ago. We bought the property twenty
years ago because it had natural sprints. An abundance supply
(12:54):
of soft, sweet cold water water is one of those
vital ingredients. So we just take for grants at sometimes.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Absolutely we do. Yeah, there's something like seventy gin makers
in Tazzi alone, if I'm correct. How do you stand
out in Tasmania? You know, do you have people doing
a bit of a gin tour? You know you hear
of wine tours? Is the gin tours in Tasi?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah. Early on we actually were the first actility in
Australia that actually taught people to make gyms. So we
had our own little gym academy, the first gym school.
We've taught other facilities to make gin, but we also
teach people just you know, regular people that have just
enjoyed gin and want to know more. We've taught them
how to make gin and created their own. And we
(13:38):
also do bespoke recipes, so we'll get people in businesses
in and create actually special recipes for them. So Matt Moran,
we created a gin for him Moran's number nine right
where he was able to choose and select the different botanicals.
We distilled them separately so we could taste them, and
then blended them all together to make his own special gin. Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
So so you're telling me then, if my boyfriend ever
got his stuff together and got down on one knee,
I could have a wedding gin.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You could.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Of course, Jin's been around long before Tasmania's resurgence. The
story goes Dutch soldiers used to take a swig or
two before battle back in the mid fifteen hundreds, and
it seemed to have a calming effect and also numb
to the pain. English soldiers then brought that idea back
to the UK and proceeded to make their own version
of the clear liquid, also coining the term Dutch courage.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
So there you go.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
That's it for this week. Don't forget you can hear
iHeart Tazzi and the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'm Jackie Lim Join us again next week
for more of the stories you want to hear.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
iHeart Tazzy
My heart Tazzy.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Can you do something for you, mister Bondu Just a drink?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
A Martini shaken.
Speaker 4 (00:09):
Muster, the Martini drink of choice for superspies like James
bond and the rich and famous, including Churchhill, Sinatra, Madonna,
even Queen Elizabeth II, not to mention lonely business travelers
around Australia and across the globe. Four parts gin, a
splash of drive Vermouth and there you have it, class
(00:31):
in a glass. Hi, I'm Jackie Limb with iHeart Tazzy.
This week we're looking into Tazzi's long history with gin
and whiskey in the state's now booming industry. Australia is
at the forefront of a global gin renaissance, and the
heart of that resurgence is right here in Tazzy. In fact,
Tasmanian gin is enjoying massive popularity, not just at home
(00:51):
but across the world. But how did a drink that
was once concocted in bath tubs end up where it
is today, putting our state on the world alcohol map. Well.
Gin and Tasmania dates back to the eighteen hundreds, where
early settlers brought the clear fragrance spirit with them from England. However,
with the rise of Prohibition, many of the small distilleries
which it opened throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century
(01:14):
were forced to close. It wasn't until the nineteen nineties
that it started to make a comeback in a big way.
I spoke to head distiller at bright Night Gin in Newtown,
Damian Macki, about the history of the industry and how
Tazy is taking.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Over the Tasmanian craft distilling industry, which really started off
about thirty three years ago by Bill and Lin. Lark
has always been very collaborative and Bill and Lynn really
cut the pathway and with a lot of contacts and
investigations back in Scotland and elsewhere around the world, really
worked out the best way to make whiskey and gin.
(01:50):
And then they really helped build the industry by passing
on their knowledge to all the other people who came
in after. And so that's left a really strong legacy
of cooperation and collect aberration amongst all the distilleries here
in Tasmania. Plus we of course we have our beautiful
clean air and water, fantastic aging conditions for whiskey, and
(02:10):
wonderful unique botanicals that we can put into our gins
and help them make genuinely unique and genuinely Tasmanian.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yeah, So going back to the history of it all
and Bill Larks, you know, coming in and the early
nineteen nineties to kind of get the ball rolling and
pushing the subject, if you like, after one hundred and
fifty years of nothing going on in Tazi. Why do
you think it took that long.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Well, we actually did have a thriving distillery industry in
the early colonial days. So there were legal distilleries in
Hobart and I think one in Loncheston, and probably hundreds
of illegal distilleries. But within the eighteen thirties when Governor
John Franklin and Lady Jane Franklin came to Tasmania and
(02:55):
they were very worried about the population. Apparently half the
popular were paralytic half the time, and the infamous New
South Wales Rum Corps had transplanted itself down to Van
Diemen's Land very early on, and so they brought in
laws which basically outlawed distilling. They purchased the licenses back
from the legal distilleries, and so from about the eighteen
(03:18):
thirties to the nineteen nineties, there was no distilling legally
going on in Tasmania and it took Bill to say, well,
we have the perfect natural ingredients for making great whiskey,
the perfect aging environment. We have all the you know,
we have highland peat bogs, we have all the same
ingredients of Scotland and Irelands to make fantastic whiskey, and
(03:40):
we should be making it. He had to go and
get federal legislation changed in the early nineteen nineties to
make small craft distilleries legal and everything's gone from there.
And of course Phil's life. Lynn was really the person
behind the gin side of things, with an amazing palette
and amazing ability to mix flavors and come up with
beautiful gins. So they were a godsend for Tasmania really
(04:03):
and helped get a whole new industry started.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
Yeah, and now it's a very populated industry. There's seventy
odd distilleries or something crazy in TASiS, so that's a
huge amount. How does everyone find their own little flavor if.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
You like, that's a really good question. We're not sure
how many distilleries there are on the association, and I
think we've got about seventy members and we know of others,
but then we know that there are others that we
don't know of, and so we think there might be
maybe a hundred distilleries in Tasmania. So it is a
real thriving craft industry. So in terms of everyone finding
their own niche, that's the great thing about gin is
(04:38):
that there are so many combinations and permutations of botanicals
to put into the still to make your own particular gin.
The ability to create your own special flavor by exploring
the whole botanica of Tasmania, which everyone's been doing for
the last thirty years to find the next great gin botanical.
The Tasmane mountain pepperberry and they're only harvested at a
(05:00):
certain time. Potential for a plant or a berry or
a leaf to be used as a gin botanical has
been thoroughly explored over the last two hundred years. Of course,
when out Tasmaim distilling industry started up thirty years ago,
we realized the whole world of interesting native botanicals in
Tasmania to explore. Our state is becoming a genuine whisky
(05:22):
region in its own right.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
How do you think that our Aussie and Tasmania specific
gins compared to the ones that have been produced since
the fifteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
I do put it down, as I said, to everyone
having a very collaborative that attitude and helping each other.
And one of Bill Lark's favorite things was a rising
tide floats all boats. So that's what we're trying to
do as an industry. We're trying to all come up
together and if we help each other to be very
very good distillers in that way, we keep the whole
reputation of all of Tasmanian spirits at a high level.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I've got a quote here from Bill Lang says, if
you'd said to me thirty years ago that they're be
that many distilleries, I've said, mate, you're mad. What do
you have to say to that?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, I kind of a new Bill back in the
early nineteen nineties when he was just starting off, and
a lot of people did say he was mad just
to start one distillery. You know, people were saying, well,
what you can't make whisky in Tasmania. You know you're
not going to peek with a Scottish single maltz. I
think that's another part of being Tasmanian. We are sort
of isolated or from the rest of Australia, but the
(06:27):
whole rest of the world as well, and so we
have a really significant tradition of getting on and trying
things and doing things ourselves and you know, not taking
any notice of the nasayers.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
We'll have more after the break.
Speaker 5 (06:39):
Why high hearty, high hearty.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Welcome back. We're talking about the wonderful world that is
gin distilling in Tasmania. With over seventy distilleries in our
state alone, we figured there must be a reason, perhaps
even a secret, to why people gravitate down south. Our
reporter Rob McLennan spoke to Christy lark Booth, the head
distiller at Kolara Distillery in Richmond, about what Tazzi has
(07:07):
that allows the state to produce such high quality gin.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
I think it sort of stems from that can do attitude.
You know, we've got the distilling industry where all the
you know, the modern craft distilling industry here in Australia
was really kicked off here in Tasmania, and so we've
sort of got that pioneering instinct down here and it's
a fantastic place to be creating premium spirits.
Speaker 5 (07:28):
It just seems to have taken off. It's a fairly
recent thing. I know gin's been around for you know,
five hundred years or more, but it just seems to
have taken off in Tasmania recently.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Yeah, definitely. I mean everything is cyclical, so you know,
gin was quite popular, like you said, a couple hundred
years ago, and now it's seeing a resurgence. We've got
lots of distilleries here in Tasmania producing Tasmanian gin that
we utilize a lot of the native botanicals down here
in Tasmania, Pepperbury being the main one, and now we've
(08:00):
even got people growing their own juniper like myself and
several other distilleries, so we can sort of have that
really closed circle of produce and know where it's been.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
Grown Tasmanian plants that are kind of native to Tassy.
Is that something that's helped Tasmania develops such a great reputation,
I think so.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
I think it's also the fact that the distillers down
here have got such care and attention to detail that
you know, you go to any distillery and they're just
so passionate about the products that they're making. And I
think that passion and that care and that love that
goes into their product really shines through in what you're
tasting in the glass. So whether they're using you know,
native botanicals or more traditional botanicals, I think it's it
(08:42):
all comes down to that passion and that love of
the product.
Speaker 5 (08:45):
Is it considered to be a drink of the upper classes.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
It's certainly a classic and a classy drink for sure.
I just love that there's so many different flavor profiles
that really, if you don't like one, try another one,
because there's so many different ones out there that you
can try and have different flavor profiles. And you know,
that's what's really exciting about jim if you can be
really creative with the recipes that you come up with.
You know, if you want a gin to just drink
(09:08):
on its own over ice, so if you want something
to mix the tonic something in cocktails, there's certainly the
gin out there for everyone. I think that's why we've
seen such a massive resurgence in the popularity of gin.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
Is it true that no two gins are the same.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Definitely, definitely. I mean you could have the same botanicals,
but the recipe profile might be different. And the type
of still that you distill those botanicals on. If that's different,
then you'll get a different flavor profile as well. So
whether you use dried or fresh botanicals, all of those
things can make a difference.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
I suppose the resurgence in gin in Tasmania has been
fantastic for the industry and also for.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Jobs definitely, So the Tablinian industry, we're sort of reaching
up around the eighty to one hundred different distilleries and
most of those are in regional areas, so we're getting
a lot of regional dispersal around the state with increasing tourism,
especially the one that have got teller doors. They're inviting
people out there to taste and to view and to
(10:05):
see the process involved in making gins, which then that
interprets himTo jobs for the local economy. It has a
flow on effect which is fantastic.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
McHenry Distillery in Port Arthur is a family run business
that has reached national and world acclaim. The owner, William
Fraser mckenry, was once told by a neighbor that with
a name like that, he should learn to play the
bagpipes and make whiskey, and that casual comment got the
ball rolling for the mckenry's with a family moving from
Sydney to Tazzy to build Australia's southernmost distillery.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Early days, it was a tough market to crack. I mean,
I tell the story of making a couple of their gym.
So we did a classic London dry and walking in
the bars with our gin, trying to get the bartenders
and restaurants to stock it and put on their measureless
and literally getting knocked back because people would tell me, look,
(10:57):
we've got enough to bill, We've got a we've got
a tankeray, we've got a Hendrix if we need something
special in the Bombay sapphire, so we don't need more gin.
So and that was the story I used to get
all the time. So the early days of selling Australian gin,
making it marketing, it was really tough. Slowly, the environment's changed,
(11:18):
consumers have become more receptive the products may here awards
that we've won around the world and locally has helped
build trust in the quality of the products to a
point now where from what we started out where there
was just a handful of distilleries, so now something like
eight hundred and I suppose the noise that eight hundred
distilleries make selling gin, we certainly change it. Drinking habits
(11:41):
in Australia.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Yeah, definitely has been you know, obviously, you know we've
got James Bond talking about his gin martini, but we've
got many other people just having that gin and tonic
on a summer's afternoon and that's pretty much all you
could ask for.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
And it looked a lovely thing about gin too, that
Jack us it it. Actually, it's quite a wide range
of different styles of gin. Not only you have London
dry style, but you can create modern gins. We're using
really interesting botanicals that haven't been experimented before. We made
shipping gins, we make age gins. You know, there's a
whole variety and so within that category there is often
(12:19):
a style of gin that appeals to everyone.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
Yeah, and of course you use Tasmanian water or the
natural you know, elements of the local environment. That's a
pretty cool thing to put on a bottle as well.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Yeah. Well look when you think about it, I mean
it sounds a bit mundane, but look a bottle of
gin is forty percent alcohol and by default it's sixty
percent water. So the quality of the water is crucial
and so we actually moved as a family from Sydney
to Tasmania fifteen years ago. We bought the property twenty
years ago because it had natural sprints. An abundance supply
(12:54):
of soft, sweet cold water water is one of those
vital ingredients. So we just take for grants at sometimes.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Absolutely we do. Yeah, there's something like seventy gin makers
in Tazzi alone, if I'm correct. How do you stand
out in Tasmania? You know, do you have people doing
a bit of a gin tour? You know you hear
of wine tours? Is the gin tours in Tasi?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah. Early on we actually were the first actility in
Australia that actually taught people to make gyms. So we
had our own little gym academy, the first gym school.
We've taught other facilities to make gin, but we also
teach people just you know, regular people that have just
enjoyed gin and want to know more. We've taught them
how to make gin and created their own. And we
(13:38):
also do bespoke recipes, so we'll get people in businesses
in and create actually special recipes for them. So Matt Moran,
we created a gin for him Moran's number nine right
where he was able to choose and select the different botanicals.
We distilled them separately so we could taste them, and
then blended them all together to make his own special gin. Wow.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
So so you're telling me then, if my boyfriend ever
got his stuff together and got down on one knee,
I could have a wedding gin.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You could.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
Of course, Jin's been around long before Tasmania's resurgence. The
story goes Dutch soldiers used to take a swig or
two before battle back in the mid fifteen hundreds, and
it seemed to have a calming effect and also numb
to the pain. English soldiers then brought that idea back
to the UK and proceeded to make their own version
of the clear liquid, also coining the term Dutch courage.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
So there you go.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
That's it for this week. Don't forget you can hear
iHeart Tazzi and the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. I'm Jackie Lim Join us again next week
for more of the stories you want to hear.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
iHeart Tazzy
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