FOUR PILLARS BLOODY SHIRAZ GIN 750ML HEALEVILLE, IN VICTORIA'S VALLEY - MELBOURNE

Four Pillars continues to prove why they have quickly catapulted to the vanguard of the gin world with releases like this. This vintage dated gin liqueur is made with a foundation of their great Rare Dry that is then cold macerated for eight weeks with the highest quality de-stemmed whole berry Yarra Valley shiraz grapes the team can find. Four Pillars likens it to the Saignée method in champagne, hence "bloody." Notes include baked plums, cherry preserves, wild strawberries, pine sap and white pepper. Great for cocktails or on its own with an ice cube. What started as an experiment has now earned its own category in the global spirits competitions, and the results are bloody brilliant. Four Pillars Distillery is in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley, beautiful cool climate wine country. We’d have to be crazy not to take advantage of it. So back in 2015 that’s what we did. We were happily making gin out the back of our 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 we took it off his hands – perhaps without his knowledge… It seemed perfectly obvious to Cam Mackenzie that we 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 we 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.