Australian distillers using natives ‘at their peril’: Philip Moore

The quality of Australian gin has suffered due to the rapid embrace of poor quality native botanicals, according to Distillery Botanica founder Philip Moore.

Moore told the Drinks Adventures podcast that Australian natives require significantly more breeding and selection before he will consider using them in any of his gins.

“There’s been farming going on for 10,000 years in the northern hemisphere, and the first person to discover a peach, it would have been the size of a marble and tasted really foul,” he said.

“[With] constant selection over thousands of years, you end up with a peach that’s the size of a cricket ball; it’s juicy and has lovely flavours.

“But unfortunately with the Australian natives, that process hasn’t happened.”

Bitter and unpalatable

Moore says he can tell “a mile off” if a gin contains Australian native botanicals.

“The entry, as it enters your palate, can be quite okay. But then the aftertaste invariably is just absolutely bitter and unpalatable,” he says.

“A lot of the Australian natives contain cineole, which is a major ingredient in eucalyptus oil.

“If you use that in parts per billion, it’s quite nice. But if you use that at a regular dose, it just makes the most unpalatable sort of gin you can think of.”

Lemon myrtle and pepperberry are the most popular native botanicals among Australian distillers.

You won’t find either in Distillery Botanica’s gins, though Moore won an IWSC Gold Medal in 2019 with his Lemon Myrtle Liqueur.

“Lemon myrtle works outstandingly well in a liqueur, but it’s like a lot of Australian natives in that it has a very harsh aftertaste in a gin.

“The idea behind all of my gins is that they should be absolutely pure and flawless, and I cannot make a gin flawless by using lemon myrtle.

“I’ve also tried the pepperberry, which people use as well, and I find the same thing.”

Sensory training needed

Moore is a senior judge at competitions including the Australian Gin Awards, and says the majority of gins entered should never have been bottled.

“The people making these gins, either they’ve not developed their palate or they’ve decided, ‘that’s the best we can do, let’s put it in a bottle and see if somebody will buy it’,” he said.

“The only problem with that approach is people buy one bottle of it, and never buy another one.

“I think it’s really important for everybody, in any line of alcohol beverage production, to do the very best they can to train their palate.

“That would lead to an increasing quality of all Australian spirits.”

Listen to the full interview in your podcast player here, or in the media player below.