Today, Four Pillars announces its fifth Distiller Series Gin, Four Pillars Green Apple & Rhubarb Gin, a special collab with our gin friends in the UK, Warner’s Distillery. Fruity fresh and flavour-packed, this gin is bright, rich and full of depth.
Like most ‘good’ stories involving Brits and Aussies, the idea for this gin started with a drink in a pub, that led to discourse on cricket, humour, beer, rivalry and god knows what else. And not surprisingly, during this whole lot of chat, it actually became evident that Warner’s and Four Pillars had quite a lot in common.
“We both love a good time and a good drink; we’re both passionate about sustainable distilling using real, local ingredients to achieve big, natural flavours and we both try to bring a sense of place to gin through the use of native ingredients,” said Four Pillars distiller Cam Mackenzie.
So while Cam was been changing the very face of gin in Australia by steeping it in Victorian Shiraz grapes, Tom Warner was on the other side of the world blowing British minds with rhubarb grown at their distillery, made into their ever-popular and naturally- flavoured Rhubarb Gin.
So, what would a collaboration look like? Surely one of us had to use rhubarb and the other Shiraz? But what if we did it the other way round and we, Four Pillars, used rhubarb, and our mates at Warners used Shiraz?
Well, we simply had to find out. So, ladies and gentlemen, friends in Australia and Great Britain, welcome to our fifth Distiller Series gin, Four Pillars Green Apple & Rhubarb Gin.
The gin
Naturally, the starting point for our Four Pillars Green Apple & Rhubarb Gin, was freshly pressed rhubarb juice spirit. And what better to complement rhubarb than delicious fresh apples grown in the Yarra Valley?
So, into the pot of the still went juniper (it is gin after all) with botanicals like coriander and lemon myrtle adding freshness, wattle seed and cacao shell bringing richness, and brown spices like nutmeg, cloves and cassia, as well as ginger for warmth.
To the botanical basket went lemons and local Pink Lady apples, with the oils from the lemon rind in particular adding another hit of acidity to cut through the warmth, spice and sweetness.
Post-distillation is where the rhubarb juice spirit from Warner’s, and fresh green apples from the Yarra Valley came into play. In fact, three separate liquids are blended into the gin after distillation: rhubarb juice, apple juice and an apple cider spirit.
First up is the freshly pressed rhubarb juice spirit made from farm-grown rhubarb. The juice is fresh and tangy, and adds a nice bite and crispness to the finish along with a gentle aromatic.
Second in is the apple juice from some of our local growers (yep – the Yarra Valley also grows AMAZING apples, which is a blend of Granny Smith apples and cider apples. The juice is fresh and sweet with plenty of acidity to boot.
And last but by no means least, is the apple cider spirit or eau de vie (as fate would have it, we have a cider expert on the books, Alice Glare, our amazing assistant distiller, who has a background in cider production down the road at Napoleone Cider). This spirit adds depth and complexity as well as beautiful perfumed aromatics.
The resulting gin is apple and rhubarb crumble in a glass, a mixture of warmth and freshness perfect to enjoying a G&T, a Highball or a Fruit Cup.
It also reminds us of crisp autumn mornings in the Yarra Valley, a shed of ripening apples and gardens bursting with produce like lemons and rhubarb. It’s fresh, but with a murmur of richer spices almost saying that winter is on the way.
Available from www.fourpillarsgin.com and the Gin Shops at the Four Pillars Healesville Distillery and Four Pillars Surry Hills Laboratory and any good local bottle shops from 18 April 2023 or sign up for early access.
RRP $88.00. 41.8% ABV.
Four Pillars unveils Green Apple & Rhubarb Gin
