Garden Grown Gin ~ The Gin Queen

When Garden Grown Gin launched in 2015 it was called Distillery Botanica Gin, a joint venture between Philip Moore at Distillery Botanica and Frank Bethel and Will Miles, at Grown Spirits.

Frank and Will both have a background in Branding and Design; working on and developing some of Australia’s biggest brands including many in the food and beverage industry. A little tired of marketing meetings in bland industrial parks, they set about finding something more interesting to do with their time; thinking it would be nice to make something of their own.

They had the idea to make a gin as fresh as possible, with botanicals grown and picked from a special garden somewhere. A meeting with probably the best Australian Distiller going around got the idea closer to reality. Catching up with Phillip at his distillery back in 2014, Frank knew that Philip’s garden in Erina would be the perfect one to put into a bottle.

As the gin took off, and as Distillery Botanica’s reputation grew, it became obvious that separation between the two was needed in order for them both to continue to grow.

So in late 2018, they officially re-branded as Garden Grown Gin and Philip became producer, rather than co-owner. Same liquid, same Master Distiller, and same distinctive bottle. Just a different name.

A thousand-year old technique called “enfleurage” is used when making Garden Grown gin.

This technique is favoured by perfumers, as it captures the fragrance compounds at their best without using heat. They achieve this by putting solid coconut oil at the bottom of a jar and layering the floral botanicals on top.

The jar is covered and the solid coconut oil soaks up the fragrant aromas. Afterwards, the flowers are discarded and the solid coconut is dissolved into alcohol before being cold-filtered to remove impurities. This floral essence is then blended with the other distilled botanicals

Botanicals

Juniper, Murraya, chamomile flowers, rose, sage ‘Berggarten’ ( a variety of sage ) and orris root make up the recipe for Garden Grown gin.

Juniper is used in two types of distillates – one created by macerating the berries and another by the 100% vapour infusion method . The chamomile, sage and orris root are pot distilled, while the rose and Murraya have their flavours extracted by the “enfleurage” method. The distillates are then blended together to create Garden Grown gin.

Looking at the list of ingredients you’ll notice two things, the lack of citrus and the high volume of flowers. You’re probably expecting a highly-fragranced, floral gin and to a certain extent you are right. However, the juniper is still given prominence both in aroma and flavour.

Murraya paniculata is part of the citrus family and sometimes known as ‘mock orange’. It has small, white scented flowers and some varieties bear small fruit a little like a kumquats. While this in itself does not create a traditional citrus flavour we seeing in our gins, the “enfleurage” method extracts jasmine, honeysuckle and orange blossom characters that are delightful. The sage and orris root add balance by balancing the floral tones with savoury, herbaceous notes.