It was all about ‘Spritz’ and glamour at The Collins Bar in the Hilton Hotel, who hosted a night this week dedicated to Settler’s Gin tasting. It was a glamourous night celebrating the launch of Settler’s new collection of gins in conjunction with The Collin’s Bar new Spritz range.
Settler’s Gin creator and beverage connoissuer, Rowland Short, prides his product on being South Australian, so much so, that the name ‘Settler’s Gin’ is even derived from the South Australian settlers in the 1800’s. “The gin is made from grapes grown on the family property, then distilled on the property and finally bottled on the property – all by hand,” says Rowland on the production processes.
Rowland and Kelly Short moved to McLaren Vale, starting up their own business and tending to an existing Shiraz vineyard. They began their journey by understanding grapes, eventually building a cellar door and creating their very own award-winning ‘Maximus Wine’ thereafter. After gaining exstensive knowledge on growing and tending in the McClaren Vale region, Rowland set out to follow his dream and proceeded to create a small batch of Artisian gin. From this success, he began to make more bottles of gin by hand, utilizing the rich grape juice.
According to Rowland, “the only thing that’s better than one glass of gin is two!” We later discovered that this philosophy was in fact true. To begin our gin tastings, we tried a ‘Blueberry Smash’ (crowd favourite) from the Spritz Menu of cocktails. Settler’s Gin was mixed with blueberry jam, fresh lime, prosecco, sugar syrup, and poured over crushed ice. The grape juice distilled gin was refreshingly flavoursome and complimented the fruity tones.
The vapour distillation technique used in Settler’s Gin infuses in a copper pot, creating a concentrated product with clean flavours of the distilled grape – just like the wine making process! The distilling process is distinctly different to other gins usually made from grain, because the grapes add more of a subtle fruity flavour. This type of flavour is softer on the palate, making it easy and versatile enough to mix smoothly into almost any drink.
