Who am I to judge?

In case you missed my last blog post, I scored the fabulous job of judging the Australian Gin Awards this week.

Yesterday I gathered with my fellow judges to celebrate the completion of our mammoth task of sampling hundreds of spirits and the results, including deciding on the country’s Best in Show gin for 2024.

The top trophy winner – which received an almost perfect score – will remain a tightly kept secret until the awards night in September. Will advise!

In the meantime, Chair of Judges Mikey Enright hosted us all for lunch at High & Dry, the mezzanine cocktail bar and dining space at his distillery, Hickson House, for lunch. The bar is handily located five minutes from my office in The Rocks, so I could duck down to briefly enjoy the festivities.

The food was sensational. We started with bowls of olives, followed by sirloin steak with fries and bernaise, roasted barramundi, greens, roast potatoes and fried cauliflower. Heaven.

I was too shy to take photos but our lunch looked a lot like the spread above, sans the pasta and cannoli. I really want to take DD there for a steak, I think he’d love it – the food is great and the ambience is so luxe and glam.

I also think it says a lot about a bar when the staff stick around. So many bartenders have moved on from the venues they were working at when I wrote my Sydney Cocktails book, but Alberto (above) is still at Hickson House. I told him I’d bring my book with me next time to show him his profile.

While the last few days have been fun, my body has waved a white flag and begged me to stop eating so much rich food. There has been so much excess this week that I was sick by the end of the day and having sharp stomach pains as I caught the bus home last night.

Must eat like a rabbit for the next few days to recalibrate …

I wonder if I’ll be invited back to judge the awards next year? It’s been a lot of fun, stomach pains aside. And I learnt so much from the two blokes who were in my judging group, the owner of Moya’s Juniper Lounge Charles Casben and The Gin Boutique co-founder Andrew Howell. They were very patient with my lack of knowledge about sloe gins and agreed with my Gold medal suggestions in the liqueur category.

(In case you’re a bit hazy on sloe gin too, it was one of England’s most popular drinks during the late 19th century. It’s having a revival and it made by infusing sloe berries with gin and sugar. It’s red in colour with a unique mix of sweetness and tartness and often an aroma of marzipan on the nose.)

I also felt chuffed that when I tasted the two classic gins up for Best in Category and chose my favourite, I picked the winner. So maybe there’s hope for me!

And now it’s the weekend. It feels like forever since the kids went away, but it’s been less than a week. It will be strange to wake up on Saturday morning to an empty apartment.

I have my usual mad whirl of activities booked, so I will keep myself over-stimulated.

I also only have one cocktail to go for my book so I will finally have time soon to catch up with long-neglected friends.

Have a great weekend!

Song of the day: ABBA “The winner takes it all”