And the winner is …

I’ve judged a few things in my time … Miss Nude Australia … the Logies … the Craft Beer Marketing Awards … Trump supporters …

Earlier this year I added another role to the list: judging the Australian Gin Awards.

And the reason I didn’t blog yesterday was because I was being a dirty stop-out at the awards ceremony.

The presentation was held at Ester Spirits in Marrickville and I was allowed to bring a plus-one, so took my sister along for moral support.

We were both keen to check out the new Metro so we met at Martin Place and caught it to Sydenham. Amazing, so fancy and fast.

Then it was a 15-minute walk through the back streets of Marrickville, which was very entertaining – the suburb is heaving with cool craft distilleries these days, so we did lots of stickybeaking along the way.

We got ever so slightly lost, but finally stumbled across this sign …

Yes, please! And what a great venue it was!

There were lovely spritzes, martinis and negronis on arrival, plus oysters and other delicious morsels.

Oh, and a whole smorgasbord of cold cuts, with actual mountains of bread and truffle butter.

I said hello to the founder of the awards and she gave me a long, hard stare and barked “One minute!”. That was the revised time limit for how long I was allowed to talk while introducing the Gin Liqueurs category.

So I threw away five of my six pages of speech notes.

I will make you read them instead so they don’t go to waste.

Imagine you are there, watching me gesticulate wildly in my matching silver singlet, shoes and bag …

I had an outrageously good time judging the Australia Gin Awards and especially the Traditional Gin Liqueurs category alongside Charles Casben from Moya’s Juniper Lounge and Andrew Howell from The Gin Boutique.

Thank you to both blokes for sharing their wisdom and wit so generously with me.

Thank you also to Awards Chairman Mikey Enright from the Barrelhouse Group for being such a positive guiding force for the judging panel during our time at the table. And to founder Judith Kennedy for asking me to join the fun.

We tasted some incredible traditional gin liqueurs on a happy July afternoon, including two stunning Gold Medal winners. As someone who prefers their desserts in liquid form, the medal winners were a delicious experience.

Traditional gin liqueurs are generally influenced by traditional Sloe Gins whereby a dry gin is macerated with fruit and then lightly sweetened.

The category may include Sloe Gins and Sloe-Style Gins as well as similar alternatives.

I know I’m in a room full of gin connoisseurs but I figure just in case there are some attendees new to the spirit, sloe gin is made with sloe berries – spelled s-l-o-e, not s-l-o-w.

The invention of sloe gin has been attributed to 17th century laws in England that required division of land, with sloe berry hedgerows became an inexpensive natural fencing solution.

While the sloe berries on their own are tart and bitter, Brits thought it was a pity not to use them for something, so they began infusing them in gin to make “poor man’s port.”

In the 20th century Sloe gin went upmarket and started appearing in classic cocktails such as the Charlie Chaplin.

In the 2020s, gin liqueurs perfect in two of the decade’s favourite summer drinks: spritz cocktails and highballs. With less bitter notes and more fruit and floral flavours they’re regarded as an ‘easy-to-drink’ crowd-pleasing alternative to London dry gin.

The category winner for the 2024 Australian Gin Awards was a very elegantly balanced berry liqueur with an alluring nose and long finish. And I look forward to sipping it with you later tonight.

End of written speech. Actual delivered speech featured galloping highlights.

And the winner was … Ounce Gin ‘Shiraz’ by Imperial Measures Distilling.

Lovely blokes.

So is the other bloke in the main picture above, Mikey Enright. Mikey owns Hickson House Distillery and is an absolute sweetheart. Such a kind, cheery man. Actually, all the judges were such nice people. I really enjoyed meeting them.

The overall winner of Best in Class gin of the year was Bluff Gin. Located in New Zealand’s southernmost town, Bluff Distillery sits within a beachside building in a converted freezing works. The gin, with its distinctive glass buoy bottle, only launched in March 2024. The first batch sold out within five days!

Before we left we had the chance to try all the winning gins, either in little sipping cups or as gin and tonics.

We sampled the Bluff and Christmas Gin before sneaking off into the night, back past all the breweries to the station to catch the Metro home.

Have a great weekend, catch you next week!

Song of the day: The Rolling Stones “Honky tonk woman”