Overview
Seeing fruit mince pies in your local shopping centre in October feels downright disturbing, but there's one Christmas treat that no one ever minds arriving early: Four Pillars' annual Christmas Gin.
The latest iteration of the Healesville distillery's seasonal sip is coming in strong, set to hit shelves on Tuesday, October 25. It's the delicious result of a yearly tradition that sees a bunch of Christmas puddings handmade with distiller Cameron Mackenzie's mother's recipe — the 1968 Australian Women's Weekly recipe, in fact — and distilled with various festive botanicals to create a sought-after tipple that pretty much screams December 25.
The flavours of an Aussie Christmas are captured in notes of cinnamon, star anise, juniper, coriander and angelica. The Christmas gin is then blended with some earlier gin that's been carefully ageing in 80-year-old muscat barrels. It's all finished with a hit of Rutherglen muscat for a bit of added richness and complexity.
Each year, a new unique label is chosen to wrap up this Christmas creation, setting out to evoke that same festive spirit. The 2022's bottle design is the work of artist Jane Reynolds, who has provided an abstract version of a Christmas tree scene. She has also whipped up artwork for the rest of Four Pillars' seasonal range — because the gin has company.
If it's the tipple itself that has you excited, the distillers always recommend you sip the limited-edition gin neat; mix it with ginger ale, lime and bitters; or whip up a pavlova punch with the festive gin, passionfruit, muscat, berries and your choice of sparkling.
Or you can just splash a bit of it on your own Christmas pudding — or pair it with Four Pillars' own Christmas gin puddings, as made with with gin-steamed oranges and a dash of Christmas Gin (naturally), which'll also be available to buy from Tuesday, October 25.
There's also a sour cherry and fresh yuzu and apple pickle, aka pickles made from yuzu-steeped apples and botanical-infused oranges that are then mixed with sour cherries and spices, and are recommended to serve with cheese, charcuterie or a leftover ham sandwich.
Finally, Four Pillars is releasing a linen yuletide tea towel, too, as decked out with with Reynold's work.
If you want to nab a bottle — or any of the above — have your fingers poised over the 'buy' button when they go on sale online towards the end of October. Alternatively, you can stop by the Four Pillars HQ in Healesville, Victoria or the brand's Surry Hills shop in Sydney. Bottles are $105 a pop and would make stellar Chrissy pressies, if you're already thinking about that.
The pudding will cost you $30, the tea towel the same price and the pickles $10.
Four Pillars Christmas Gin is available to buy online, from the Healesville distillery and Surry Hills shop from Tuesday, October 25. But you'd best be quick — there's only a limited amount of bottles.
Images: Benito Martin.