This Adelaide Hills distillery not only makes some of the country’s best gins, it also scooped Best Drink in Australia in 2022, and a visit brings the chance to try the winning range.
There are some people who just make things happen. Brendan and Laura Carter are those sorts of people. Projects bounce around their heads like a bag of dropped marbles and they have carved out a distinctive, thoughtful and continually compelling niche for themselves in Australia’s drinks scene. Winemakers, distillers, even a brief dalliance as perfumiers – these guys have long dedicated themselves to liquids that make our lives better.
The Applewood Distillery is that ethos in physical form – bricks and mortar imbued with Big Carter Energy. It’s a sensory playground for those with curious palates and open minds.
You’re in a distillery. That distillery makes some of the country’s best gin. This question should really answer itself. And it does – but it also poses another. Obviously you’ll order gin, but what gin will it be? Perhaps the beautifully blushing Coral gin will catch your eye – a pretty pink paean to Australia’s tropical coastline and the rainforests proliferating throughout its hinterland. Or maybe the Alpine gin will lure you in, its bracing botanicals including Tasmanian mountain pepper and finger lime – it’s as exhilarating as the view from a scaled summit.
Whatever the choice, you’ll be encountering some of the most unique and compelling gins on the planet.
While gin is the main focus at Applewood, you’d be missing out on some mind-blowing liqueurs and digestives if you restrict yourself solely to a juniper realm. Great connections in South Australia’s Riverland allow these guys to source spectacular citrus for both a mandarin liqueur and a brilliant take on limoncello, and your next Espresso Martini will be greatly improved by the addition of Unico Caffé.
Native botanicals are at the heart of the Økar range of digestives, and if you’re quick, you might even snap up a bottle of the Økar “Tropic”, made from gewürztraminer and moscato, fortified with excess spirit from gin production, energised by a big splash of citrus and so damn delicious it was awarded Best Drink in Australia at the 2022 Drink Easy Awards.
