Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin 700mL

Gin combined with Yarra Valley Shiraz grapes? Bloody brilliant. This crazy experiment using there original Rare Dry Gin steeped with local cool climate Shiraz grapes has become a cult-favourite, a perfect balance of sweet fruit and ginny goodness.

Four Pillars Distillery is in Melbourne’s Yarra Valley, beautiful cool climate wine country. They'd have to be crazy not to take advantage of it.

So back in 2015 that’s what they did. They were happily making gin out the back of there mate Rob Dolan’s winery, and in late April a tiny parcel of Shiraz came in from one of the region’s best vineyards. Rob wasn’t sure what to do with it, so they took it off his hands – perhaps without his knowledge…

It seemed perfectly obvious to Cam Mackenzie that they should steep these grapes in Rare Dry Gin to see what happened.

Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz Gin is produced each year, when Four Pillars takes local cool-climate Shiraz grapes from the Yarra Valley, and steeps them in Rare Dry Gin for eight weeks. The resulting Bloody Shiraz Gin is rich in colour and flavour, all naturally occurring from the grapes (with no added sugar).

The result was alcoholic alchemy… the juice turned a magical purple colour and found a sweetness straight from the ripe grapes.

So now each year they take local Shiraz fruit, steep the whole berries in high-proof gin for eight weeks before pressing. The colour remains a deep, rich, reddish purple. Aromatically it shows fresh pine needles, citrus and spice, and distinct peppery, dense raspberry notes. The palate is lovely and sweet with a long juniper and spice character on the finish.

This is gin, not sloe gin, so it packs a punch and is ideal in a range of cocktails.