Kiwi Treasure Trove #2- Lighthouse Gin

A shining light for gin drinkers - Lighthouse Gin

It's 11am and 27 degrees outside. The perfect time then to drink some warm gin. The tipple I've poured myself today is Lighthouse Gin - another fantastic award winning spirit that harks from New Zealand shores.

Produced in Greytown - about 75 kilometers out of Wellington - Lighthouse is a classic distilled dry gin batch produced in a 200L copper pot still made in Masterton.  The spirit is produced by Greytown Fine Distillates - the brainchild of Neil Catherall, the company’s distiller and master craftsman, and Andrew Wright, a local businessman and distiller James Graham.

Lighthouse Gin, named after the late 19th century cast-iron Cape Palliser Lighthouse on the southernmost tip of the North Island, combines nine different botanicals including zesty New Zealand navel oranges, Yen Ben lemons (an Australasian cultivar not dissimilar to the Lisbon lemon) and local kawa kawa leaves (they have bitter peppery/minty flavour that I enjoy when bush walking back in NZ).

Juniper,  slightly soapy corriander seed and pithy orange citrus dominate the nose, but there is an underlying spiciness of warm ginger, black pepper and floral oris root too. On the palate this gin proves to be incredibly well poised with it's resinous and spicy qualities giving way to a lingering, tingling, zesty tang. The spirit has a generous viscosity with a smooth release of alcoholic heat that belies it's 42% abv strength.

It's excellent in a G&T with lemon, not lime. And after testing proves to stand up well in classic gin cocktails like Aviations and Negronis.

In short, I reckon the folks from Lighthouse have done a bang tidy job on this one. Go to NZ and buy yourself a bottle or easier still check them out online.

A Sauvy Wee Pilsner

Four Pines Brew Bar in Manly, NSW

When I first moved to Sydney I was appalled at the state of the country's micro/craft brewing industry - it felt to me as if New Zealand was light years ahead in this regard. Over the last few years, however, my outlook has been greatly improved and not least because I have discovered havens of beery goodness that I had missed with my first precursory glance at the scene. 

My initial perceptions were not aided by the fact that I had landed in New South Wales - a state whose hotels were (and still are) predominately owned by larger concerns operating several if not dozens of venues. This has resulted in Sydney bearing more than its fair share of characterless pubs bound by contracts to large breweries that only offer characterless adjunct ridden brews. But not all Sydney's pubs were or are still content with being bland - shining lights include Clarence Street's Redoak, The Lord Nelson and The Australian both in the Rocks or more recently Four Pines in Manly and the Local  Taphouse in Darlinghurst. 

It's not just these specialty brew bars and micro-breweries that have started to making changes to the way people view beer offerings. Thanks to their example and those of our craft brew loving Victorian neighbours, most Sydney bars now offer more than the obligatory six lagers (insert generic local or imported brands here) two of which may be low-carb. In my mind it's akin to having a wine list that only offers the now ubiquitous Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

My views on brews have me often labelled as a snob, an ale-elitist and a hater of all things lager. Whilst the two former comments may be sooth the latter is indelibly slanderous. There is, in fact, one lager that I truly love and count among my favourite beers of all time - Dunedin's own Emerson's Pilsner.

The ambrosial Emerson's Pilsner

For those who haven't been lucky enough to let this golden nectar pass their lips I will divulge that it has a distinct aroma of grapefruit peel and tropical notes like passionfruit. Despite early slander on the varietal, this brew's enticing nose can be described as Sauvignon Blanc like due to the liberal use of Nelson grown Riwaka hops. Much of this fruit passes onto the palate carried by just a little malt sweetness, but before there's any chance of this drop becoming confectionary generous bittering hops dry out the brew to make it utterly thirst quenching and crisp.
  
This classic Kiwi Pilsner has yet to find a match in Australia although a very close second is the Knappstein Reserve Lager that again uses a Nelson grown hop (Sauvin hops) to create an almost Savignon Blanc like aroma. I highly recomend that you track down some Knappstein as the bottle of Emerson's pictured above will set you back about $10 a pop and that's if you can find it.

So there you have it  - I will drink lager and enjoy it. Under duress (as in the bar being dry of anything else) I will also go for Little Creatures, Trummer Pils, or Pilsner Urquell. Unfortunately these brews have very little of that citrus and passionfruit aroma remaining (especially the last two) which makes Emerson's so appealing, though pouring it into a glass will help somewhat.

Cheers! 

             

Island Time - Wild Days Rum: Barrel Number Two

Waiheke Island's Onetangi Beach

When I told  friends in Sydney that I was sitting on a beach in New Zealand the comment was met with no small amount of wonderment. New Zilund, for the record, does have beaches. Very nice ones at that. It was whilst en route to one of my favourite spots in the Auckland region - Waiheke Island's Onetangi Beach - that I came across another surprise for my Australian friends. New Zealand makes rum too.

Wild Days Rum, made on Waiheke Island, is not the first nor, I might wager, will it be the last rum produced across the ditch. New Zealand is, in fact, quite the nation of rum drinkers. Our Aussie cuzzie bros (click here for Wikipedia's list of New Zealand terms) might enjoy a Bundy, but in NZ we've long been swigging Coruba - a black as sin Jamaican rum brand developed for New Zealand during the 1960s. Coruba is, in fact, New Zealand's second largest spirit brand- a position it has held since 1980.

But back to Wild Days Rum. It's made from natural rain water and slow fermented molasses - I'm talking about 2-3 months here. The esters that have developed over this long brewing process are captured during distillation first in a pot still before being reflux distilled to create a pure spirit at about 90% abv. The spirit is immersed in activated charcoal before going through charcoal filtration. The filtered product is then aged in French oak - I'm not sure for how long at present, but I hoping I'll have an answer from the producers soon.

Each barrel equates to about 300 bottles which are released one at a time. Barrel Two pictured here has sold out but Barrel Three is currently on sale and apparently a few bottles of Barrel One still remain. 

Despite the heavy handed sounding filtration this bad boy has a lot going on. There's a massive acetate hit - a smell that I can only describe as sun-perished Sellotape (cellulose acetate is used as an adhesive). As scary as this may sound to some, I find it inviting and strangely nostalgic. It soon gives way to more approachable grassy notes, vanilla and butterscotch. The palate is sweet and syrupy, with golden syrup, hokey pokey and vanilla dominating. The grassy complexity found on the nose is evident in the finish which is lingering as is the vanilla sweetness.

The bottle is finished with wood chips to "continue the aging process". In my mind this rum has enough vanilla as it is. Indeed, I'd like to see the shape of this rum without such intense oak treatment and perhaps at a little higher proof (it's bottled at 40% abv).

Over all though I'm thoroughly impressed. I'm looking forward to further releases as this is a very enjoyable and drinkable wee dram. 

More information: Visit wilddaysrum.co.nz

Update 06/01/11: 

Russell Duurloo from Wild Days Rum has informed me that it only spends about 10 months on oak in ex-Cabernet barrels from Waiheke's Te Whau Point. Technically you wouldn't be able to call this a rum in Australia, but regulations in New Zealand do not require rum to be aged for a minimum of two years. In my mind this spirit has had all the oak treatment it needs although Duurloo would like to see it age for a further year.    

Smells Like... Victory - Man O' War Gunpowder Rum

I'll be the first to admit that I gathered considerable booty this Christmas, but I'm sure I wasn't the only soul on the Seven Seas to decide a little self gifting was in order too. It was fortunate that the trade winds brought me back to my homeland of New Zealand - a land that in its infancy was haven for scofflaws, scoundrels, and all sorts of rum toting reprobates. Fortunately, a few of these decrepit fellows still remain.

Merry Christmas to me - Man O'War Gunpowder Rum

Ben Simpson, bartender extraordinaire at Wellington's Motel, is the creator of a liquor curio that I obtained on my recent visit. Labelled Man O'War Gunpowder Rum  it's based on the sort of stuff whalers, pirates and rogues may have been drinking when Captain Cook first circumnavigated New Zealand. It's a proprietary blend of Caribbean and American rums, tobacco, chillies and black gun powder - the sort of stuff you would have used to charge your blunderbuss - made to an 18th Century recipe.

The rum has recently received international attention in the UK's CLASS magazine and The Atlantic - aye it's fine stuff and well past time I got hold of a bottle or two to be sure. Unfortunately it ain't easy to get hold of - you need to barter for product should you wish to get your hands on it. It's not for sale... yet.

Despite the near toxic sounding ingredients this wee dram makes for an intriguing drink. It ain't for everyone, it's true, but it's beverage that will make you 'argh' with the most scurvy ridden of pirates. I kind of like to think of it as the 'Brown Brown' of the liquor world.

The nose starts off sweet - almost maple syrup like before you're hit with sulphurous notes - the smell of discarded fireworks after a grand Guy Fawkes celebration. The palate too has a sweet-soft entry belying the building heat which soon develops from the chilli content. It doesn't explode, however, but gives way to more complex savoury, powder keg, prickly and metallic flavours. The finish is dry and lingering with chewy cigar-like tones and the tingling of an imminent fire-fight.      

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