Gin worth travelling for – Eat Drink West

Mrs Baker’s Still House creates liquor for all seasons

FAMILY owned and operated small batch distillery, Mrs Baker’s Still House, based in the heart of the Pyrenes utilise a unique process that incorporates home-grown wine grapes.

Based on the family’s property alongside their vineyard, Wimmera Hills Winery, Jane Baker said although unusual the idea to distil their grapes came naturally.

“Because we’re a winery we put wine in here, around 300 litres of wine at a time goes in our new still that was made in Ballarat,” she said.

“We heat it up and at different temperatures different chemicals come off and we do it in two distillations to get it really clean and up to about 93 per cent alcohol.

“Then we put it in a smaller still, heat it up and strip the flavours from juniper, coriander, orange, lemon and other spices and dilute to about 44 to 40 per cent alcohol.”

Together with her husband Benjamin Baker, Mrs Baker began operating the vineyard over 20 years ago, only having recently branched into distilling in the last five years.

“My husband is the winemaker and we moved up from Fitzroy when the kids were just little and we planted a vineyard,” she said.

“Around four years ago I started distilling, he does most of the distilling and we blend it together mostly.

“It’s exciting to see what can we find or what can we grow and make something really different out of it with the gins especially.”

With four specialty gins, two liqueurs and a vodka on offer, Mrs Baker said each flavour in the selection has been tried and tested and can hopefully cater to just about any taste preference.

“Ben has a passion for getting local and home grown citrus and botanicals where we can,” she said.

“Our essential and intellectual gin is your classic gin, all about the botanicals including juniper because it’s a gin, coriander, aniseed, citrus, two whole oranges in and two whole lemons and bay leaves, rosemary and thyme.

“We do a pepper berry gin, which is an Indigenous Australian spice, we are growing some which are sort of spicy and a shiraz gin which we combine simple gin and berries freshly picked from the vineyard.”

For the second year in a row, Mrs Baker’s Still House recently released a Christmas gin variety.

Mrs Baker said although they only just put the first batch up for sale, they’ve already sold over half of the stock.

“Each year, the Christmas gin is slightly different and has a slightly different blend of spices and it’s always is a bit of fun, perfect to drink while wrapping up the Christmas presents,” she said.

“This one has cloves and cinnamon and star anise and fresh ginger and after extensive testing, we decided we like it with a ginger beer.

“The Christmas usually sells really well during the season, we’re now going to do another run for another round of sales.”

As the cellar door is located a bit out of town, Mrs Baker said they’ve been hoping to break further into the Ballarat market and offer people the chance to buy their products.

“We are next to nowhere, not everyone finds us but people do hunt us out and are usually quite happy to find us,” she said.

“We stock here, online, we’re really popular in Horsham but we’ve been trying to get into Ballarat, Lola loved our Triple Sec, Webster’s Café used us and we’re in Cubby Haus Brewery.”

To purchase your own Mrs Baker’s gin, visit mrsbakerscomau.wordpress.com, in person at the Wimmera Hills Winery or one of their regional stockists.