Legacy in a bottle

THE Bellarine Distillery is bottling its latest drop – a unique gin liqueur that honours its award-winning co-founder.

Lorelle Warren passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a legacy at the distillery and within the industry itself.

Perfectly suited to all that it embodies, the gin liqueur is called Legacy. While a touching tribute to Lorelle it is also unique in its own right.

The product is made using the distillery’s own Teddy and the Fox gin – Lorelle’s creation – and Botrytis Semillon, a sweet wine she also enjoyed with a cheese board after dinner.

Head distiller Craig Michael said when they were creating the product, they wondered what would happen if they combined the two.

“I had a feeling it would work well together,” he said.

“Teddy and the Fox being quite a citrus forward gin and Botrytis Semillon having these really nice tropical fruit flavours, peach and pineapple, but also a little bit of citrus.”

Michael said creating Legacy felt very special for him, only wishing Lorelle was here to enjoy it with them.

“I think she would absolutely love it,” he said.

“But, it’s nice to be able to do something like this.

“I know a lot of people that were friends with Lorelle and her family and a lot of people that loved her. We got quite a big response when we announced this liqueur coming out.”

Printed on the bottles, owners will be able to read about all that Lorelle has done, not just for the Bellarine Distillery, but for the industry as a whole.

“There’s a little write-up on the side of the bottle that acknowledges her admission into the Australian Distillers Hall of fame due to the work that she did in securing funding from the Victorian Government to help the industry,” Michael said.

“We thought we’d have a cheers to Lorelle on this particular product.”

Legacy will officially be available for purchase on December 1.