DOMAINE Asmara winery\u2019s expansion into spirit production, under the In Good Spirits label, has been rewarded with two gold medals plus a silver at the Melbourne International Spirits Competition 2023.<\/p>\n
Owner, winemaker and distiller Andreas Greiving said the Mediterranean and Heathcote Shiraz gins both took out top spot in their group, while the Arabica Vodka came in second.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our first competition,\u201d he said. \u201cWe came top in two categories and each category had 150 entries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were all our first batches too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Greiving and his wife Henni purchased their Toolleen vineyard in 2009 after he was made redundant during the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWine is my passion though,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’ve won big awards for our wines, we were a top 10 Halliday winery in our first vintage, we were five star for many years, and we won many gold medals.\u201d<\/p>\n
However crippling Chinese tariffs on Australian wine imports meant that their biggest market dried up in early 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were exporting 80 per cent or more of our wine to China,\u201d Mr Greiving said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReplacing China with other export markets is very difficult, it doesn’t happen overnight, and other countries are not waiting for Australian wines to come and take over.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you are left with some options, one is just to sell as much fruit as you can, but obviously it’s not really viable commercially, or you can come up with a different idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur idea was to put in the distillery and convert most of the grapes that we were making into wine into that spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost distilleries buy the base spirit, which is essentially industrial produced, and convert it to vodka or gin.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr Greiving seized the opportunity to make it from scratch using grapes from his vineyard.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou might think it\u2019s a crazy thing to do,\u201d he said. \u201cUsing these precious grapes, these super, premium Heathcote wine grapes, but they can also produce a very good spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also means the spirit we produce has a sense of place. It comes from here.\u201d<\/p>\n
A commitment to using fresh, rather than dried, herbs and botanicals to flavour the gin has also helped to create a point of difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mediterranean gin is an explosion of citrus favours,\u201d Mr Greiving said. \u201cIt hits you first upfront and it also lingers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI use fresh oranges and fresh lemons instead of buying dried peel and that really comes through.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put fresh basil in there, fresh mint, fresh fennel and it all goes into the gin basket in the still.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can smell the freshness and intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gin and vodka produced by In Good Spirits, along with whiskey and brandy that are currently in the pipeline but not yet available, are all made in a small 50 litre still.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I hand bottle it, hand wax it and we label it,\u201d Mr Greiving said. \u201cHenni numbers them, every single bottle, so it’s all handcrafted in a true sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Domaine Asmara has scaled back its wine production to less than half, although Mr Greiving expects the Chinese market to reopen at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year ago we were just offering wine and now within a few months our spirits probably out sell our wine,\u201d he said. \u201cSpirits are popular.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plans are also underway to upgrade the cellar door.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole frontage, including the roller door, will have a large mural within the next six months or so,\u201d he said. \u201cThe artist is Jimmy Dvate who did most of the silo artwork in Rochester.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’ll be new seating arrangements and a new water feature.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also want to offer master classes, but our tastings will still be free.\u201d<\/p>\n
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DOMAINE Asmara winery\u2019s expansion into spirit production, under the In Good Spirits label, has been rewarded with two gold medals plus a silver at the Melbourne International Spirits Competition 2023. Owner, winemaker and distiller Andreas Greiving said the Mediterranean and Heathcote Shiraz gins both took out top spot in their group, while the Arabica Vodka […]<\/p>\n