STORY BY RICHARD CORNISH

DAVID GILL, BREWER AND CO-FOUNDER DAYLESFORD BREWING CO.

“We just love gin!” says distiller and farmer Catherine Crothers. “It is our drink of choice.” She and husband Gary Jago make a very well-balanced gin called Big Tree on their farm looking out onto the Cobaw Ranges. Catherine learned her love of gin when her father was working as a vet in the Solomon Islands. As a young woman she would visit him and would spend the day scuba diving then come back to be greeted by a rather stiff gin and tonic. She was converted from Bundaberg Rum to gin in the tropics there and then.

Fast forward to life in the Macedon Ranges where she and Gary raise sheep on their property Jacks Spring. The country around their property is covered in patches of luxuriant foliage where fresh water bubbles to the surface. On their farm they raise their Dorper/Suffolk cross sheep, the lamb from which they sell at the Lancefield Farmers Market.

They wanted another form of income from the farm and were toying with the idea of making gin. Catherine was walking along the rough gravel road one day in spring, taking in the wildflowers erupting under a copse of snow gums. “I was thinking to myself, ‘we really need a botanist to help us identify native plants and work out what we can put in our gin’,” she says. “Blown me down, 20 minutes further on into the walk and this bloke with a camera and a hat pops out of the bushes,” she continues. “He was a botanist!” e introduced Catherine and Gary to a mate of his who has since helped them with parcels of seeds and leaves from plants from around Australia that they have been able to incorporate in their Big Tree range of gins.

Their classic London style gin is called Elegant Dry Gin. It is a beautifully integrated blend of juniper, orange peel, anise, cardamom and other herbs. These are all placed in a basket which is lowered into the Tasmanian built copper distillery in which there is almost pure alcohol. The alcohol is heated and the vapour, along with all the essential oils from the botanicals, is condensed into a very strong aromatic brew. Water is added to bring the alcohol down to 42% which also helps release the aromas. The Claude Naval Strength gin is stronger at 58% and has notes of bay and Southern Sassafras and really is an engaging drink. Catherine likes to drink her gin as one would whisky, over scant ice with perhapsbuilt copper distillery in which there is almost pure alcohol. The alcohol is heated and the vapour, along with all the essential oils from the botanicals, is condensed into a very strong aromatic brew. Water is added to bring the alcohol down to 42% which also helps release the aromas. The Claude Naval Strength gin is stronger at 58% and has notes of bay and Southern Sassafras and really is an engaging drink. Catherine likes to drink her gin as one would whisky, over scant ice with perhaps a little chilled water to help liberate the aromatics from the alcohol a little chilled water to help liberate the aromatics from the alcohol.

The farm at Jacks Springs has been transformed by the addition of the distillery. Over 60 juniper trees have been planted on the property and this notoriously difficult plant has already brought forth juniper berries. Catherine and Gary also grow some other aromatics such as coriander on the farm. They have a third gin that encompasses what is growing on the farm simply called the Seasonal Gin. “We wanted to have a gin that spoke of farm life and the seasons,” says Catherine. “to reflect what is growing here.” Presently their small batch Seasonal Gin has the aroma of cumquats.

You can buy Big Tree Gin online at bigtreedistillery.com.au, at Cellarbrations in Daylesford, Banks Wine Store in Kyneton, Prince Wine Store in South Melbourne and over the bar at Dr Abalone at Kyneton.