In Melbourne, a city full of food and obsessed by coffee, I cook, I eat, I share the good news and the bad. essjay eats

The gin files – Stone Pine orange blossom gin

Stone Pine Orange Blossom Gin

Stonepine Distillery 

Straight – chilled – to be honest – I can’t smell anything. Tasting – has a very floral early, front notes  which is obviously orange blossom. Without a big whack of juniper though it’s a bit “watery” at the end for me. 

Gin & Tonic: matched with Fevertree Mediterranean tonic the orange blossom notes remain and it drinks as a light, refreshing G&T which is obviously floral, but doesn’t edge into soapy. 

Gin & Tonic: with standard Fevertree. The Tonic flavour outplays the delicate orange blossom. Very smooth finish but with no noticeable juniper on the finish. Reminds me of Hendricks 

As a “finished drink” I would recommend some orange rind twisted over the top of the glass for that aromatic burst

I tried it mixed with some ruby red grapefruit pulp, zest and slices to decorate, with a splash of Capi tonic. Which was a citrus drink, but not noticeably gin, or orange blossom.

  • 45ml orange blossom gin
  • muddled gently with 1/2 teaspoon ruby red grapefruit zest (fine)
  • poured over ice and stirred with 45 grams of ruby red grapefruit pulp / juice
  • topped with tonic
  • serve with ruby red grapefruit garnish

400 individually numbered bottles of Orange Blossom Gin have were released for the 2015 vintage. The blossom was hand-picked in Narromine prior to infusion at Stone Pine Distillery. 

Although sold out at the distillery – Nicks still has it available on their website (Jan 2016)

I bought mine from the wonderful Village Vineyard in Queens Parade, North Fitzroy.

ABV 40% Small batch pot distilled

Special ingredients: hand picked orange blossom

RRP $85 for 750ml

Last words: I gave my bottle away to someone who liked it much more than I, but then they had already announced that they didn’t like gin. 

I’m tasting my way through all the gins I’ve collected. It’s going to be quite a piece of work. 

 

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