DRY ISLAND GIN

Back in 2014 we fell in love… with a gin distillery from the far north of Sweden, Hernö.

We reckon they’re the best gin makers in the Northern Hemisphere. And as a small gin distillery from the south of Australia, we became determined that the second gin in our Distiller Series would be a collaboration with Hernö Gin.

So finally in 2019, we played host to their founder and distiller Jon Hillgren at our Healesville Distillery, with the intention of collaborating to create our Dry Island Gin together.

But to begin with, Cam and Jon tasted each other’s range of gins – ours made on this hot, dry island continent, theirs in that cold land of over two hundred islands – and there was as much mutual respect as there could be between gin distillers.

Both Cam and Jon approach distilling with no compromise on quality, producing amazingly pure spirits. And in turn, the distinct similarities between the two ranges were clear – both showed an amazing purity of spirit. Both exude vibrant, lifted styles with great palate weight while maintaining a very clean, soft spirit.

So together we created a one-off gin that we feel embodies the best of both our worlds, a Dry Island Gin. A gin made on our hot dry island continent, with a nod to their cold land of over 200,000 islands.

For this Swedish-meets-Australian collaboration, we distilled with juniper, coriander, river mint, roasted wattleseed, strawberry gum, lemon myrtle, meadowsweet and fresh lemons.

Our Dry Island Gin is bright and lifted with beautiful citrus notes and a lovely floral cut-grass character. The palate is weighty with a fresh pine forest character. Clean and pure, in a classic London Dry style.

And with our stunning label celebrating our Swedish co-distiller – sky blue and sunshine yellow, combined with the Swedish word for ‘island’ Ö – we couldn’t be more proud of the result. An ode to friendship and respect across the globe (and a mutual love of ABBA and IKEA).

Enjoy our Dry Island Gin in a dry Martini with a lemon twist, in a G&T with a slice of lemon and a sprig of thyme, in a velvety Golden Bijou, or a delicate and refreshing Walking Dead.