I missed a flight. It was the first time in many, many years of flying that I have just completely ballsed up. I was was using a mobile boarding pass and it told me the time I needed to be at the gate, not the departure time, and that got me terribly confused. So I had a few hours to kill in Hobart. I was there for a conference so I hadn’t seen much or got the lay of the land. I just got on a bus that would take me to ‘the city’ and it dropped me off fortuitously close to Lark Distillery cellar door.
When I first kicked off this blog, Lark Pepperberry Gin was one of the first gins AB bought for me. Back then there were fewer Australian gins on the market and even fewer that I knew about. It was very exciting. But it was before I developed my fool proof system for making sure gins don’t get drunk before I’d reviewed them and it got drunk in less than scientific circumstances. Since then the gin has been repackaged and renamed Godfather Gin, for Bill Lark who is often described as the godfather of Australian whisky.
Anyway I picked up a bottle of the Godfather Gin and a sherry cask whisky for AB and made my flight back to Sydney with time to spare.
PROCESS
Godfather Gin is distilled in a very traditional way, with the exception of the addition of the pepperberries. They are crushed and steeped in neutral spirit, but I think the rest of the botanicals go into the still.
This is a London Dry gin, distilled to the specifications with nothing added after distillation.
BOTANICALS
There isn’t a full botanical listing available, so besides juniper and pepperberry it’s an educated guess. There is definitely some citrus in the mix and some earthy spices.
TASTING NOTES
Lark is very light and fresh gin, smelling it is like a taking a deep breath in Hobart on a chilly morning, and that’s just how I like my London Drys.
On the palate it is lemony and peppery with a light juniper base flavour. It’s bone dry and lightly spicy.
IN DRINKS
As with all good, light London Drys, Lark loves good tonic water with a twist of lemon peel or cucumber. I bought a case of Quina Fina earlier this year, haven’t regretted it a minute! It has a great flavour, not too sweet and just fizzy enough. It’s lovely with Lark. It’s lovely with most gins!
I found these gorgeous rainbow olives and thought I’d use them to make a rainbow martini. I mixed it up nice and dry but forgot to add olive brine. It was a bit bland, but with a splash of brine it comes to vibrant life.
WHERE TO BUY
Lark Distillery
Nick’s