For example, we’ve funded ash planting from genetic stock that is thought to be resilient to Ash dieback disease.

It has already wiped thousands of these elegant trees from our landscape, and experts are trying to stop it. You have probably heard of ash dieback disease, a fungus affecting both the leaves and crown. The ash’s leaves, and indeed its whole crown, can move in the direction of sunlight. This is how sloe gin should taste.The ash is the third most common tree in Britain and thrives in rich, fertile soil where it provides a home for woodpeckers and owls. With an impressive trophy cabinet, we created the best flavoured gin you’re likely to find. The berries are lightly pressed to split the skins, before being steeped Melbourne Dry Gin for up to four months, before lightly sweetening – we add 1g sugar per 100mL of gin, that’s about 10% off the sugar that traditional sloe gins use, and releasing at 35% ABV. The fresh sloe berries are handpicked and sent across Bass Straight to our distillery. Our aim was to create the world’s best flavoured gin, starting with fresh, plump sloe berries that grow in in Northern Tasmania is a head start to say the least. So, we turned that on its head to create a new world, modern Australian take on it. It was more of a liqueur, not so much a gin and because of that, they are usually quite low proof (Around 25% ABV), but again, that wasn’t our style. As we heard from many a bartender on the subject….once there’s sugar in it, you can’t take it.

Up until that point sloe gin was sickly sweet and thick. Well, that’s at least until we got our hands on Australia’s (and we reckon the world’s) best sloe berries. It’s been made the same way for hundreds of years…that is, with a load of sugar to offset the bitterness and tartness from the berries. Sloe gin is a traditional flavoured gin that dates back to the 17th century in England.

Download gin made with blackthorn