After ten years of crafting award-winning spirits, nothing seems more fitting to Ian Glen, owner and distiller at Stone Pine Distillery, than creating an anniversary gin.
2018 marks ten years of business for Stone Pine, and this milestone will be celebrated with a gin featuring a botanical for each year of Stone Pine’s business set for release in early spring.
Sourcing local ingredients where possible has always been important to the local distiller, and putting an emphasis on native botanicals has built a level of uniqueness to the brand of Stone Pine. Four out of the ten botanicals flavouring the gin that is set to be named the ‘Decade Dry Gin’, will be native to Australia.
According to Ian Glen, Stone Pine was one of the first of its kind in Australia, with only a few small craft distilleries across the nation.
“There was a handful of distilleries in Tasmania, and less than five in New South Wales. There wasn’t a huge demand, I was beginning to wonder if I had created a white elephant.” said Glen.
Glen attributes the ‘small bar movement’ to some of Stone Pine’s success over the last decade, “Australia just embraced it, I think essentially what happened was the small bar movement, which kicked off in Melbourne, spread throughout Australia and the bars create demand for the product. They are looking for different products, not just multi-national products.”
According to Glen, craft spirits were destined to become popular after the craft beer movement in Australia.
“After craft beer, craft spirits were the logical follow-on.”
After moving from Scotland with plans to open a distillery, Ian Glen and his family chose Bathurst for the small town life style, and to escape some of the Scottish Weather.
“I think Bathurstians do like to support their local industry. We have always enjoyed good local support.”
The gin will be available for purchase in various local bottle shops, as well as other stores throughout the country, however it will be a limited edition product. It will also be available on the Stone Pine Distillery website and National distributor Nip of Courage.
As for the future of the company, Glen said “Hopefully the distillery will be around for another ten years. Maybe, if it is successful, it might carry on beyond me.”
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