- For the ninth consecutive year, there will be Four Pillars Christmas Gin.
- This edition of the beloved Aussie holiday staple flaunts artwork from South Australian “crochet virtuoso” Trevor Smith.
- Four Pillars’ decadent Christmas Gin Puddings are also back on the cards; with a bundle featuring both dessert and gin available to purchase.
In the spirit of doing their part for holiday cheer, Four Pillars is once again releasing its Australian Christmas Gin for 2024.
This annual tradition originated eight years ago when co-founder Cam Mackenzie decided to throw a couple of Christmas puddings into a batch of otherwise regular Four Pillars gin after realising the former’s ingredients mirrored several of the latter’s botanicals.
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Since then, Mackenzie and fellow Four Pillars co-founders, Matt Jones and Stuart Gregor, have made a habit of bringing their families together every year to prepare Christmas plum puddings for the next annual batch of festive tipples.
Following a recipe used by Mackenzie’s own late mother Wilma on Victoria Derby Day (the Saturday before Melbourne Cup) — featured in a 1968 edition of Women’s Weekly — these puddings are distilled with a winning combination of said botanicals ranging from juniper and cinnamon to star anise, coriander seed. and angelica over the top of them.
Blended with gin from the previous year, it’s then aged in 80-year-old Rutherglen Muscat barrels to add just the right amount of complexity. The result? Christmas pudding in a bottle that’ll likely get you nice and sauced without a damn ounce of fight.
While the gin itself is more or less the same every year — apart from a “slight tweak” of Muscat during the blending stage — the labels are unique to each respective iteration and brought to you by a different local artist.
This year’s visual component has been accomplished by South Australia’s Trevor Smith: “A crochet virtuoso who handcrafted some of his favourite Christmas table items… A little like Cam, Trevor learnt his craft from his mum Jean.”
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The charmingly whimsical labels showcase a ham, pudding, pavlova, as well as glasses of Australian Christmas Gin Punch.
Priced at $100, the 2024 Four Pillars Christmas Gin will be available to the public from October 29th (and a little earlier to the Four Pillars database) until sold out.
You’ll also be able to purchase a Four Pillars Christmas Gin Pudding — made from gin-steamed oranges and a dash of the Christmas gin — for $30 via the retail locations in Surry Hills and Healesville or perhaps; a bundle of both for just $120.
