We have partnered with premium Australian artisan spirit, Distillery Botanica Gin, to create the limited-edition ‘Rather Royal Gin’ using botanicals grown in the Garden itself. Launched tonight, proceeds from sales will go towards the Garden’s conservation programs, which preserve our precious biodiversity through seed collection, seed banking and conservation research and training.
Botanicals from the famous Botanic Garden’s landmarks, such as the Rose Garden and Spring Walk, were chosen to create a rare collection of 1,000 handcrafted bottles of well-balanced gin which explores the essence of the iconic Sydney destination.
Distillery Botanica’s award-winning Master Distiller Phillip Moore worked with the Garden’s Director of Horticulture, Jimmy Turner, to select the best flora for the gin including Pope John Paul roses, mandarin leaf, lemon verbena, horehound, curry leaves, lovage and chamomile.
Moore spent months refining the gin through the thousand-year-old technique of enfleurage to cold-extract their perfumes, producing a highly-aromatic, drinkable equivalent of a visit to the Gardens themselves.
Of the gin, Moore said: “The botanicals that give our gin its unique flavour were grown in the soil of the 200-year-old Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. So when you drink it, you’re literally drinking part of the Garden, and for that matter Sydney itself.
“The Garden is Australia’s oldest living scientific institution, and if through this limited release gin, we can help raise awareness of their critical conservation work then we’re honoured to support this project”.
Executive Director of the Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands Kim Ellis said: “Here in Australia, 10 per cent of our native plant species are listed as endangered, with a number of threats to our unique plant life, including climate change, invasive pathogens and habitat destruction.
“We saw a method by which to raise awareness and money for the important conservation we’re doing at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney: Taking Distillery Botanica’s Garden Grown Gin philosophy and making it gin that grows the Garden.”
Did you know?
It is estimated that up to 50% of the world’s plant species face extinction. In Australia, 10% of our native plant species are listed as endangered, and we have lost 75% of our rainforests in the last 200 years. Through seed collection, seed banking, discovering species of plants new to science and conservation research and training, the Gardens’ scientists are working towards global targets to preserve precious biodiversity and insure our future.
Who is Distillery Botanica?
Distillery Botanica Gin is an internationally awarded and recognised distillery made in Erina, 90 minutes’ drive from the centre of Sydney, NSW. The gin was awarded a Gold medal at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirit Competition in 2016.
Distillery Botanica Gin’s ‘Garden Grown Gin’ philosophy means all the botanicals which give the gin its unique flavour are grown in gardens and handpicked before being distilled and blended on site. Master Distiller Philip Moore produces the boutique gin using the rare process of ‘enfleurage’, a thousand-year-old French technique favoured by perfumers, which extracts untainted perfume from the botanicals.
The gin was launched in late 2015 with an exclusive cocktail created by World Class Bartender of the Year winner Tim Phillips, and served at his Bulletin Place and Dead Ringer bars in Sydney.
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