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Red Tail Gin

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Red Tail Gin is light in flavour with subtle citrus and floral notes.  We use botanicals sourced from all over the globe as well as some grown in our very own region of the south west of Western Australia.

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Our botanical selection includes the standards of Juniper, Coriander, Orris and Angelica along with some lesser botanicals such as cardamom, orange peel, lemon peel and ginger.  Rain water captured on our property is used in both fermentation, distilling and diluting of the gin.

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By keeping things small we can ensure each bottle has its own unique character.  Every batch is hand crafted in our traditional Copper still.  From the charging of the still, the weighing of the botanicals, right the way through to the filling and labelling our aim to create a world class drink that does as well in a G&T as it does in a Martini.

 

The proportions of each botanical used have been carefully determined through investigations of botanical profiles in order to achieve the complex flavours and smooth texture in the final distillation.  Once distilled the only intervention is to gently add rain water from the Indian Ocean to bring the gin to the correct strength for your enjoyment. 

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Red Tail Conto Wine Spirit

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Roaring Forties Distillers has chosen the name Conto for its’ wine spirit to pay homage to the legend from which the name of the popular local beach originates.  It is believed that this was the wine drunk at the old fishing hut by local fishermen many years ago. Our research indicates it may have been an Australian port made by Orlando wines. This beach is the closest beach to the Roaring Forties Distillery.

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Red Tail Conto VSOP wine spirit is hand made by the traditional double distillation method utilising the company’s copper pot still in our Forest Grove distillery. The spirit is made from selectively sourced high quality white wines of the region and blended with rain water from the Southern Ocean. Aged in French oak to release the soft flavours of this complex spirit Conto is a drink best consumed slowly with ice or a splash of your favourite mixer.

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Red Tail Arrack - A Short History

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The word “arrack” is probably of Arabic origin. It means “condensation”, a reference to the process of distillation. Historically, Dutch trading companies always used the term “Batavia Arrack” for Indonesian Rum.

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Long before the Dutch first explored the Indonesian archipelago in the early seventeenth century, the United East Indies Company established Java as the centre of its trading empire, arrack was being produced in the region from rice or palm leaves. The method of distillation has almost certainly been introduced by Arab traders, but it was the Chinese sugar cane growers who developed the secret recipe to produce the arrack we know today. The fermentation process includes the addition of local fermented red rice; it is this, which sets it apart from rum, although the base material is still sugarcane. There are records with suggest that British traders started buying arrack from the Chinese distillers as long ago as 1634. In the eighteenth century, arrack became very popular in Europe, especially in Sweden as one of the main ingredients of Swedish punch.

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The trade began to decline in the nineteenth century with the rise of other spirits, it still remained extensive. Sweden had even tried to ban it, so much money was being spent on it. World War I caused another upheaval, with the blockade of Germany, a major market. By then, the number of distilleries in Batavia had shrunk through consolidation, as had the number of Dutch shippers and blenders.

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World War II saw the Japanese invasion and occupation of Indonesia and the German invasion and occupation of the Netherlands. These did not help the industry. After the war, Indonesia fought the Dutch for independence, gaining it in 1949. That did not help, either. As the twentieth century progressed, more and more distilleries closed. During that decade, the remaining distilleries consolidated their export trade through one company and as such Batavia Arrack is now almost unknown in the 21st century although arrack is still popular with the tourists who visit the archipelago.

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Red Tail Rum

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Red Rail Rum is created utilizing one of the traditional Caribbean methods of combining raw sugar, molasses and adding Roaring Forties own dunder mix as the feed stock for fermentation.  By combining these ingredients along with open vessel fermentation the base is able to acquire naturally occurring yeasts from the environments.  This gives the rum a truly local character while maintaining a true rum taste.

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Red Tail Spiced Rum

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Red Tail Spiced dark rum is created from Australian sugar cane and molasses, then fermented with native yeasts of the southwest of Western Australia.  The fermented wine is then double pot distilled and aged in French oak barrels for a period of two years.  The resultant dark rum is then further aged with vanilla bean, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange peel along with other minor spices to give a lively but smooth drink perfect on ice or with your favourite mixer.

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