Moonshiner Lennox Street Nocino Walnut Gin

Appearance: Dark sienna. When viewed against a strong light it is almost opaque. The meniscus shows a slight haze indicating suspended particulates. Aroma: Coffee, chocolate, vanilla, dried dates, a hint of aromatic spices and citrus. Flavour & Texture: Sweet arrival with toffee and vanilla. The later palate has dried fruit, chocolate and warming spices. The texture has weight but it’s not syrupy. The alcohol content is most apparent in the finish and aftertaste as a warm glow, but it is very well contained. A bitter tinge develops as it opens on the palate but again this is well contained. Moonshiner Co. is a micro distillery located in a small two-room shop on a busy road between the Sydney suburbs of Newtown and Marrickville. The front room houses a neat little tasting area, a bottle display and sales/bar counter while the back room is the distillery. It’s charming, down-to-earth and I loved it immediately. We tasted a flight of four gins and were given a free pour of this nocino walnut gin, and we enjoyed it enough to buy a 100ml sample bottle to try again later. We also bought a large bottle each of their Aussie Native and Signature gins (reviews incoming soon). Moonshiner is a collaboration between four gin lovers who started out making compounded gin and have now scaled things up to distilled gin. The still is custom designed and the distillery is largely self-built, which is great to see. On their website they suggest using this nocino gin with tonic, but I did not think that was particularly successful. Although it is not overly sweet this seems to me as much a liqueur as a flavoured gin, and my favourite way to enjoy it is as a digestif with a cup of black coffee. The profile has more in common with coffee liqueurs than any gin I can think of. The price given below is for a 500ml bottle, but the 100ml sample we bought was $15.00 “Above Average” : 82/100 (3.25 stars)