Nose: Sweet, light and balanced, led by lemon citrus. Palate: Very lemony, bright and sweet but with a heavier character than the nose. Finish: Medium, with licorice on the aftertaste. A pleasant lighter style of gin that is enjoyable neat. It makes a good G&T but is easily overpowered. Refined and gentle with balanced botanicals. The citrus character comes from the use of lemon myrtle leaves. Ironbark is a young distillery currently specializing in gin, vodka and corn-based moonshine. Started by husband and wife team Reg & Greta Papps in 2014, their spirits are designed by Reg, who has several decades of experience in industrial distillation. Whisky is currently in production and the first releases should be in a year or two. The 313 dry gin is a fairly classic London gin and contains only 5 botanicals, which is the key to its restrained and elegant lightness of character. This is against the current tide in Australia, where the fashion right now is for complex recipes containing many native botanicals, resulting in heavy, almost creamy, full-flavoured spirits. Ironbark won Australian Gin Distillery of the year in 2015, just a year after starting production, and have since accumulated a handful awards at local and international competitions, including a silver and gold at the 2016 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. “Good” : 83/100 (3.5 stars)