Family distillery gets creative

A small family-run Pyrenees vineyard is making the most of the COVID-19 pandemic, with creativity flowing during ‘quality family time’.

The Baker family’s adult children returned from Melbourne to help out with grape vintage in early March, just as coronavirus restrictions set in and the pandemic became a reality in Australia.

A little more than two months later, observing isolation instructions, the whole family is still at its Glenpatrick farm.

Winemaker Benjamin Baker said while newspapers were full of reports of toilet paper shortages, his family was in full swing of grape harvest and winemaking.

“We have been flat-out during the pandemic, first with vintage, a rush of distilling for hand sanitiser, then long overdue farm jobs done, and now getting our latest gin creation out the door,” he said.

The Bakers’ Wimmera Hills Winery also features a distillery.

Under the Mrs Baker’s Still House brand, the family produces a boutique range of gins and liqueurs using primarily regional botanicals.

Magnus Baker, 24, who recently returned from the United Kingdom, quipped that he had seen more of his family in the past two months than he had in the past five years.

Now back in the Pyrenees, Magnus has been distilling using the main still to create the neutral spirit which is then transformed into unique gins and liqueurs by one of the smaller stills.

Mrs Baker’s Still House’s latest creation is a shiraz and chocolate gin.

The gin is scarlet red in colour and the flavour has chocolatey highlights developed by the distillation of cocoa nibs from Melbourne’s cocoa roasters, Ratio.

Jane from Mrs Baker’s Still House likens gin-making to the perfect combination of art and science, where chemistry and flavour creation intersect.

“We love the perfect balance of shiraz and chocolate in this drink,” she said.

Mrs Baker’s Shiraz Gin, the poetic chocolate muse, is available from the company’s cellar door or online shop from June 12.

Visitors to the Glenpatrick cellar door must phone ahead to confirm current coronavirus restrictions.