Review: Threefold Gin

Welcome to 2020 and the first of many reviews and interviews this year. It’s fitting that the first spirit I introduce is a brand new release and very contemporary in style and presentation.

Among the recognised styles of gin, like Sloe, Old Tom, Barrel Aged and London Dry, there is also one called Contemporary, or sometimes New Western.

This term emerged as a label to group those gins which featured ‘non traditional’ botanicals or in some way offered something new in terms of production or flavour profile. This is a category that is also used in spirits judging, so gins in those style are not judged, say, against those in the London Dry category.

Threefold gin debuted in December 2019 and is the brainchild of three gents from the vibrant Adelaide bar scene: Aiden Shaw, Luke Fleming and Steven Roennfeldt. They have teamed up to create a vibrant gin that features grapefruit, rosemary and lavender as the hero botanicals.

(Check out my article from a couple of years about the vibrant bar and distilling ecosystem there, plus some live clips of a bar tour one evening in Adelaide on my Facebook page.)

Let’s have a chat with the gents.

What is the inspiration behind the spirit?

We wanted to create a spirit that was synonymous with moments shared with family and friends on warm summer afternoons. These moments truly lead the direction for the style of gin that we wanted to share – fun, vibrant and relatable flavours into an undeniably delicious gin.

How did you all get into distilling?

We wanted to create a delicious gin that we could share with others and prior to 2019, we had no distilling experience. The last 12 months has been a huge year of learning for the three of us as we focussed all of our time refining our newly acquired craft with much trial and error.

As we began our journey we quickly discovered the comradely in the South Australian craft spirit industry as we received a lot of support, guidance and encouragement from experienced distillers that we highly respect.

When did you know you nailed the recipe?

It was a big step for us to finalise our recipe as we were our own harshest critics. It wasn’t until we started to cross reference our spirit with a line up of our favourite Australian gins that we realised that we created something unique and it was greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s one smart package, can you share something about it’s inspiration and the name?

The name represents the three of us, our products and our core values but we need to give credit to the design team at Voice who brought the concept to life. We worked closely with them to create a label that not only represented our brand but communicated what was in the bottle and what it represents.

What are some of our future plans for the distillery you can share?

We are now located at a collaborative cellar door alongside Moorak and Massey wines at Ferg’s in Stepney, SA. This not only provides us with a venue to showcase our products with patrons in a beautiful space but also gives us a creative outlet. We have plans to release other gins, spirits and liqueurs as well as collaborative products with the winemakers, Jordan Hein and Bevan Ferguson.

How do you recommend people enjoy your gin

Our Aromatic Gin makes a pretty damn tasty Gin & Tonic! We love it with CAPI tonic but it works well with any Indian tonic. Serving it with a slice of ruby red grapefruit and rosemary really highlights the botanicals featured in our gin. Otherwise if you aren’t a tonic fan, we recommend serving it with CAPI’s grapefruit soda with a slice of lemon.

How do you go about creating spirits that are environmentally sustainable?

Sustainability is a key focus with the Threefold team. Our cellar door space in Stepney has rooftop solar so all products are created with renewable energy. When choosing our label stock, bottle and stoppers it was important to us that we opted for eco friendly options – a great example is the cork stopper that we chose which is carbon negative, helping to lower our footprint with every bottle made.

Any online orders are shipped with carbon neutral courier services. Whilst we aim to reduce our impact to a minimum, we will need to use carbon offsetting for some aspects and we will continue to evolve as our business grows with the aim of being socially responsible.

Tasting Notes

Nose: very bright, clean and aromatic as advertised on the label. No spirit volatility, and the rosemary is definitely there.
Neat: Soft on the palette with some heat, but no spirit burn, and all the flavours are quite forward. Not particularly dry or long on the palette, the grapefruit notes more dominant here.
Mixer: Using Poacher’s Classic Indian Tonic , this is what the gin was designed to do. The flavours really open up naturally, and you have a delicious G+T with good balance between the key flavours The advantage of this gin design is that by changing your garnishes or tonics, you can accentuate one of the three key botanicals to suit.

The Take Home

This is one smart product on the inside and outside. Designed with a clear vision to offer a gin that is approachable, easy to drink, and makes a killer G+T it is a very confident debut. Threefold gin is an excellent example of a well thought out approach to finding a place in the market by creating a gin that backs it’s branding with a delicious spirit.

Rating: 4/5

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