Not far from WA’s beautiful Cable Beach with its famous camel trains and pearl divers, Moontide Distillery crafts its gin in honour of the region’s history. This is The Pearler’s Gin.
About Moontide Distillery
Broome, on the southern brink of the Kimberley Region, is famous for its pearls. Names like Paspaley and Cygnet Bay are from this region.
And since the 1880s when divers—often from Japan—would don the iconic deep-sea diver’s helmet and suit to hunt for wild oysters hopeful of finding a gem of the sea, the area has produced some of the finest pearls in the world.
Moontide Distillery is a true product of this land and its sea, and its gins always try to reflect the ancient soils and coast, the rare wilderness and the incredible history humans have been creating here for over 60,000 years.
About the Bottle*
Moontide’s The Pearler’s Gin is an expression of its surroundings. As the label suggests, the silken hue of the Indian Ocean has a huge influence over this gin.
But as much as the tides have their push on The Pearler’s Gin, the land of the Kimberley also has its say.
The rich ancient soils of the region, the unique plants that grow there and the vastness of wilderness that stretches in all directions from the hook peninsula of Broome flavour this gin too.
Key Botanicals
The sweet-tart flavour of native Burdekin plums, lemon myrtle and mint are the main botanicals on the list, and probably ones you’ve seen before.
But the inclusion of oyster mantle, which seems to be becoming more popular, but definitely not mainstream, is something special. Even more so if they’re mantles from pearl oysters, which are different to your regular Sydney rock or angasi oysters.
It’s a blend that promises a minerality and citrus quality that many gins attempt but not many succeed.
Tasting Notes
When you first sniff the glass, you get lemon myrtle comes through clearly on the nose, but there’s also a mineral quality that lies beneath holding it all up.
There’s a savoury strength and a creaminess that pulls all the oxygen out of the room when you first taste this gin neat, though that’s quickly replaced by a fine mineral nuance and a building citrus note.
Lemon myrtle punches through at the end, lightening up the palate again, with the Burdekin plum adding sweetness and sharpness too. There’s a nice oily texture to this gin that usually comes from including a nut in the botanicals basket, but perhaps it’s the fat from the oyster.
Serving Suggestions
Moontide Distillery recommends a martini, a G&T or neat with seafood with their Pearler’s Gin and I think that’s absolutely right. This gin deserves to be on its own in its single spotlight as much as possible.
However, I have a feeling The Pearler’s Gin would make a magnificent negroni—especially if you’re a little heavy-handed with the gin!