When we first sat down with Luke Whearty, the co-owner of world class bar, Byrdi, for our Autumn collaboration we were hit with one of the most strange briefs for a gin we ever had.
Luke and his team were looking to make a Sandalwood Martini as their signature serve for Autumn, and they wanted an extraordinarily perfumed, elegant gin as their base. What they described they wanted was a cologne.
Having started by distilling perfume in 2011, this wasn't outside of our wheelhouse, however, the challenge with highly perfumed, complex spirits is their proclivity to become "soapy" on the palate.
Flicker is unlike any other spirit we produce. Its a curious blend of three distillates that emulates the spicy, smokey, and rich character of Autumn in Australia.
Starting with a base of roasted juniper, sandalwood and Valencia oranges - we age this spirit in 100L Jarrah casks for four to six months. We then blend this barrel aged gin with an aromatised spirit of pistachio, mandarin and wattle seed. Finally, we blend a small amount of four-year-old single cask whisky for a truly unique and robust spirit.
To savour this incredibly unique spirit we suggest to drink Flicker over ice with a wedge of orange, or in a captivating London Calling
Carrot Fanta
For an amazing pop-up we collaborated on at Rosella's Bar in Burleigh Heads, the Byrdi team retrofitted a cocktail they had made previously called Carrot Fanta.
Using Flicker as the base spirit they combined a passionfruit marigold distillate with fresh carrot tops, a fermented carrot soda, Pennyweight Fino Apera and then finally some mandarin vinegar, to make a truly dangerous cocktail.
You can try this incredible drink exclusively at Byrdi during the Autumn months.