Italian bar, The Jerry Thomas Project, teams up with distiller to make booze

Indie Spirits Tasting Sydney is back for its third year – this time at Restaurant Hubert on Sunday, 17th September from 1pm till 4pm. The event, which is also staged in both Brisbane and Perth, is all about great spirits and good times.

Tickets are just $55 (plus booking fee) online and include access to over 30 exhibitors showcasing more than 120 craft spirits, with master distillers on hand to chat and free seminars diving deep into the world of indie spirits. Click here to get your tickets now.

If you like supporting small brands and uncovering little known gems then the Indie Spirits Tasting is tailor-made for you. The folks from La Cantina are showcasing their Del Professore range of vermouths and gins which are a collaboration between famous distiller Carlos Quaglia and the Jerry Thomas Project. We asked La Cantina’s Christian Canala all about these new products.

Give me a little bit of background on your brands and what prompted you add them to the La Cantina range. The ‘Del Professore’ range of vermouth and gin are the products of a chance collaboration between famous distiller Carlos Quaglia and the Jerry Thomas Project, one of Rome’s most exclusive cocktail bars. Not happy with the quality of vermouth available to them, the boys from the JTP spoke with their friend Quaglia who suggested they devise blends for a white and classical rosso vermouth. Since then, they have added a Vermouth Vanilla and two fine barrel aged gins to the range. They are one of the only producers of vermouth which farm every single core ingredient (including producing the brandy spirit) on the estate. We were suggested this brand by a good friend of ours who was at the time working at Hains & Co in Adelaide. He was a huge fan of the products (had used them during his time in Italy) and the rest is history!

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What products do you have in your portfolio? The range consists of 3 vermouths: Classico (off dry, white vermouth), Rosso (earthy, spicy and herbaceous)and Vanilla (dark, complex) and 2 Gins: Monseuir (broad shouldered, juniper heavy)& Madame (perfumed, citrussy and spiced).

Tell us a little bit about your distillery and your distilling process. Artisan, old pot stills using fine local grapes and marc.

If you are a distributor, tell us a bit about the process of choosing brands to add to your portfolio. We choose brands that represent everything great about the region and the terroir that they come from. Our vermouth and gins are not ordinary, that’s why we like them. The suppliers that we work with will do anything for their craft, we love that

The spirits industry has changed a lot in the last 5 years, making way for events like the Indie Spirits Tasting. Why do you think this is? Discerning customers and discerning buyers. There’s not much room for ordinary products anymore, you can buy something spectacular for little/no more spend and give customers a much more unique experience. People are also making the conversation much more about terroir/the land, the only way to express that is slow techniques and lots of love.

Where do you see the craft spirits industry heading in the next ten years? It’s still at the top filtering down, I think it’s a long way before the truly average punter picks a bottle of MGC over Beefeater

What do you think will be the hot new trend in the drinks world in 2018? Fortifieds and oxidised wines! There’s so much amazing stuff out there, sweet and dry, that nobody drinks. At least I hope I’m right…

Who will be on hand to discuss the brands at the event? Our amazing NSW partners from Radix & Vine. Nate and Elle are massive proponents of the Del Professore vermouth and gin and have worked with the products both as the agents and as customers. They know where they work best and exactly how to use them

Make sure you head to the Indie Spirits Tasting in Sydney to find out more about these exciting brands. Click here to book your tickets.

To keep updated with all the distilleries, spirits, and seminars at the Indie Spirits Tasting events happening around the country, make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram and keep an eye on indiespiritstasting.com.au.

Indie Spirits Tasting Sydney forms part of the massive Sydney Bar Week line-up of events.

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