Australia's Four Pillars has always had a proclivity for citrus and bright fruit flavors. It started with oranges in Rare Dry Gin, finger limes in Navy Strength Gin and continued through blood orange, grapefruit, cumquat and bergamot – the list goes on. Over the past four or five years, there’s been another citrus slowly edging its way into the hearts and onto the plates of the worlds drinkers and diners. It’s yellow and looks pretty ugly (it’s all in the eye of the beholder, of course) but it tastes and distills great. Of course it's Yuzu.

Native to China, Tibet and Japan, yuzu is a citrus fruit with amazing aromatics that come off as a mix of lemon, mandarin, cumquat and grapefruit. Four Pillars first dabbled with yuzu when they made Pure Kisumé Gin in 2017, then Changing Seasons Gin in 2019 and then fate played its part in early 2020, when they came across some perfect yuzu grown up the road from the distillery in the Ovens Valley. Clearly, yuzu was calling. Later in 2020 they released their most distinctly yuzu-powered gin under the guise of the limited-edition Rarer Dry Gin. So three limited-edition yuzu gins later and behold stand-alone and permanent Fresh Yuzu Gin.

The yuzu brings that mix of lemon, mandarin, cumquat and grapefruit aromatics – all bright and fresh citrus notes – while the addition of finger lime adds some deeper citrus character. They also added ginger, turmeric and sencha genmaicha, a Japanese green tea with roasted brown rice, for depth of flavour. A canvas of strong pine needle juniper, and a bit of lemon myrtle adds a touch of lemon curd.

This vibrant take on dry gin is great for just about any kind of Spring sipping, but our highest recommendation? Toss your bottle of citrus vodka out the window and make the best damn Cosmopolitan of your life.

Spirits