Location: Bathurst

Hanging out with: Ian Glen

Connection: Ian is the brother of our friend Al who we met at Sydney Uni (and then followed each other to Western Australia and then New Zealand!)

Al has been us telling about his brothers award-winning distillery in Bathurst for a long time, so of course we couldn’t resist checking it out. The Stone Pine Distillery is located on the outskirts of Bathurst, but unfortunately no longer have a cellar door…that’s when it pays to have connections!

So we dropped in on Ian and he was happy for us to taste his wares. Their main product is gin, but he has diversified into experimenting with infused liqueurs with a focus on Australian native plants such as finger-lime.

It was also another example of how small the world can be. Ian spent six years in Scotland learning his craft in a small town out of Elgin. Our Scottish friends, Jill and Fraser, come from that area and as it turns out Jill’s father supplied the barley to Ian.

We bought a selection of produce (gin, spiced rum and finger lime liqueur) for our trip and we were on our way.