After the summer 2020 bushfires in the Adelaide Hills, many wineries were left without, or with severely constrained, vintages.

Making the use of some of that smoke-tainted fruit is RedHeads Wine, a small-batch winery in the Barossa Valley, which has crafted its own gin from smoke-affected Tempranillo, Grenache and Graciano fruit destined for One Tree Hill winery’s Vin’Atus.

The result is distinctly jumpier with orange peel citrus notes and a hint of cassia and vanilla from the barrel maturation, according to RedHeads Wine’s winery operations manager and head winemaker, Alex Trescowthick.

“Throwing the wine away was the last thing we wanted to do,” Mr Trescowthick said.

“The wine wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t quite fit for our Vin’Atus label as we could detect some level of smoke taint. So we thought, why not try distilling it?

“The gin has a smooth and rounded mouthfeel with botanicals at the forefront followed by a woody presence.”

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