FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 37 OF 80
MANLY SPIRITS, Brookvale, NSW, Australia
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
Let's take a ferry trip from Sydney across the harbour to the famous Manly Beach and Manly Spirits Co. The distillery was founded by David Whittaker and his wife Vanessa Wilton, who were both already Manly locals when they decided, after a trip through Tasmania in 2015, that they wanted to set up their own distillery.
David is a chemical engineer with a background in petrochemical and oil industries, while Vanessa brought her experience in marketing and design, and together they opened Sydney's Northern Beaches' first artisan distillery in 2017.
The whole brand is inspired by the marine environment around them and that connection is hard to miss. Their bottles are tactile and beautifully intricate, with the Fibonacci pattern and their trademark Eastern Blue Devil Fish embossed into the glass. The fish isn't just a bit of decorative branding either — it is a real local connection. The Eastern Blue Devil Fish is found off the coast around Manly and is David's favourite fish, which is why it became the distillery's emblem. It even has a name: Juno, after juniper berries.
And this is definitely not one of those bottles you will want to throw in the recycling. In fact, Manly Spirits actively encourages you to bring your empty bottles back to the distillery to be refilled. The refill station is now presided over by Juno, a large custom-made recycled fish sculpture, and you get a $10 discount when you refill a full-sized bottle.
Their spirits take inspiration from the stunning coastline around them and they use sustainably foraged marine and native Australian botanicals.
The Australian Dry Gin is a classic London Dry-style gin but with a definite taste of its surroundings, using ten botanicals including juniper, sea lettuce, finger lime, anise myrtle, mountain pepper leaf and orange peel, all distilled into an Australian wheat spirit. The sea lettuce brings that subtle marine element, whilst the finger lime and native botanicals add citrus, spice and pepper.
And this isn't just a pretty bottle and a good story — it has picked up some pretty serious awards too. Their Australian Dry Gin was named Best Australian London Dry Gin at the World Gin Awards in both 2019 and 2020, alongside a string of other awards for the gin and its packaging.
Manly Spirits has obviously grown considerably since I first discovered it too. What started as David and Vanessa's dream of creating Australian spirits inspired by their home on the Northern Beaches has developed into a much bigger operation, with gin, vodka, liqueurs and their Coastal Stone Australian whisky range. But that connection to Manly and the coast is still very much at the heart of what they do. Their current distillery is in Brookvale, just a short distance back from the beach, and is still open for tours, tastings, Gin School and drinks at the distillery bar.
"From Manly Beach to the bottle — a gin inspired by the sea, with a fish that refuses to be recycled."
For this serve, I've gone with some sea inspiration again and made a layered cocktail using gin, curaçao, Midori and double cream.
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."
