SLOWLY but surely, craft distillers are emerging across Australia.
Alongside the trend towards craft beers and boutique wineries, it is only natural that Australian drinkers are increasingly seeking spirits with authenticity, premium ingredients and from a local source.
The good news for South Australian gin lovers is that a new product is about to hit the market.
In the Adelaide Hills, between Lobethal and Mount Torrens, Lodestone assistant winemaker and gin lover Sacha La Forgia is creating the Hills' first gin, 78° Gin, at his Adelaide Hills distillery.
Sacha's love for the juniper and coriander-based spirit developed while travelling the world working vintages.
"Part of the (winemaking) course was a distillation course, and that sort of piqued my interest early in my career," he said.
"Then I spent close to six years working in different countries and I gained an appreciation for each country's spirit - like grappa in Italy, and kirsch in Germany."
Sacha has dreamt of making his own gin for awhile.
"It just happens that right now, the market is ready for craft gin, and I'm ready to make it, so I just jumped in and started kicking," he said.
"Gin's the start and it's very enjoyable to play with so many different flavours and aromas, but it could develop (to other spirits) with the distillery, I suppose."
Sacha describes the process of distillation - using the column still he and a mate built from scratch - as "very simple".
"You start with a very neutral, grain-based spirit, and it's basically a process of redistillation in conjunction with herbs and spices, or botanicals," he said.
"We boil the spirit, vapours travel up the column, and as they do so they condense in the lower temperatures back into liquid and pass the hot vapours coming up the column and that causes a redistillation to happen.
"So there's always redistillations occurring as it's travelling up the column which means by the time you get to the end, it's very pure ethanol."
The 78° Gin distillation uses a basket infusion method.
A gin basket is filled with botanicals in a small muslin bag and, as the vapours pass over it, they pick up the flavour and carry that through to the final condenser, which then cools the liquid ready for drinking.
A range of botanicals are used to create gin, and with the 78° Gin, Sacha is aiming to produce a "more complex" gin.
"The classic gin recipe is three parts juniper, two parts coriander and one part all the other spices - that can be anything from peppers to cardamoms and nutmegs," he said.
"I use more of a restrained juniper and coriander base and I'm trying to develop the other spices to create the more complex gin that is different from the traditional gins, but still echoes of the London dry gin."
He hopes his spicy, complex and savoury type of gin will allow 78° Gin to stand out from the crowd.