A new boozy addition to the capital’s events calendar kicks off this week as 30 venues offer up bespoke gin experiences for the inaugural Wellington Gin Trail.
The trail will fill the gap left by Gindulgence, a gin festival which is hosted in different parts of New Zealand but is not making an appearance in Wellington this year.
While Gindulgence is a ticketed event, the Gin Trail is a self-conducted tour where patrons can pick what venues they visit depending on what drinks catch their eye, operating on a similar model as Wellington on a Plate or Burger Wellington.
Thirty venues in central Wellington will be offering signature gin drinks, tasting menus and hands-on cocktail workshops across the 10-day event.
The Gin Trail is split into six legs.
The “Cuba Quarter” leg features Cuba St staples like Nolita and Lola Rouge, while the “Heritage Pub” leg includes hospitality institutions like The Old Bailey and Thistle Inn.
Organiser Brett McCall from charity Wellington Community Revitalisation Society told the Herald the not-for-profit event, designed to support the local hospitality industry, was created at the start of the year and had quickly received buy-in from venues and suppliers.
“The missing piece in the puzzle will come around this week when we ask Wellingtonians to jump on the trail and support it.”
Patrons can pick up a physical Gin Trail passport at any participating venue and collect a stamp each time they have a different drink from the trail.
Once six stamps have been collected, they will go into the draw to win a prize pack worth $5000, which includes a tour and guided tasting at Imagination Distillery in Kāpiti Coast.
The Herald received a preview of some of the drinks on offer in the Gin Trail and spoke to the mixologists involved.
The flight included three mini cocktails that were citrus-forward and starred Dragonfly’s own gin.
The Cocodrillo was sweet and tangy, which nicely contrasted with the pillowy coconut foam topping that was reminiscent of soft meringue peaks.
The Dragonfly Martini was a dry drink made with vermouth and yuzushu, a liqueur made from macerated yuzu fruit.
The Dragonfly G&T was a fairly standard, very drinkable G&T.
The rosy, pink drink tastes like a pastry, as intended, and will appeal to sweet cocktail lovers on a budget.
Equal parts sweet and sour, the flavour of the drink could veer into cough-medicine territory but the cinnamon, sugar and cookie dust rim saves it.
It is made with gin from Southward Mountain, which has a distillery in Rongotai.
Dockside mixologist Madhav Dhir told the Herald he wanted to make a twist on a classic sour using Scapegrace’s award-winning Classic Gin.
He replaced lemon juice with lemongrass and vermouth, and swapped sugar syrup for honey, topping the concoction off with two drops of saline solution.
The base of the drink was a syrup made by cold brewing tea, cucumber and lemongrass for 12 hours.
The technique helped retain the delicate botanicals in the drink and prevented the tea from becoming bitter, resulting in a slightly sweetened and subtly fragrant cocktail.
Mishmosh’s masterclass can teach cocktail enthusiasts how to make two cocktails: a Golden Hour and a Slow Grower.
The first drink is a dry, citrusy cocktail made with blood orange, Aperol, orange juice, sugar syrup and sours, and is served in a snifter glass.
The second drink is “a little bit dangerous”, according to bartender Charlotte Kurta, and tastes like a lolly with ingredients like watermelon, elderflower, cranberry and apple juice.
Each class can fit six to 20 people and each attendee will be provided with their own ingredients station, as well as a food platter to share.
Kurta helped develop Mishmosh’s cocktails and said the culture around gin had changed from when she was younger.
She used to think gin was a liquor for older men, remembering her grandfather’s penchant for London Dry, but felt like it was much more versatile now.
McCall said he was not trying to break any records with the first edition of the Gin Trail but would be very happy if a few thousand Wellingtonians participated in the event.
“Our objective is to run events that create vibrancy on the street and help venues with turnover.”
He estimated the Gin Trail cost about $10,000 to put on and said it was not designed to make a profit but rather aimed at supporting the hospitality sector.
The Gin Trail will run from April 16-26.
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.