Reed & Co
Rachel Reed and Hamish Nugent
Bright (North-East Victoria)
Reed and Co. came about almost by accident back in 2016. Rachel Reed and Hamish Nugent had been running their awesome restaurant Tani in Bright, North East Victoria, since 2012. They started experimenting with distillation in the kitchen as a means to explore and develop the flavour of the local ingredients they were having so much fun using in their food. This sent them tumbling down a rabbit hole from which they never returned. After three years of becoming increasingly fascinated by distillation, Rachel and Hamish installed their first copper still, Molly, into the site of Tani.
The local and native botanicals that were a cornerstone of their cooking became the backbone of their first spirit, Remedy Gin in 2016. Remedy Gin was one of the first native botanical gins and we remember being blown away by it when I first tasted it not long after its release. So happy were they with their progress, combined with feeling like they couldn’t do the restaurant justice while realising their potential in distillation, they decided to kick their life’s work of opening and running a respected and successful restaurant to the curb to focus on their new passion.
Bright is at the base of the Australian Alps, about 300m above sea level. The town is surrounded by pine forests and bushlands and has a plethora of valleys and rivers close by. These alpine surroundings inform Reed & Co’s gins, with predominate botanicals featured including local gum leaves, pine needles, and mountain pepper berries and leaves.
As easy as it would be to rest of their gin-based laurels, Rachel and Hamish have done the opposite. They are pioneering a whole new spirit in Australia, Shochu.
Shochu is a super traditional spirit in Japan. Shochu can be made from basically anything, but the most common ferment bases are rice, barley, buckwheat and sweet potatoes. These starchy bases are converted into sugar using the miracle funghi Koji. Koji converts starch into sugar, allowing for fermentation, and is the key to the most quintessentially Japanese foods and drinks: Soy Sauce, Miso, Sake, Amazake, Shochu and Awamori.
Making Koji is an incredibly arduous, precise and time-consuming process, that can take decades to master. Rachel and Hamish have built their very own purpose-built Koji room at the distillery, and are making the hands down the best koji we have seen in Australia. Focusing their attention on Rice and Barley Shochu, both as a base for infusions and distillations and in the case of rice, releasing Australia’s first straight Shochu, which we are in love with.
Rachel and Hamish make incredible spirits and are always pushing the paradigm of what it is to be a top-quality craft distiller in Australia. We are stoked to have them in the portfolio.
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Ex-gun chefs who, inspired by their mountainous surrounds, fell in love with the endless possibilities of distillation. Pioneered native botanical gin before releasing Australia’s first Shochu! Passion, inventiveness and incredible skill all rolled into independent small-batch craft spirits.
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Country: Australia
Region: North East Victoria
Town: Bright -
Organic rice, organic yuzu, foraged local botanicals.
Current Releases
Rice Shochu
Australia’s first -ever Shochu! And F is it delicious.
Using organic rain-fed Tachiminori rice from the legends at Marlivale farm in Nothern Rivers NSW.
Koji (Aspergillus Luchuensis) made in-house.
Long and slow fermentation to produce high-toned aromatics.
Single low-pressure vacuum distillation.
Single distillation = traditional “honkaku” approach in Japan and retains rich rice character.
Low pressure vacuum distillation = retention of incredibly fresh aromatics.
The raw material shines through here but carries with it super fresh fruit and floral character. Sweet melon and tropical fruit on the palate with a tight and dry ricey / lacto finish.
We have always loved Rachel and Hamish’s work but what they have achieved with this Shochu is mind-boggling. The most interesting, fastidiously planned and well-executed beverage made in Australia in a fair few years.
Yuzu-shu Shochu
Rice Shochu base.
Organic Yuzu sourced from Mountain Yuzu farm in Ovens Valley just down the road from Bright where the distillery is based.
Juice and Peel utilised.
A strange tasting experience in that it completely shows all of its quite disparate elements with perfect clarity but then comes together as a great balanced whole.
The crazy aromatics, complexity and freshness from Yuzu shines through first up and is backed up by some tropical fruit aromatics from the Shochu. Then the Shochu shows itself, both in savoury character and rich viscous texture before the yuzu comes back and lingers with the grain character for a balanced and long finish.
Drink straight on ice, in a spritz, as a highball, or use as a source of acidity and savouriness in a cocktail.
Chilli Koji
A completely new type of liqueur that shows Reed & Co’s wild creativity.
Pearl barley Shochu base.
Chilli and botanical-infused.
Guajillo and Chipotle chilli’s bring smokeyness, citrus character depth and heat.
A rich, warm and spicy beverage with caramel and ginger notes.
Drink as a highball, with ginger beer, or use in a cocktail for warming spice and smokey depth.
Bitter Claro
A bittersweet Amaro that takes a considered approach to it’s botanic mix.
Botanicals Used: Orange, Rhubarb Root, Strawberry Gum, Elderberry, Cacao.
Long Maceration for full extraction of botanical character.
Finished in barrel to smooth and round out.
Deep citrus, raspberry and dark chocolate nose.
Palate shows deep orange character, then a floral Turkish Delight quality with earhty complexity of cacao.
Drink after dinner over ice, in a lighter style Negroni, with soda or in any cocktail as a combo with sweet vermouth.
Remedy Gin
The drink that started it all back in 2016.
A mixture of wild and native botanicals including: Citriadora Gum, Pine Needles, Mountain Pepper leaf & berries, and Desert lime.
One of the first, and still the best, Australian native gins.
Use as you would any awesome gin.
Neo Gin
Gin designed specifically to hero local North East Victorian produce.
Yuzu, Shisho, Shincha Green Tea all grown near Bright.
Bright citrus and subtle Juniper with savoury herbaceousness and depth from the Shisho and Shincha.
Use it as you would any awesome minimalist herbaceous gin.
Saint Juni Gin
A gin that focusses on its defining botanical, Juniper.
Juniper with Eucalyptus Nicholii and Cedar.
This is a real gin pervert’s gin.
Pure unbridled juniper with its soft yet warming perfume with the gum leaves just brightening the profile slightly and cedar adding to a warm rounded finish.
Screams out for G & T’s and simple classics that let the gin shine.
Saint Juni Distillers Strength Gin
If the Saint Juni is a gin for gin perverts, this is a gin for the gin S & M’ers.
As above but left at a robust and raw 57% ABV.
Martini, Martini, Martini!
Gin and Juice
Another wild product that is the only one of it’s type I have ever seen.
Essentially a mistelle (fortified grape juice) but using gin rather than the traditional wine based spirit.
Using high country Gewurtztramier juice, fortified with Reed & Co’s Neo Gin.
The drinking experience is totally unique. Sweet and aromatic Gewurtz hits you first before the shape citrus and savoury herbaceous gin follows through.
This is awesome as an aperitif with soda or tonic and just as good after dinner or with cheese over ice.
Dark Night Coffee Liqueur
A coffee liqueur celebrating great people doing awesome things in Bright.
Reed & Co and Sixpenny Coffee have happily shared space on 15 Willis Street in Bright for Years. This is the culmination of their expertise rolled into a liqueur.
Using a gin base and cold extracted single origin Columbian coffee, the result is a fresh yet incredibly deep and complex coffee liquer.
Drink on ice or to make any coffee cocktail (yes including that one).
