Raise your glass: sparkling success with gin chaser

Tasmanian sparkling wine maker Natalie Fryar tops the pops in hitlist and backs up with winning Abel Co Gin

Sparkling wine and gin maker Natalie Fryar of Bellebone and Abel Gin Co, a co-production with Kim Seagram, pictured at her Launceston distillery with a botanical still named Genevieve. Picture: CHRIS CRERAR

Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glass to Natalie Fryar, Tasmanian sparkling wine and gin maker.

In the past fortnight, Fryar has won two industry gold medals for her Abel Gin Company and soaring acclaim for her Bellebonne sparkling wine.

“It was a big week, with the seven-star sparkling announcement on Friday and on Monday double gold at the Australian Gin Awards,” Fryar says.

“I’d love to have celebrated more, but our fresh juniper arrived so I was very busy distilling it.”

Bellebonne joined House of Arras, also Tasmanian, at the top of influential Champagne and sparkling wine critic Tyson Stelzer’s Annual Sparkling Report.

Fryar is pictured here with Genevieve, the still she uses to capture the essence of fresh Tasmanian botanicals at her micro-distillery in Launceston.

The former chief winemaker at Jansz went out on her own five years ago, taking her small, high-end label to market in 2017.

She launched into gin four years ago with Stillwater’s Kim Seagram, who brings family gin heritage with her wellknown surname.

The Abel Gin Co produces two gins and Fryar says they are as distinctive as night and day.

“Essence is refreshing and bright, it’s your G&T with ice, sparkling in sun.

“The key is citrus and florals including a ti-tree blossom and fresh roses grown for us. A lisbon lemon from my backyard, cumquats from Kim’s garden…”

Quintessence is for after dark.

“It is contemplative gin, for sipping slowly sitting by a fire with one other person.

“You can linger on that drink whether it’s a martini, negroni or ice with a slice.

“Think darker fruit, spice, layers and richness, with notes of Tasmanian kunzea and native pepperberry from a friend’s farm at Mt Arthur.”

Abel Gin Co’s Negroni made with Quintessence gin is an after-dark cocktail.

in has a superb place-capturing ability, she says. is that it can capture a place
“And in Tasmania we have a huge advantage with our environment. The pristine water is critical and we have extraordinary access to distinctive botanicals.

“A gin from Tasmania won’t taste like one from Uzbekistan.”

As for her sparkling success? Again, Fryar talks terroir.

“I am deeply connected to particularly the Pipers River region and its incredible ability to produce distinctive, powerful elegant sparkling wines,” she says.

A range of Tasmanian labels were also honoured on the sparkling hits list and at the gin awards.

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Originally published as Raise your glass: sparkling success with gin chaser