For those who don’t know what I really do for a living, I’m a freelance digital marketer. Most of my clients are pretty awesome, but earlier this year I was lucky enough to work with a super cool Perth tour guide, Monique from Hidden deTours.
She runs amazing and unique bus tours across Perth, Freo, the Swan Valley and the Bickley Valley.
Tours can be anything from bars to wineries and breweries and just last month she launched her latest tour – a gin tour of Perth.
Perth Gin Tour With Hidden deTours
I was super excited to be invited along to test drive this brand new tour so one Sunday afternoon I headed along to the city pick up location to start our gin adventure across Perth.
It was such a fabulous experience I wanted to share it with all of you.
Stop 1 – High Spirits Distillery
First stop was the most unassuming warehouse down a side road in an industrial estate in Welshpool.
High Spirits Distillery is an independent family-owned artisan distillery making a variety of interesting gins and vodkas.
They took us through their fascinating distilling process and then we got down to tasting some of their gins and vodkas. It may have seemed odd drinking neat gin at 1pm on a Sunday afternoon, but after a few tasters we were soon in the swing of things!
First up was their classic dry gin, followed by a cacao gin and a spiced orange vodka. Owner Mike was clearly passionate about his business of making these quirky spirits and even gave us some info on a super-secret gin project they’re working on (my lips are sealed but watch this space!).
Stop 2 – Swan Valley Gin Co @ Pandemonium Estate
By this time we were all feeling a little peckish so at our second stop we were greeted with some yummy grazing platters to keep us happy and with the strength to go on.
The Swan Valley Gin Co can be found at Pandemonium Estate on the Great Northern Highway in the Swan Valley. As one of the newer cellar doors (they only opened late 2015 to the public), they’ve certainly become a firm favourite in the area. I love their wines and have visited here a few times before, but never tried their gin.
After some delicious woodfired pizzas that followed our platters, we were treated to a tasting of their gins in their tiny distillery room.
They were all fruit based gins – we tried their artisanal dry gin (which has a mandarin base), a strawberry gin and a spiced cumquat gin.
They were all pretty strong and we didn’t have the option of adding any tonic to them, like we did at other stops, so for an uneducated gin-drinker like me it was quite an experience!
Stop 3 – Old Young’s Hand Crafted Spirits
Just around the corner from the Swan Valley Gin Co was our next stop – Old Young’s Hand Crafted Spirits on the West Swan Road.
On the way here, Monique told us all about their gins, but also their Pavlova vodka – OMG how yum does that sound? My ears pricked up as it’s been years since I drank flavoured vodka and it sounded amazing.
The passion here was evident throughout our tasting and boy did we taste! We were taken through 5 gins and the Pavlova vodka so I was glad we had lined our stomachs at the previous stop.
My favourite gin here was the Six Seasons gin which is created with native botanicals that pay tribute to the six seasons of the Noongar people of the Swan Valley. The one that will put hairs on your chest is their Common gin which is 57.5% ABV! As expected the pavlova vodka was absolutely delectable and it’s easy to see why it’s an award-winning spirit.
Stop 4 – Sin Gin Distillery
I’m not ashamed to say I was starting to flag a little after all those gins. It was an unwelcome reminder that I’m certainly closer to my 40s than my 20s these days!
So I was pleasantly surprised to see a very appetising range of snacks at our final stop of the day which was in the city, not far from where we started.
The Sin Gin Distillery can be found in West Perth inside the Murray Hotel, and they have a dedicated private tasting room for groups that book to visit them.
As the name suggests, their main range of gins is named after the 7 deadly sins. You’ve got Pride, Lust, Sloth, Envy, Greed, Gluttony and Wrath. They’ve also recently launched a pink gin named Perth Pink which is definitely eye-catching.
I think we tried about 5 of the gins including the Perth Pink (my memory by this point is a little hazy!) and then it was time to head back to the drop off point.
My Gin Tour Highlights
Being the history nerd that I am, I loved the commentary from Monique while driving from distillery to distillery. She shared heaps of stories about the rather sordid and sometimes sad history of gin, and even had a gin-related music playlist to keep us entertained along the way.
My favourite stop of the day was Old Young’s – the vibe, the staff, and the spirits were all fantastic, and if I had to pick a gin to buy (being the uneducated non-gin drinker as I mentioned before), it would be the Six Seasons gin.
The food at the Swan Valley Gin Co was spot on as well so I’m sure we’ll definitely be back for pizza and wine here.
Hidden deTours also offers small bar tours of Perth and Fremantle, as well as food and wine tours of the Swan Valley and the often-overlooked Bickley Valley. If a guided tour of some fabulous wineries, breweries, distilleries, and eateries is something you’d love, I defy you not to find your perfect tour with Monique.
Looking for more cool things to do in Perth? Check out my post here with 50 ways to show Perth off to visitors.
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