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This weekend I was lucky enough to attend the national finals of the Step Into The Never Never cocktail competition in Adelaide. Well, it wasn’t a final, not really — there was no champion in particular. Rather, each of the eight winning contestants from around Australia were invited to SA for the weekend to hang out with the Never Never team and be hosted by co-founder Sean Baxter. They got to eat great food, drink great wine, go on helicopter rides, and visit great bars, with a couple of fun, Masterchef-style challenges thrown in along the way. It is a refreshing approach to cocktail competitions, and I was very happy to have a front row seat.
On Saturday night, the winners had dinner at Parwana, a local legend of Afghan food, and then headed to cocktail institution Maybe Mae for a drink. There, instead of a menu, they were handed a blindfold, and were challenged to identify a gin classic by taste and smell alone. Both Keeley McAlinden from Dessous in Melbourne and Bear Murphy from Sydney’s Bar Planet correctly identified the drink as a Bijou.
I met the eight winners in Adelaide on Sunday morning, and Sean drove us up to McLaren Vale for a distillery tour and gin masterclass, an all-important stop at Macca’s for caffeine and carbs along the way. The stunning hilltop location of Never Never’s distillery and bar is surrounded by vineyards, and sports wide vistas over the surrounding green and gold hills. On arrival we’re led to the nearby helipad (yes, the distillery has its own helipad) for a ride with Paul the Pilot over the surrounding countryside and down the coast, the blue-green waters of the St Vincent Gulf glimmering below.
Back on solid ground, Sean sat everyone down for a masterclass, taking us through the individual botanical distillates that go into Never Never’s various gins. As we smell and taste, the hillside fills up with visitors. Never Never shares the space here with Chalk Hill Wines and pizza kitchen Cucina di Strada, so on a sunny public holiday eve like today, the hilltop is heaving by noon. After scarfing some pizza we head into the distillery production area to avoid the throng and the first challenge of the day is set before the visiting bartenders: blind tasting individual distillates to identify botanicals.
It’s not an easy challenge, but John McAndrew of Frisk in Perth and Declan Coffey of Hanky Panky in Darwin distinguish themselves with some hard gets, and some excellent displays of sportsmanship. The last bartender standing, though, is Keeley, identifying the super hard to discern coconut oil distillate that’s a key textural ingredient in Never Never’s brand new vodka.
Which brings us to the main event of the weekend.
Back in Adelaide on Sunday night, the movers and shakers of the city’s bar scene gathered at the newly opened Honeydripper for the launch of Never Never Signature Vodka. The event also marked the biggest challenge of the weekend for the eight winners of Step Into The Never Never. Each bartender was tasked with creating a signature Vodka Martini paired with the smooth sounds of Erykah Badu’s classic song On and On, flipping the script on traditional cocktail pairing in line with a renewed focus on sound in the bars of Australia. The menu for the evening came in the form of a full-sized vinyl record, the front cover of the sleeve featuring artwork from Badu’s album New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh, and the back listing the eight Martinis on offer for the evening instead of tracks.
Each of these Martinis was served by their creators, who whipped around the room with trays, telling the stories of their drinks to the thirsty crowd over the neo soul emanating from Honeydripper’s serious sound system. All eight drinks were spectacular in their own way: there was cherry blossom hydrosol, aromatised smoky Scotch, carbonised grapes and handmade honey drops, and mango-infused rice crackers and pearlescent drops of squid ink. It was overwhelming and wonderful and surprising and strange, much like Erykah Badu’s music.
Finally, it was Bear’s Martini The Whirlpool that won the challenge, its garnish of squid ink painted around the glass a funky, oceanic counterpoint to the brightness of fino and champagne vinegar. As the supply of Martinis, and the bartender who made them, is exhausted, we head off to a dinner at modern Italian stalwart Osteria Oggi for some well-deserved pasta and wine to wash. After dinner, some head to bar Trap (where Sean challenges them to shake a Ramos for exactly one minute), while others head to bed. Tomorrow is another day.
Monday morning we’re back up to the hills stopping at excellent coffee shop Dawn Patrol for fortifying flatties. Sean is our benevolent bus driver the whole time, and I can tell he’s genuinely enjoying playing host and showing off the wonders of South Australia. “It’s like we’re at summer camp,” John jokes as we pile into the rented minivan. I ask him how he’s enjoying the weekend and his response is unequivocal. “I’m living my best life, aren’t I?” he says. “I was in a helicopter yesterday! Who fuckin’ does that?”
Appropriately caffeinated, we head to winery Brash Higgins for a tasting with winemaker Brad Hickey. His wines are stunning, all organic and low-intervention, made with esoteric French and Italian varietals, a sophisticated modern palate in mind and an artisan’s attention to craft. Brad spins a good yarn, too, holding court among the custom-made clay amphorae he uses for fermentation. But the best is yet to come.
Lunch, it turns out, will be catered by chef Karena Armstrong, whose modern Australian food, much of it sourced from her nearby restaurant The Salopian Inn’s organic garden, is among the best in South Australia. For the final challenge of the weekend, the bartenders are given 20 minutes to create a Spritz with Never Never gin and Brash Higgins Cinsault to kick off the meal. A flurry of activity ensues as the eight competitors muddle, mix and shake, fresh herbs flying.
Charlie Hunter of Dark Blue in Brisbane gets the gong for her Spritz featuring Never Never Ginache and a dash of pickled guindilla pepper brine, garnished with a big leaf of fresh lemon balm from Salopian’s garden. Never Never brand ambassador Cody Banks gets the specs and whips up a whole batch, served to us at lunch alongside chef Armstrong’s incredible prawn and carp dumplings. The rest of the meal is a daydream of stunning colour and flavour, good conversation and better wine (no shade — the wine was just that good.)
After lunch I had to come home to Melbourne to write all this down (thanks for the lift to the airport Cody!), but the rest of the crew got to head back to town for beers at The Exeter and dinner at Adelaide Chinese favourite T-Chow. I hope they had room after a lunch like that.
With World Class global just wrapping up in Toronto (respect to Jimmy Irvine for doing Australia proud over there), it’s hard not to think of the disappointment of the hundreds of bartenders around the world who made national finals and didn’t get through to the next round, or the 50 incredibly talented folks who did get to globals, but didn’t get the gong. Having competed in many comps myself back in the day, I genuinely just wanted everyone to feel like winners for all their hard work. It’s nice to see Sean, no stranger to fierce competition himself, take a less cutthroat, more egalitarian approach to cocktail comps, showing all eight of these deserving bartenders a great time, no trophy required.
As Carter Stacey from Savile Row in Brisbane tells me: “It’s been the most incredible experience. I feel so lucky to be here.”
Fred attended the events in South Australia as a guest of Never Never.
Dying to Tell You. We can officially announce that a Melbourne branch of storied New York cocktail institution Death & Co. will be opening in November, with another branch in Brisbane launching at some point TBD. The Melbourne venue will be located at 87 Flinders Lane in the CBD, and they are actively recruiting staff, so have a look here if you’re keen to get involved with one of the world’s most respected names in bars. We’ll be keeping you up to date as more details emerge — and I might even know someone involved.
A Byrdi In The Hand. Our intrepid editor Sam Bygrave is in Hong Kong this week for The World’s 50 Best Bars awards ceremony, with the top 50 bars announced tomorrow. Let’s hope there’s a Melbourne bar or two on the top 50, but also big congratulations to our very own Byrdi for making the 51-100 list announced last week, the only Aussie bar to make the long list.
In It to Win It. Have you entered your drink into the Drink of the Year Awards yet? It’s got to be a drink that has been on the list at your bar, or regularly available, for some time during the past 12 months. You’ll need a good photo of the drink, one of yourself, the recipe and some more info which you can find at boothby.com.au/drinkoftheyear — entries close 11:59PM AEDT Friday 17 October.
Boothby Staff
