I didn’t consume in any deliberate or interested way until I tripped into the world of hospitality in all of its intoxicating glory.

Beginning my time in the industry working closely with whisk(e)y and cocktails piqued my interest in the why and the how, but moving into a venue that works with food and wine made me want to understand what connects us to what we drink more holistically. These days I’m almost only concerned with what is delicious.

Delving a touch deeper though, the drinks that end up meaning the most to me tend to have a story. I love something that is made thoughtfully or whimsically with the drinker in mind. What follows is a list of varied libations that have made me think or be merry lately.

Carefully and delicately balanced boozy stir downs are one of life’s pleasures, and very hard to do. This is a drink to appreciate and contemplate. It is a riff on a Jabberwocky, a drink with story aplenty. The Jabberwocky is a Harry Craddock drink from the famed 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book, an ode to Lewis Carroll. Craddock notes that this drink will make you “gyre and gimble”; boy does it. Cam’s take on this drink (originally gin, dry Sherry and two types of aromatised wine) calls for:

Tilde Raw Vodka (a fabulous contemporary Australian product lead by bartender Natalie Ng)

Strawberry Gum Lillet Blanc

Toji Daijingo Sake

Coconut Water

Beechworth Yuzu Bitters

It was floral yet dry, stiff yet long and made me want to make better drinks.

I had three pints of this with my dearest friends at the brewery in Abbotsford, it was the kind of froth that makes you feel cute and alive. They combined Sabro hops, cold pressed pineapple, fresh lime and coconut. I could drink it forever. I love a fun product that, while made very well, plays on nostalgia and not taking itself too seriously.

My dearest ma wanted to give the family a thoughtful gift, so spent 6 months infusing her own limoncello, showing us all up at Christmas. She painstakingly added her citrus in layers, ensuring the flavour was just right. By the time we got to drink it together after a meal, the profile was all zesty oils, measured bitterness and TLC. Homemeade libations are often my favourites and the pinnacle of why hospitality workers do what they do; the connection we find over shared indulgence.

‘Envinate’ translates to something like ‘wine yourself’. They are a group of 4 mates that formed a collective to produce wines reflective of a relatively ‘new’ region on the world stage with so much to offer. This one is hand-harvested, old vine parcels of palomino that they’ve vinified separately in both concrete tanks and open tubs. They left 40% of it under a thin layer of flor. I drank this with some of my favourite wine-loving people, we all got fleshy mango and plantain chips with saline and a smokey peppercorn note that tied it all up. It was a profile I hadn’t experienced before so tried translating it into a cocktail as a nod to such a cool group of winemakers.

We talk about the concept of terroir a lot in wine, and this distillery is at the forefront of placing importance on it within spirit making. They are less concerned with consistency year after year than they are the shape that the harvest of their barley has taken. The final product is balanced and nuanced from there; the last one I tasted was on a warm afternoon in the sun and it was all cereal, white florals and apricot.