Made for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s 40th anniversary, the new gin includes humour-promoting botanicals.
For Melbourne Gin Company founder Andrew Marks, gin is no laughing matter – even when it’s distilled for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. To celebrate the iconic festival’s 40th anniversary, Andrew and MGC have distilled a rare one-off spirit, Funny Bone Gin, designed to capture the good humour behind the annual event (and make a banging Martini, too).
With Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s kick-off closing in on March 25, and this unique spirit from one of our best local producers not far behind, we chatted with Andrew about his love of gin and path to distilling, as well as the special botanicals that went into MGC’s Funny Bone Gin.
Although a winemaker by trade – these days with both the Yarra Valley’s Gembrook Hill and The Wanderer – Andrew’s been crafting gin since before the spirit started trending, and his love for it runs deep.
“Going back to around 2009, I loved going to bars and my flatmate at the time was a surgeon, and we had this habit of solving the problems of the world over a Martini, coming from very different viewpoints,” Andrew says. “I remember one day I thought, ‘What would happen if I came up with my own gin?’”
The answer eventually became Melbourne Dry Gin – MGC’s original release back in 2012, and something of a groundbreaker in Australia’s embryonic craft-gin scene. Andrew admits his gin knowledge was pretty rudimentary in those days (“I didn’t know what juniper tasted like,” he says), but with a love of Martinis to spur him on and plenty of winemaking skill, he figured out how to make gin.
“I basically undertook a year of alchemy where I just started doing experiments,” Andrew says. “I didn’t know what all these botanicals taste like, so it made most sense for me to distil them all individually to actually understand what is juniper, what is coriander seed? When you distil citrus, orange peel or lavender, what’s the best way of doing it?”
Introducing Funny Bone Gin
MGC isn’t a prolific company, compared to some of its craft gin contemporaries. It took Andrew five years to release his second gin after the Melbourne Dry – called Single Shot. For Andrew, quality is the most important part of the process, although he also has specific ideas about where a gin works best.
“To me, a gin has to fulfil three functions,” Andrew says. “It has to be fantastic in a Martini, sensational in a Gin and Tonic – which, let's face it, is how most people will drink a gin – and it has to be great in a Negroni. That's how you get the party started.”
Consider all those criteria well and truly ticked off with the latest MGC release, the limited-edition Funny Bone Gin (PSA: This release is exclusive to Dan’s, so if you’re Victoria-based, you can snap up a bottle in-store – otherwise, you can have it delivered to your door). As a longtime partner with the comedy festival, the chance to make a one-off gin to celebrate its 40th anniversary wasn’t taken lightly. “If we're going to call ourselves the Melbourne Gin Company, we really want to support the culture of Melbourne,” Andrew says.
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The opportunity to craft a gin for the festival has also sparked a unique – and appropriately light-hearted – approach to distillation. “I started off by researching botanicals that have been used over the years and are known to produce good humour,” says Andrew. “We came across a botanical called damiana. In folklore, it's been associated with producing good humour among people – and it might also be associated with increasing libido.”
As well as damiana, Funny Bone Gin includes fig leaf from Andrew’s property in Gembrook, and a zesty hit from a lesser-known citrus called the lemonade fruit. Those three botanicals then go into the base gin, which is a tweaked version of the MGC Melbourne Dry. Andrew says he’s also accentuated the juniper notes in this special release, as well as dialled up the orange notes, which he thinks have an “almost spiritual association” with smiles.
As for how best to serve the Funny Bone Gin, you already know Andrew is leaning towards a Martini – maybe with a little orange twist instead of the classic lemon and served as ice-cold as possible. Just like his Melbourne Dry Gin, though, Funny Bone is designed to be versatile and adaptable, whatever your favourite gin serve is.
With all that in mind – and considering Andrew’s unique botanicals were chosen to increase good humour – how does he feel the gin has turned out? “I think anyone who enjoys this in a Martini or Negroni will not be able to refrain from a smile,” he says.
