Chris Hemsworth’s Distillery Released a Gin Made With His Own Honey

Late last summer, Avengers star Chris Hemsworth joined Australian distillery Archie Rose as a co-owner ahead of the launch of its whiskies here in the U.S. And just a few days ago, the distillery announced that it was releasing the latest gin in its Harvest Series, and this special expression was made using wild honey sourced from beehives on the star’s farm near Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia.

Archie Rose Distilling Co. was founded in 2014 by Will Edwards, and the team there has been making whisky and gin using local ingredients over the past decade. So obviously when Hemsworth got involved, the two whiskies that were recently introduced into the U.S. market were ready to go—and both, it should be mentioned, are quite good. These two releases are the Single Malt Australian Whisky, made from local Australian barley and aged in apera casks (a type of Australian fortified wine, European oak, and American oak in warehouses not far outside of Sydney. The other more interesting release is the Straight Rye Malt Whisky, made from Australian Heritage, Vampire, and Bevy rye malts, and aged in charred virgin American oak barrels for at least three years. This whisky is recognizable as a rye when you try it, but not in the way an American rye whiskey is—it’s more akin to the rye whisky released by Danish distillery Stauning, with notes of fruit, citrus, and vanilla layered upon soft baking spice flavors.

And now there’s also the new Byron Bay Macadamia Honey Gin, which unfortunately for the U.S. is only available in Australia at the moment (we reached out to the distillery to see if that will change in the future). The series is meant to highlight different botanicals which are grown in partnership with various farmers. For this year’s release, Hemsworth’s bees supplied the honey that is one of the lead botanicals in the gin, along with macadamia honey sourced from Manuka which was pollinated from a macadamia tree orchard. The other botanicals in the mix include Valencia orange, yuzu, juniper, orris root, coriander and chamomile. We did not get to sample this gin, but the official tasting notes describe honeyed sweetness, pine, citrus, and floral rose on the palate.

Archie Rose Straight Rye Malt Whisky (SRP $50) and Single Malt Australian Whisky (SRP $60) are both available now at specialty retailers and from the distillery’s website, and we will let you know if and when the Byron Bay Macadamia Honey Gin becomes available here as well.