Headlands Tidal Lines Illawarra Plum Infused Gin

Tidal Lines begins as our delicious classic gin recipe and is then infused with native Illawarra Plums over a ~12 month time frame in ex french oak wine casks. The gin and Illawarra Plum fruit are both placed directly into the casks and left to marry into this one of a kind spirit.

Featuring flavours of fresh juniper, rainforest lime, Illawarra Plum, cinnamon, angelica root, orris root and many others!

What are Illawarra Plums? Illawarra Plums are extremely rare, Australian native bush tucker fruit, packed full of antioxidants. They are not commercially farmed and are not true plums as we know them.

In the UK, distillers make a product called “sloe gin,” which starts off as regular gin but is then steeped in sloe berries, a small black/blue fruit. A sloe berry looks similar to an Illawarra Plum with some very important differences. Sloe berries do not have an external seed, are a completely different species and taste very different. Tidal Lines is an Australian native version of the UK’s sloe gin, with Illawarra Plums used in place of the sloe berries. Australia also has other types of native “plum” such as Davidson Plum and Kakadu Plum, which are different to the Illawarra Plum.

Our Story
Headlands Distilling Co. started from humble beginnings. It was early 2015, and with nothing more than a collective goal to produce handcrafted spirits, four friends founded Wollongong’s first distillery. Despite numerous setbacks and unforeseen hurdles, the combination of scientific precision, engineering practicality and business perseverance prevailed. Initially we produced spirit for our whisky, as we knew it would be a long wait before it was ready. After barreling this spirit in 2016, a year later, we set to work on creating delicious Seacliff Vodka and a range of gins and specialty products.

The journey begins in the Riverina region of NSW, where our relationships with individual farmers allow us to trace the origin of our starting ingredients to the very paddock where they are grown. Freshly harvested grains are picked up directly from the farm and brought to the distillery in Wollongong. From these high quality Australian grains, we handcraft pristine alcoholic spirits.

We bring our fresh, can-do attitude into all aspects of the business. Our Seacliff Vodka represents the starting point, but Headlands is growing into a vibrant, forward-thinking company that creates an exceptional range of spirits from high quality Australian produce. 2019 saw the release of three new products which were also years in the making. Spirit of the Illawarra Plum- 9 months barrel aged. Boobialla gin, made exclusively from Australian native juniper and Daalgaal, gin steeped in Illawarra Plums for 6+ months.

2020 saw the release of our first Single Malt Whisky. Finished in casks which were seasoned with Seppeltsfield Rare Rich Apera and Rare Muscat. 2021 will see the release of the world’s first Illawarra Plum cask whisky, aged in ex- Spirit of the Illawarra Plum barrels!

Grain to glass
The Grain to Glass philosophy is core to Headlands’ products, every step of the production process is done from scratch, from milling the grain, mashing, fermentation, distilling, filtering, bottling and labeling. It demonstrates our passion for ensuring purity at every stage of production. We start with the highest quality ingredients and pair them with our relentless pursuit of perfection. There is no room for compromise.

The locally grown barley is brought fresh from the paddock, directly to the distillery in Wollongong where we mill, ferment, distill and bottle our handcrafted spirits. We have complete oversight of a grain from the time it goes into the ground to the time it goes into a glass.