Gumeracha, Adelaide Hills: Why should I visit the Applewood Distillery?

The Applewood Distillery in Gumeracha, South Australia, makes gins and liqueurs with Australian native ingredients. This Adelaide Hills distillery uses distinctive botanicals such as peppermint gum, riberries, finger limes and Davidson plums.

The Adelaide Hills in South Australia is one of Australia’s top wine regions. The Lane Vineyard, Golding Wines and the Howard Vineyard are among several Adelaide Hills wineries within easy reach of strangely German hub town Hahndorf.

But wine isn’t the only drink you can enjoy in the Adelaide Hills. Enter the Applewood Distillery in Gumeracha, which makes some mighty fine gin as well as being the base for Unico Zelo wines.

The Big Rocking Horse in Gumeracha, Adelaide Hills

Gumeracha is best known as the home of the Big Rocking Horse, one of the ludicrous roadside Big Things. But the Applewood Distillery attempts to take away some of the attention from the Big Rocking Horse.

**15 fabulous Adelaide experiences to supercharge your visit**

DOLPHINS 🐬: Swim with wild dolphins, kayak with the resident bottlenose pod or watch them on a dolphin cruise.
FOOD AND WINE 🍷: Indulge on Adelaide food tour including Adelaide Central Market. Or try a wine discovery tour with tastings at the National Wine Centre. Or the ultimate Penfolds Magill Estate experience with full estate tour & Grange tasting.
WILDLIFE 🐨: Spot koalas on a guided Morialta nature hike. Or walk from Waterfall Gully to Mount Lofty with entrance to Cleland Wildlife Park.
CRUISES ⛵: Watch the sun set on a twilight coastal cruise, get to know the city on a Torrens River cruise or take a high tea cruise aboard the Popeye.
SPORT 🏏: Dare to take on the Adelaide Oval Roofclimb or enter the fabled scoreboard on the behind-the-scenes stadium tour.
ACTION 🚵‍♂️: Descend Mount Lofty on a downhill mountain bike tour or kayak along the Torrens River.

This Adelaide Hills distillery opened in 2015, and has developed a reputation for unusual flavoured gins. The Applewood Gin is the Applewood Distillery’s main product. It throws in desert limes, wattleseed and peppermint gum leaf amongst its botanicals.

The other big-seller is the Coral Gin, which is supposedly ‘inspired by the Great Barrier Reef’. Again, it uses native botanicals. This time round it’s strawberry gum, riberries and Karkalla.

Applewood Distillery liqueurs

Go further into the Applewood Distillery core range, and things get much weirder. The Økar Island Bitter works well in cocktails, and uses an extraordinary range of native Australian ingredients.

Pick your perfect Adelaide day trips

Barossa Valley tours: 1. Wine-tasting with lunch 🍷. 2. Food and wine tour. 3. Small group wine tour with exclusive VIP tastings.
Kangaroo Island in a day – including sea lions 🦭, koalas 🐨and national parks.
Adelaide Hills tours: 1. Sights plus Murray River lunch cruise combo. 2. Small group cheese, chocolate & wine tour with Hahndorf German village.
McLaren Vale tours: 1. Small group wine tour with lunch. 2. Hop-on hop-off wineries tour 🍷. 3. Food and wine indulgence tour, including the gloriously weird d’Arenberg Cube.
Victor Harbor and southern highlights tour – including the Granite Island horse-drawn tram.

The Økar Island Bitter uses riberries, Davidson plums, wild thyme, wattleseed, peppermint gum, strawberry gum, native currants and finger limes.

Other options include Kakadu plum gin, muntrie gin and a liqueur that puts an outback ingredient twist on amaro. The whole range is reliably interesting, and very different. You can be confident that if you visit the Applewood Distillery in Gumeracha, you’re going to be trying something highly distinctive.

drinks at the Applewood Distillery in Gomerucha, Adelaide Hills, South Australia — The Applewood Distillery in the Adelaide Hills makes drinks with native Australian ingredients. Photo by Erik Rosenberg.

Applewood Distillery opening hours

The Applewood Distillery bar is open from 12pm to 5pm, Monday to Thursday. Then it’s open from 12pm to 6pm, Friday to Sunday. There are also distillery tours available at 12pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The distance from Adelaide to Gumeracha is 37km, with the Adelaide to Gumeracha drive taking around 45 minutes. Other Adelaide Hills highlights include drinking Mismatch Brewing beers at Lot 100 near Nairne.