Awards

Adelaide’s new star distiller Hidden Trove shines with gold medal for spiced rum

By Gracie Wallace

Posted on August 17, 2024

Adelaide’s East End has a new star in the spirits scene. Launched in 2021, the distillery is quickly making a name for itself with its award-winning gins and spiced rum.

Images: @hiddentrovedistilling

Adelaide’s East End has a new star in the spirits scene. Hidden Trove Distilling, which launched in 2021, is quickly making a name for itself with its award-winning gins and spiced rum.

Recently, Head Distiller Melaine Haynes celebrated a major victory with her Acre 96 Spiced Cane Spirit winning the Gold Medal for Best Cane Spirit at the Melbourne Royal 2024 Australian Distilled Spirit Awards. The award hasn’t been handed out in a couple of years now, making Hidden Trove’s win even more impressive.

“We were quite surprised. It was our first delve into promoting our brand on the rum side, and it did pretty well,” Business Manager of Hidden Trove Distilling Andrew Klima says.

“This is a wonderful surprise and great recognition for our small distillery team,” Distiller Melaine Haynes said via Hidden Trove’s Instagram.

The gold meal winning Acre 96 Spiced Cane Spirit showcases a unique blend of Australian botanicals including frangipani, finger limes, and pepperberry, along with spices like cinnamon myrtle and wattleseed. The creation process involves crushing fresh Queensland sugar cane, fermenting, double pot distilling, and aging in oak barrels for six to 12 months, creating a distinctive spiced aroma and flavour.

Hidden Trove is known for using local ingredients and aging their rum in barrels from Adelaide’s original distillery. Their Acre 96 range also features the popular Lychee Sipping Gin, which has become a hit in local bars, and their flagship Luxe Gin; a product of five years of careful development.

The Spiced Cane Spirit, launched last October, is now a staple in Adelaide bars, alongside their Acre 96 Luxe Gin, which won a Silver Medal, and the Lychee Sipping Gin, which snagged a Bronze Medal in the awards.

While their Spiced Cane Spirit took home the Gold Medal, Andrew says it is their Lychee Sipping Gin that stands out as the most popular among customers: “That’s the one that is actually our most popular.”

Founders Andrew Klima and Melaine Haynes both bring colourful backgrounds to their craft. Melaine, a former chef with a biochemistry background, combined her passion for flavours with distillation. Andrew’s love for rum began in a sugar mill on the NSW and Queensland coasts, and after travelling around the world, he found his way to Adelaide’s East End to fill a gap in the rum market.

Looking ahead, Hidden Trove aims to celebrate Adelaide’s heritage through its products, offering a blend of tradition and modernity: “The long term goal of Hidden Trove is to highlight areas within the Adelaide CBD, to give some sort of historical context, but not as a history lesson,” Andrew says.

If you’re keen to try their award-winning spirits, you can find Hidden Trove bottles in a bunch of locations around Adelaide’s city. Here are some places to check out: