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“I like to experiment, and I'm curious,” he admits.
There are two types of people: those that show off and those that geek out. No one wants to hear your monologue about pivotal avant-garde films of the 20th century. But we will delight in your retelling of this year’s Renaissance festival and your handmade, period-correct leather merchant costume.
The difference? Joy.
Joy is contagious. It burns off your cynicism (albeit temporarily), and the next thing you know, you’re asking 20 questions about sewing rawhide.
So it was that I got a serious contact high from the joy that comes with Gilles Lapalus and his Maidenii vermouth. Just like the trend towards premium ingredients and superior production practices has taken over spirit making, Madenii is doing the same with vermouth. The result is a lush product that stands on its own, not just as the leg up in your favourite martini. And everyone from barflies to bartenders is standing up and taking notice.
But it’s not all home runs. To their credit, Gilles and partner Shaun Byrne aren’t content with just pumping out best sellers—they’re also innovators. Pathologically so.
“Frankly, it hasn't been a real success because it's too geeky,” Gilles says about one of his creations, a pet-nat he topped off with vermouth. “When you have to explain a drink, you lose people in five seconds.”
Maybe he’s right, and that’s a damn shame because later that same day, I was fortunate enough to enjoy a glass of it with some warmed-up quiche, and without an ounce of hyperbole, it knocked my socks off.
As a winemaker originally, it makes sense that Gilles ended up making vermouth. Madenii's origin story can be traced back to a proposition by Vernon Chalker, late owner of Melbourne mainstay, the Gin Palace. It was also Vernon who introduced Gilles to Shaun. But gin wasn't to be, and instead Gilles suggested something that made sense with the spirit but would also allow him to tap into his natural love of growing and mixing botanicals. A better canvas for his geekiness.
In 2011, Madenii was born. And while it wasn’t an overnight sensation, today it’s well and truly the pinnacle of vermouth making in Australia. “The thing started as a hobby just for fun, you know, a fun project,” he says of starting Madenii with Shaun. “Then it started to be a real business.”
It’s with full awareness that Gilles continues to experiment with vermouth. He knows some of these products might be “too much for people”, and yet, he can’t stop himself. “I've done a few things like this,” he shrugs, pointing to a bottle under a table. “This one was a dry rosé; it's a Nebbiolo rosé, which is fermented in the barrels where we had the Madenii Nocturne. Same thing, you just lose people — no one knows what to compare it to.”
Standing in a dusty shed lined with 200 hundred amber bottles of handmade tinctures, many of which come from his garden, I worry that as consumers, we’ve lost our appetite for surprise. After a long day on the proverbial treadmill, we tend to reach for predictability at the expense of surprise.
But not Gilles; he seems to be neurologically hardwired to seek out what’s unexpected in a drinking experience. “I like to experiment, and I'm curious,” he admits. “I guess it's part of lateral thinking, I think, ‘what about if we, why don't we try this thing or instead of dosage with the wine, we put some vermouth in it,’ and that's why it's all a bit geeky.”
When asked if he thinks that people are getting more experimental, he takes a long pause and says, “Yeah, for sure”, full of hope.
There’s one important anecdote that provides a little more insight into Gilles's lust for experimentation but also warns us consumers on what we might miss if we continue to play it too safe.
“Do you know this term, ‘coup de foudre’?” he asks me. My French being what it is, I had to be honest and say no. He talks about meeting his partner, falling in love, and ultimately moving to Australia after a visit with her family one Christmas, which revealed an opportunity for a winemaker. “It means like a strike of lightning, like love at first sight.”
“Do you know this term, ‘coup de foudre’?” he asks me. “It means like a strike of lightning, like love at first sight.”
You can’t get “coup de foudre” without taking some chances, whether that’s falling in love with a great woman or a great drink.
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