A celebration of all things food- and wine- related, one of Melbourne’s favourite festivals, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2018, is just around the corner. With over 250 events taking place across metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria, there is plenty of food fun to be had by foodies and all during the 10-day festival. 

The festival's Crawl 'n’ Bite events in particular have been quite popular over the past few years, allowing participants to hop between select eateries for some savoury bites before ending on a sweeter note. The food version of bar hopping if you like, sans the stress of having to make multiple bookings. This year, “Native Botanicals & The Art of Ginstronomy” is a new addition to the series, and takes on the form of a gin tasting to showcase the unique flavour profiles created by adding different Australian native plants to gin. 

We attended a preview of the event, taking place at the beautiful rooftop garden of the latest residential development by Lendlease at 883 Collins St. During the evening, we sampled Australian native botanical additions such as Australian finger lime, Victorian river mint, Victorian pepper berry and aniseed myrtle, each yielding a different flavour nuance that became the essence of the gin. We learnt much about the process of gin production and Australian natives. I certainly did not know that the various native plants can account for over 22000 unique aromas and flavours. We harvested a selection of native botanicals from the rooftop garden, which have been put to the use of creating a new gin. We ate an assortment of canapés from Fitzroy's Charcoal Lane that paired beautifully with the gin.

We enjoyed.  

For more details on events, visit the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival website. 

Disclosure: I attended the preview event as a guest of Melbourne Food and Wine. All opinions expressed in this post are based entirely on my experience and observations made during the time of my visit.