Merivale has released a bottled cocktail range – including a Negroni, Martini and an Old Fashioned – at a selection of Dan Murphy’s stores in Sydney.

The bottled cocktail range has been handmade by passionate, award-winning Merivale bartenders. Each drink is based on a classic cocktail style with a luxury twist, which has been refined at the Merivale restaurant and bar that lends each of them their name. 

• Negroni by Totti’s is described as bitter, herbal and rich. Serve over ice and garnish with an orange wedge.
• Martini by Bert’s combines vodka, sea-soaked Madeira and Australian lemon peel. Serve from the freezer in a chilled glass with your favourite garnish.
• Old Fashioned by Fred’s mixes premium American Bourbon with Australian ginger, honey, avocado seed and olive leaf. Serve over ice with a lemon peel twist.

“Merivale launched a Beverage Production Kitchen in 2020 as a way to create the highest quality and most consistent cocktail experiences for our guests,” said Luke Ashton, Merivale Beverage Kitchen Manager. “During the last lockdown we saw a huge demand from our guests for ready to drink bottled cocktails to enjoy at home. As such, we have created a retail line of our most popular cocktails for guests to enjoy outside of our venues at any time they like.

“Our venues’ twists on classic cocktails, the Martini, Old Fashioned and Negroni, have always been hugely popular, so we really just wanted to give people what they want. There are some drinks that we all love, like a Margarita, that really need to be made with fresh ingredients to order, so there are some limitations on what we can put in a bottle. At the end of the day we want the at home cocktail experience to be just as good as if you had ordered one in a venue made by one of our talented bartenders.”

Canned and bottled cocktails are the hottest new global trend in drinks. The global RTD cocktail market is forecast to grow more than sixfold over the next 10 years, from US$25billion in 2020 to US$155billion in 2030.

The premixed drinks category grew by 30.2% in 2019/20 in Australia and is expected to see continued exponential growth in 2021 and beyond. Perhaps more important than the category’s volume growth is its move towards premiumization, reinforced by the arrival of high-quality craft offerings.

The Merivale bottled cocktail range is available in 500ml bottles with an RRP of $58. You’ll find them at Dan Murphy’s Leichhardt, Alexandria, Double Bay, Wolli Creek, Rosebery, Willoughby, Mosman, Nowra, Manly Vale, Casula and online.

As for whether there may be there more bottled cocktails in the pipeline, Ashton isn’t ruling the idea out.

“We’d love to bring more of the Merivale favourites to market one day,” he said. “Each season, we launch new cocktails in specific Merivale venues, we’ll have to see.” 

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