The Bottle of Britain

"There’s not a lot out that way" I remember a chap at a petrol station (Sorry – that’s Servo in Strine) saying when I took the road to the Windsor in 2003. There was far less in 1963 when the chap who cuts hair (calling it a hairdressing salon would be pushing it) has told me it was nothing but a dirt road until you hit (hopefully not literally) the New Road.



Sheepshagger Gold out in the Colonies



Now it’s a major four lane highway, and there’s even a little pull in shopping centre (sorry, Mall) with – woohoo! an off licence (sorry, bottlo).

Now in most Aussie drive in bottle shops (Only in Australia, as they say) if you want decent tasting beer you’re banging your head against the wrong tree.

Indeed, they don’t stock a lot in there, but tucked away down the bottom of the shelf there is a small "European" beer section, with a few well travelled bottles. Very well travelled – some was not even destined for the Aussie market.

Take for example a bottle of Cairngorm Brewery Sheepshagger Gold. It’s been made – as you might expect – from pure highland spring water, but then bottled and labelled in French for the Quebec market, along with deposit marking for Canada. Another sticker was added in Perth, from where it seems to have travelled by lorry to Adelaide, and received SA deposit markings. How it got to New South Wales is beyond me, but I’m grateful it did.