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Third Island Gin, made by Rakiura Distilling Company on Stewart Island, won a gold medal at the Junipers NZ Gin Awards.
Gin distilled at New Zealand’s southernmost distillery has picked up a gold medal in the first competition it’s ever been entered in to.
The Rakiura Distilling Company had only produced Third Island Gin on Stewart Island for a month, using rainwater and botanicals picked in the island’s rainforest, but it picked up a prestigious gold medal at the Junipers NZ Gin Awards last week.
”They’re not easy to get, so we’re pretty excited,’’ Rakiura Distilling Company co-owner Jim Turrell said.
“Gin is quite a crowded market so to get a gold medal on our first attempt is pretty special, and it gives us another differential apart from the fact we’re from Stewart Island.’’
The gin was entered into the contemporary section, which was for classical gins with slightly more creative recipes.
Head distiller Dave Patterson used locally foraged manuka, rimu and horopito to flavour the traditional dry gin, alongside hints of fresh citrus peel, cassia bark, juniper and coriander seed.
Third Island Gin was the company’s first product, and as well as distilling other flavours, the company had plans to produce a Navy strength gin in time for the Christmas market, and a vodka.
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Head distiller Dave Patterson holding a bottle of Third Island Gin in the porch of the shed.
“We’re based in a Skyline garage just like you’d see in any street in Invercargill which we’ve extended, but being based on the island means we’re not allowed any signage, so you could walk past and not know we’re brewing gin in here,’’ Turrell said.
“We’ve jumped through all the hoops and been certified, which is a little bit harder down here.’’
The plan to form a company and produce Rakiura gin was made, almost unsurprisingly, between friends over a gin in the South Sea Hotel.
Patterson was distilling gin as a hobby, and Turrell and his friend Ben Hopkins had been thinking about producing gin commercially on the island for a while. They’ve since been joined by Hannah Watkinson and were in their second month of commercial production.
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Rakiura Distilling Company owners Ben Hopkins, Hannah Watkinson, Jim Turrell and head distiller Dave Patterson.
“People seem to really like it, which is great when they have so much to choose from,’’ Turrell said.
And while they’re definitely New Zealand’s southern-most distillery, they’re beaten to the title of being the world’s southern-most spirits producer by one in South America.
“We had a look in case that could have been another claim to fame, but there is one other that is slightly closer to Antarctica to us.’’
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