After only 18 months on the market, Third Island Gin won the top prize at the Juniper New Zealand Gin Awards, announced in Auckland last week.
The real credit went to the company’s head distiller, Dave Patterson, Mr Turrell said.
"I’m sure Dave could make exquisite gins on anything that you’d give him. But our gin is all about Stewart Island."
The goal had always been to capture the essence of Stewart Island by using three main botanicals from the island — rimu, manuka and horopito (pepper wood) — which built a complex, layered flavour.
"The important thing to understand is the way we do things is very different to most distilleries in New Zealand."
He said other operations had fancy column stills and electric bain-marie water jackets to heat the stills.
But electricity on Stewart Island was both expensive and unreliable.
"We literally have a copper pot over an open flame, the really old-school traditional way of making gin — even down to when we seal the still ... We use a flour and water mix.
"It’s a real credit to the skill of David really."
By Toni McDonald
