Third Island Gin: Crafted in a 450L pot named ‘Harold’
“The locals came with us. It’s got their seal of approval. Really, it’s their gin too.”
Louise Evans - creator of Southland food magazine Wee - talked to the founders at Third Island Gin. Check out what Evans found and what she thought of this newcomer to the Southland Gin scene.
“You’ve just been elevated to a nip pourer.”
It’s about as congratulatory as you get at the South Seas Hotel in Rakiura. Newly launched, Third Island Gin, now sits next to the mass-produced, and imbibed, Smirnoff, Jim, Jack, and Gordon’s.
For founders Jim Turrell, Ben Hopkins, and Dave Patterson it’s an honour.
A nip pourer means quantity. Speed. It means the local seal of approval, repeat customers, and bigger, more ambitious dreams. At the time of writing, Rakiura Distillery, New Zealand’s - and possibly the world's - most Southern gin company, is one week into trading. And they’re riding the high.
Locals are taking shots with their beers. Cases are running out. The ferries are heading back full of stock. And on the mainland, the Licensing Trust have just said yes.
If you haven't been, and you must, Rakiura is a land of wild splendor. It’s primeval, and pure and stormy. This gin is of its place. Crafted without software and sensors in a 450L pot still named ‘Harold’, Third Island Gin couldn’t have been made anywhere else.
Head distiller, Dave, forages for local flavours - manuka, rimu, and horopito - from private blocks of the Island’s rainforest. A kiwi likely brushed up next to some of the botanicals in your glass - probably as close as you’ll ever get. The rainwater, too, is the purest you can find in the world. It all reads like a nature documentary.
And in the glass?
It is bracingly fresh, the juniper is present upfront but quickly gives way to the earthy flavors of the local botanicals. The manuka lends a slight sweetness, balanced by the robust, resinous notes of rimu. Horopito punctuates the profile with a gentle, peppery kick.
You also get the fresh hints of citrus and cassia bark. It has a familiar gin backbone with added unique notes - a celebration of the Island.
My bottle came with a thank you note scrawled on local flora - a muttonbird scrub. It left me with a longing for the rain-soaked wilderness of its origin.
Whether through confidence, naivety, or sheer tenacity, it’s certain that the team at Rakiura Distillery has achieved what they set out to. Despite the enormity of it all.
“We were warned that producing spirits in a remote location would be difficult,” Jim admits.
The team repulsed the idea of production based in a big city, and marketing the product as an Island ‘creation’.
“That’s not the Rakiura way.”
It seems on Stewart Island, there is a romance in difficulty. You don’t move to Rakiura for ease of living. You don’t start a distillery there for a quick buck. Everything that would have been hard in setting up a gin distillery, was magnified by being on the island. And with a population that can fit in the pub, everyone knows your struggles.
“No one’s shy of sharing an opinion.”
“The locals came with us. It’s got their seal of approval. Really, it’s their gin too.”
Try it on the island (flights are about $100 each way) or purchase a bottle here: www.rakiuradistilling.co.nz
Read more about Southland’s gin renaissance in the second issue of Wee Magazine, ready to drop in July. You can pre-purchase a copy at wee.nz today or find one in your favourite cafe after the release.
