A tiny distillery in the Wairarapa has been internationally recognized as among the best in the world.  It’s owned by a cheerful band of country folk who got together on a whim and they’re already making waves.  John Bristed visited Greytown Fine Distillates and had a tiny taste of their Lighthouse Gin.
The  two big competitions for the best spirits in the world are The San Francisco World Spirit competition, and the International Wine and Spirit Competition held in London.
Lighthouse Gin won a bronze medal in both competitions last year, before it had even been on the market for a year, and this year it’s already picked up a silver medal in San Francisco.  So what, you say.  But there were at least a hundred other entries in each competition, from all around the world.  
The prizewinning Lighthouse Gin,  is made by a little group of aficionados in Greytown,
The  main stays are  former sheep and beef farmer and orchardist  Andrew Wright who makes  Mela apple juice, and  scientist and distiller Neil Catherall once chief engineer at NZ Breweries, plus about a dozen friends.
Wright, his mate Chris Holmes, and Catherall were yarning round a coffee table discussing what else might be done with all Wright’s stainless steel apple juice equipment.  Wright suggested they buy a tonne of grapes and make wine – that never happened, but the idea was the catalyst which led to the new gin.
They took apple juice, of which obviously there was plenty, fermented it to make cider and distilled that cider into apple brandy - Calvados if you were to use the French appellation; it’s quite strong and has its fans.  During World War I apple brandy was used in munitions because of its alcohol content.    
But the still, where did that magically appear from?  Catherall, the engineer, dreamed one up and his drawings were turned into reality by 2K Engineering in Masterton. They’d never made a still before so it was a leap of faith by both parties, which has proved extremely successful
 Finding all that Calvados they’d made would need to be matured in an oak barrel for five years before it could be sold, the group of keen but very prospective moneymakers decided that they might all be dead by then, and that there was only a boutique market for the brandy.    
Then Larry McKenna of Escarpment wines asked if they could make him some grappa (literally ‘grape stalk’) which is a fierce Italian firewater made out of grapes which have had the juice pressed out. (Nearly every country in Europe makes it and has its own name for it). They made a batch out of grape lees as a special order for him, but not many people buy grappa  in New Zealand and there didn’t look to be much future in that line.  
So they changed again, this time their ideas went towards gin, a much broader market, They made their own alcohol by fermenting and distilling sugar.  That’s where  Catherall came to the fore again, because although gin is made from alcohol which is almost a commodity,  and water, what makes it into a desirable drink are the ‘botanicals’, and Catherall had ideas about what he’d like to use.
 What are ‘botanicals’?   They are flavourings,  and a surprising number of  them, when distilled with alcohol and water,  make Gin.
Catherall’s  secret list of botanicals includes such things as juniper berries which are traditional in gin, as is  coriander seed, zest of navel oranges and lemons (they have to be Yen Ben lemons which are very “lemony”) and give the citrus flavor which you can taste, kawakawa leaf  which is related to the kava family (Fiji’s national drink, and still sacred in Samoa) , orris root - the root of the Florentine and other irises which in Louis XIV’s day was ground up for face powder (it’s used in many well known perfumes, and smells like violets) plus almond, cinnamon, and cassia bark.   It all sounds a bit arcane, but obviously it works because the gin is going gangbusters.  
Now, the Lighthouse men buy sugar cane alcohol from South Africa in big drums and along with all those botanicals, redistill it into Lighthouse.
They’re marketing it through the major food shows in Auckland, Christchurch, or Wellington, but you’ll often find the Lighthouse Gin stall, with enthusiasts delighted to regale you with the joys of their product at one of the Wairarapa Country fairs, or the Culverden Country Fete in North Canterbury.  Many Wairarapa houses are enlightened by Lighthouse gin, so if you’ve any friends up there …
Lighthouse reports selling into another 20 stores, and they plan to be selling 40,000 bottles annually within a couple of years.
Surely gin is just gin?  Why is this better?    “It’s got better flavours, and it’s smoother because it gets distilled twice”, says Wright in full flight.  “When you distil something, the purest product comes if you tip out the first and last bit of the distillation run and use only the middle.  We do that very carefully, twice, which makes it double distilled.
“Try it”, he says “you’ll like it”
Obviously the judges in London and San Francisco did.