The accolades keep rolling in for Yarra Valley-based distiller Four Pillars, as it has been named the 2019 International Gin Producer of the Year, at the prestigious International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) in London.
The award follows three big wins at this year’s Australian Liquor Industry Awards, including Liquor Brand of the Year, and Co-Founder and Distiller Cameron Mackenzie was at The Guildhall in London overnight to collect the award.
“To win this award, on the eve of our sixth birthday is really, truly, bloody incredible,” Mackenzie said.
“When we started making test batches of gin back in 2012 we never in our maddest, wildest dreams thought this could happen so quickly. To say that I am in a state of disbelief would be vastly understating the true state of my disbelief.
“This award is a tribute to every single person who has helped us make, sell, create, drink or buy one of our gins. This is reward for all of them. This award is not for a single one of our gins but for the whole of our gin business and that’s what makes it so incredibly special.
“The previous two winners of this award are Hernö from Sweden in 2017 and Kyoto Distillery in Japan last year so we couldn’t be in better company. They are two of the greatest distilleries and two of our best mates in the world of gin.”
The IWSC is the world’s largest and most prestigious international competition for spirits with more than 3000 entries from all corners of the globe. The event is widely regarded as the Oscars of the international drinks industry and Four Pillars is the first Australian distillery to win this award.
Four Pillars was founded in 2013 by Mackenzie as well as Stu Gregor and Matt Jones, and has grown at an average 83.4 per cent since then and today produces around 100,000 cases of gin annually, equivalent to 600,000 bottles.
Earlier this year the distillery, which distributes to more than 30 markets across the world, took on Lion as a 50 per cent shareholder, although the three founders remain at the helm of the business.