AUSTRALIA. Fast-growing Australian spirits producer Four Pillars has claimed the 2019 International Gin Producer of the Year award at the 50th annual International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC).
Four Pillars is the first Australian distillery to win the award in a competition which attracted more than 300 entries worldwide and is regarded by many as the “Oscars of the international drinks industry”.
Four Pillars gin was established in 2013 in the Yarra Valley on the outskirts of Melbourne and has quickly developed into one of the world’s benchmark distilleries, a top Australian craft spirit and a leading light in the Australian gin revolution.
“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.”
Four Pillars Co-Founder Cameron Mackenzie attended the IWSC award ceremony which took place in London yesterday (28 November).
“To win this award, on the eve of our sixth birthday is really, truly, bloody incredible,” he 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.”
Mackenzie noted the previous winners of this award: Hernö from Sweden in 2017 and Kyoto Distillery in Japan in 2018, adding that Four Pillars “couldn’t be in better company”.
“They are two of the greatest distilleries and two of our best mates in the world of gin,” he said.
The Four Pillars co-founders said the IWSC award caps off a “pretty epic 2019” for Four Pillars. As reported, Four Pillars claimed top honours at the Australian Liquor Industry Awards last month.
