The Chapter Series

Chapter One is the strongest sense memory in the series. A strong sense of home, inspired by the smells of the bright yellow lupins in summer, warmth reflected off the sand dunes approaching Penguin Beach at Taiaroa heads, and the piercing call of the Hoiho among the salty, sandy beachgrass. As a wildlife tour guide and conservationist in my early 20s, I would drive visitors through the dunes exploring the coast line and explain the penguin and seal habitats to my passengers.
Having then left Dunedin and spent years overseas, the smell of the lupin has been such a strong connection to home. Feeling at ease every summer when the bright floral smells fill the air and remind me where home is. Unfortunately, lupins are toxic to humans, so creating this gin needed a lot of experimenting to use other flavours and scents to replicate this sense memory. After dozens of experiments with other flora, finally the gin took shape.
With a total of 150 bottles made through consistently building the profile, this set the mark for all chapters to be limited to 150 bottles only.

4km south west of Chapter One, on the back hills of the farm where I grew up, there is a large pond, known as the crater, surrounded by dense bush and overlooking the Pyramids at Victory Beach.
As a teenager, I rambled over these hills hunting rabbits and possums and secret places, and rode dirt bikes with my friends. I would stop at the crater and sit under the tumbling vines of wild orange passionfruit, an afternoon snack provided by the land which I would eat while resting and enjoying the view of Okia flats.
The taste of passionfruit and smell of the vines, damp grass, and decomposing leaves under the shade of the canopy of the bush. A memory of carefree and adventurous teenage years.

The nose holds herbaceous and grassy tones. On the palate, it has very distinct fruit notes of passionfruit and berries, trailing off to a sweet earthiness.

This gin goes back to some of my first memories of the Otago Peninsula.
The first house I lived in had a large, overgrown and magical garden which, to a child, was scary and endless. However, it presented a tantalising challenge to get to the boundary where I could see low trimmed grass, a small garden shed, and three beehives.
I remember a great adventure that took many days, pushing through the wild jungle with snakes and human-sized spiders to climb the fence into the manicured section next door and pulling the elaborate towers of secrets to bits, invulnerable to bee stings.
Visiting the same spot recently, I laughed at the drama of childhood memories, magnified by the lens of passing time.

The specific smell that triggers this memory is a blend of fresh cut grass in the empty section, the dense bush of our garden path, and a mustiness similar to old hessian cloth, all coloured by the syrupy sweetness of fresh honey.
Chapter Three is an Old Tom style gin, popular in 18th-century England but experiencing a resurgence. It is made with traditional ingredients, plus mānuka, tarata, and pear, sweetened post distillation with honey from the beehives on the Sandymount Distillery grounds.

Chapter Four revisits a memory of my teenage years with two good friends. Every year on Christmas Eve, we had a tradition, where we’d roll a small leaky dingy on a rusty trailer down into the Otago Harbour to set a fishing net, hopeful of a catch. Each Christmas day, we’d be rewarded with only unwanted seaweed and hours of net repairs. Honestly the fishing itself isn’t one of my fondest memories, but the bond with my friends, and the tradition creates the strong connection to place. This gin is influenced by the sea, the kelp, a saline minerality and the memories of shared experience. Made with three species of kelp from the Otago Harbour – wakame, bladder kelp and ulma, this gin is coastal in nature with salinity, umami, and bright zesty notes.

The importance of this gin is to cement this history of experiences and pay tribute to the place I grew up, and the people I grew up with. Using my skills as a distiller as a form of expression and creativity to tell the story.

Chapter Four is available:

• On our online store here
• As a part of our cellar door gin tastings
• Or at Liquorland Meenans (Dunedin)