Coromandel Distilling Company owners Daniella Seuss and Paul Schneider say cheers to winning the award of the World's Best Classic Gin. Photo / Alison Smith.
Coromandel Distilling Company owners Daniella Seuss and Paul Schneider say cheers to winning the award of the World's Best Classic Gin. Photo / Alison Smith.
Gin made in a tiny distillery in Thames using plants foraged from the Coromandel has been awarded the World's Best Classic Gin.
Against huge distilleries operating for generations, Coromandel Distillery's Awildian dry gin - described as "a lingering finish - so interesting and well balanced" - was selected by a panel of international judges at The World Drinks Awards.
"We still can't quite believe it ourselves," says Paul Schneider, who co-owns the New Zealand company with partner Daniela Seuss. "We just pinch each other."
Their two flagship gins, Awildian Coromandel Dry Gin and Coromandel Mānuka Gin, both won best in the country and went against the best in the country around the world.
Schneider and Seuss have lived in the small New Zealand town of Thames for 15 years and were scientists and conservationists that launched the company in 2017.
Hobby beekeepers in Thames and Coromandel Town which is covered by manuka, they produced honey that was difficult to spin and fermented it into a mead.
"Curiosity got the better of us and we bought a little distillery. We tried everything, whiskey, brandy and rum, but it was really the gin that spoke most to us because it's like a drinkable perfume if you do it right."
To find out the elements of a good gin, they bought the best gins they could find and had friends regularly blind test them.
"We regularly would invite a broad range of friends and acquaintances and get people to write down very carefully what they were tasting.
"That gave us a very good understanding of what to look out for and what the benchmarks are."
Schneider credits the couple's meticulous scientific enquiring observations and the love of a challenge for producing what he says is the most interesting of the alcohols.
Many people thought we were insane
"Making a classic gin that's outstanding is the greatest challenge. There's this ill-conception in these crazy gin times that all you need to do is chuck a heap of native botanicals or whatever exciting thing you come across and put the label on and have something that's good.
"Classic gin is a bit like a Margherita pizza. You have to understand the rules. Harmony rules within the ingredients."
Seuss is an ornithologist while Schneider has "10 plus years" of education that led to his PhD, and has authored numerous papers on climate change adapation.
Prior to starting the gin business, he worked as a DoC ranger on the Coromandel.
While not essential, he says science is one of the many pieces of the puzzle to creating the world's best gin.
"The scientific training has taught me to be meticulous, take notes and observe processes and follow through with them. Everything else you can pick up along the way."
They bought a hybrid copper distillery from the Black Forest in Germany and opened beside the heritage building The Depot on the main street of Thames in 2020.
With no financial backing, "many people thought we were insane".
"We pretty much launched straight into Covid and have been working on our gins ever since. It's a crazy story, we've come from left field but always had a love for flavours and things that are sensory, obviously scientific enquiry and doing things right."
He says it was "extremely challenging" to set up, taking two years to comply with seven different acts but expects when international borders reopen, the distillery will draw tourists to Thames seeking a bottle of the world's best gin.
Only 130 bottles are made in each batch.
Their gins have between 20 and 25 raw ingredients, one-third of which the couple are able to forage or grow themselves. "It's such a joy to be doing that," says Schneider.
They include lemon thyme picked in the late hours of the morning, and hand zested fresh Thames lemons that are suspended in the still to protect the "soul" of the essential oils.
The couple say having no shareholders and keeping the business small has ensured no pressure on producing more at the detriment of quality. Macerating is done for 16 hours and distillation starts extremely slowly. The dry gin matures for three weeks while it oxidises.
Awildian gin and fresh locally sourced ingredients including lemon zest and lemon thyme at Coromandel Distillery in Thames. Photo / Alison Smith
"To think this comes out of this small distillery in Thames and is in the same league as huge distilleries operating for generations and backed by infinite finances.
"We knew the league we were punching in, but to be the world's best, no one walks through life thinking that is on the cards - at least no one I know," says Schneider.
Now they have the world's best recipe - "there's no tinkering with that anymore".
Their latest release was a spiced gin, which was awarded one point short of a gold medal at the International Wine and Spirits in London.
"That's when we knew okay, we can launch this into the market. That's kind of how we find out.
"A good way to find out if it's a good recipe is to submit it to awards. It's easy to be convinced with spirits that it's good if you don't run it past peers and with an international blind tasting panel."
With three podium wins, he agrees it's unlikely they'll now ever produce a dud.
"It's maybe like music, once you know how to play an instrument, it's not going to hurt people's ears."
Judges say classic gin should have a clean base spirit with a neutral flavour that allows the distilled flavours of the botanicals to come through. The gin is juniper-forward and other common botanicals include angelica root, coriander seed, orris root, and citrus peel. It must be bottled at a minimum of 37.5 per cent ABV.
