Our spirits and liqueurs are their own thing – our spirts are definitely not gin (no juniper in sight) and our liqueurs are for those who like the less serious side of life. We are probably closest to a vodka, although both our spirits and liqueurs are made from distilled fruits and wine rather than grain or potato.
Australia’s craft distilling industry is dominated by gin and grain based spirit makers. This dominance means that we need to spend lots of time reminding people that there are other spirits in the world for them to enjoy!
With our spirts and liqueurs. We have more freedom – we can let the flavours shine on their own without them having to match with juniper for gin or the woody nature of most traditional vodkas.
We are loving the positive feedback we are receiving from those of you brave enough to step outside of the gin and grain spirit box – to be truly adventurous with us – Thank you!!
If our distillery was a dress size, we would be a XS or maybe even smaller! Our Still’s capacity is only 190 litres. For context, most distilleries in Australia have 2000 litre+ Stills! We average about 20-30 litres of product per run, that after bringing down the ABV to something not dangerous gives us 30-60 500ml bottles of saleable product.
Some may say “what’s the point of such small batches?” - We say “because it gives us control”. Control over quality, flavour and consistency of our final product. It allows us to experiment more than some others with less wastage if the run doesn’t work out or the flavour is unpopular. Also, isn’t the saying ‘great things come in small packages’?
She might be small/tiny/minuscule compared to those used by most distilleries, but she is mighty to us! When we began researching Stills, we already knew we didn’t want to make gin, so a reflux still was out for us. What we needed was a ‘moonshine’ still. Browsing eBay options, Luke came across a listing from the @ngstillco and when he used the contact options to ask some questions etc, he received a response of “whoops! That was a test listing we did ages ago and it wasn’t meant to be there!”
I think it was the novelty of someone in Australia wanting one of their stills, or maybe they took pity on us, regardless, the warmth, knowledge and helpfulness and the beautiful craftsmanship from Andrew and his Team at the North Georgia Still Company was more than we could have ever hoped for!
Being able to set her up and see her run (even if just the cleaning run) was such a happy moment.
Luke = Head distiller on weekends, education professional on weekdays.
Nina = the paperwork queen and distillery assistant mixed in with her usual employment as an administration and project coordinator.
We live in the fabulous town of Cootamundra in the Riverina Region of NSW, with our son, Austin, a cat called Lilly and 3 chooks!
Outside of work, the distillery and Austin’s after school activities, we love searching for vintage treasures at swap meets and markets; gardening; music; English and Australian comedies and dramas on TV; and short or long road trip adventures with Austin.
We get lots of compliments on our branding (aww…thanks!)
Designed in an Art Deco style and sitting on a ‘fence’ post, the kookaburra hints back to the rural landscape in which our distillery is located. We are always greeted by their ‘laugh’ and sometimes wonder if they are genuinely laughing at us two humans as we distill - especially when things don’t go as planned!
The fonts come from a combination of the neon signs of the 50s and the antique chemical receipt books that inspired our venture.
The colours are reminiscent of the pin-striping found on the coveted cars of the 70s & 80s (as well as some hand knitted jumpers our respective parents made us wear ).
The classic rewind symbol was a huge part of our 90s teenage years as we sat next to our stereos, pressing this button over and over to hear our favourite songs. When we do finally have our distillery door, the use of this symbol will have even more meaning in what experience we have planned!
And of course our name defines what we are about - making spirits and liqueurs with a vintage vibe and smooth flavours to take you back!