Meet the team behind Prophecy Distilling who have been operating for just four months from two converted shipping containers at Earnscleugh in Central Otago, yet have already won a trophy and two medals.
Anna Ballantine, her brother Matt Cowie and sister Georgia Cowie, and their respective partners Tom Ballantine, Jamie Cowie and Tom Craven, have been joined by friends Lexi and Barry White.
Mr Cowie had once talked about making gin with mates but had not got much further than drinking the spirit. When Mrs Ballantine and her good friend Mrs White visited Four Pillars Gin Distillery in Victoria, they got excited about potentially growing juniper — the essential botanical in gin production — back in Central Otago.
That was a bold possibility, given it tended to only be grown in the northern hemisphere, but the idea was still “idling in the background”.
In the meantime, they were keen to crack into distilling some gin, using imported juniper, and Mrs Ballantine asked her brother if he was keen to pick up the project from where he had left it.
The skills of the octet had proven quite important. Mrs Ballantine is a school teacher who was used to working to deadlines and organising people while her husband was a farmer, working as stock manager at Earnscleugh Station.
Mrs White, who works in quantity surveying, has a long history in health and safety while her husband is a plumber in Alexandra.
Mr Cowie, also of Alexandra, has a mining background and is a dangerous goods handler while his wife is a school teacher whose skills complemented those of her sister-in-law.
Georgia Cowie, who lives in Dunedin, specialises in hydro-geology and environmental science while her partner works in IT and has worked as a bar manager.
“Probably the unique part of our story [is] we’ve almost literally built our distillery ourselves and managed to navigate everything ourselves,” Mrs Ballantine said.
While none of the group had any background in actual distilling, they had “read and researched and chatted”.
“Between the eight of us, we’ve toiled away and have a distillery which runs out of two shipping containers we fondly call the Gin Tin. We’ve got lots of dreams and hopes and plans,” she said.
The support from the local community had been “incredible” and the family connection even continued to the labelling and packaging which was done by Mr Ballantine’s cousin’s husband.
The Prophet crew was keen to to see where their products landed in the spirit world and entered the annual New Zealand Spirit Awards, which attracted hundreds of entries.
They won bronze with their Finders Gin and silver with their Omeo Vodka and were then named best emerging product of the year, much to the delight of the novice distillers.
“It’s pretty cool and I think we were all absolutely chuffed, a little bit surprised … we’ve worked worked pretty hard behind the scenes, people don’t see those hours when you start up a business.
“We know what we’ve got is a good product. To get a wee pat on the back for something we know is good enough to be in that competition is reassuring,” Mrs Ballantine said.
The Gin Tin sits on Mr and Mrs Ballantine’s Omeo Gully property where the hills behind grow some of the botanicals they use including speargrass root, kanuka, red clover and even horehound.
“We’ve got this ethos we make miracles from not a lot,” she said.
Mrs Ballantine said when asked how they differentiated their brand from the plethora of competing bottles on the shelves, that they had chosen to put their spirits into sparkling wine bottles.
The weighty bottle was made of dark glass which was not common for a clear spirit, and it was a nod to Central Otago being a wine-making region.
They also wanted to convey the message that they were “your mates down the road that just happen to make gin” and the team were involved in every aspect of production from picking the botanicals to packaging and delivery.
“It’s all in-house, there’s no marketing team and we all have a day jobs and do this on the side,” she said.
The “prophets” were dreamers and the future for their business could be anything. But, even if they did scale-up, they did not want to lose what made the distillery unique.
The Prophecy team, which was was now keen to have a crack at an international competition, had found the distilling industry to be very supportive, helpful and encouraging.
“Up until a month ago, no-one really knew we existed. We are slowing getting out there.”
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
