A New Zealand gin has been given the accolade of 'best London dry gin in the world' at the International Wine and Spirits Competition.
Scapegrace Gold took out the London Dry Gin Trophy 2018 in London, beating more than 600 other gins to take out the award.
Scapegrace was founded by Auckland-based friends Mark Neal, Daniel McLaughlan, and Richard Bourke four years ago and is now stocked in 35 countries, including many cocktail bars.
“The irony isn't lost on us that our gin is the best London dry gin in the world, even though we’re based on the exact opposite side of the world to London," Neal said.
“We spent years researching and developing our recipe; from day dot we were committed to creating a gin for New Zealanders which we could take to the world.”
Scapegrace Gold is distilled in small batches with 13 botanicals: lemon, orange, coriander, cardamom, cloves, juniper berries, nutmeg, angelica root, liquorice root, orris, cinnamon, cassia bark, and tangerine.
Tangerine is the “lucky 13th botanical” which differentiates Scapegrace Gold from Scapegrace Classic, the other Scapegrace product, Neal said.
“It might seem surprising to see a New Zealand gin win this award when you think of the history and tradition behind the artisan liquor in the UK and Europe — but the reason our gin tastes so clean is because of our water, which we source from a natural aquifer just north of Christchurch.”
The aquifer is one of the last natural aquifers in the world, supplying water fresh from the Southern Alps which takes about 80 years to trickle down from the snowy mountains.
McLaughlan said they wanted to shift away from the old classics and introduce "a modern and progressive way of doing gin”.
More than 50 million cases of gin are now sold every year.
