Coming from a building background, it was a workshop conversation on the tools one day that sparked the idea for Hamish Bourke and Stu Clark to start a gin distillery.
The pair began trialling recipes in 2019 and felt they were onto something pretty special when family and friends loved what they had made.
The shed where that first conversation took place has now been transformed into Rifters distillery - a real full circle moment.
Bourke and Clark’s philosophy is to simply make great spirits and remain friends with Mother Nature in the process. At Rifters, botanicals are foraged from the property, and the water supply comes from the lakes and rivers of the Southern Alps.
“We are passionate about celebrating our region and the beautiful ingredients in our backyard.”
Sustainability is at the forefront of the business, as Bourke and Clark consider it in everything they do. Rifters have taken a big step to make their new 700ml bottles plastic free, using a natural wood cork and replacing the plastic heat-shrink that holds the cap on with a new paper neck wrap system the pair designed. The distillery also minimises waste by reusing the boxes that empty bottles arrive in to send filled bottles out to customers.
Recently, Rifters launched a Rifters 5L Demijohn and 5L Keg system, a program which eliminates bottles from recycling centres and corks from landfill for the bars and restaurants throughout New Zealand that stock Rifters gin.
Bourke and Clark believe that a great spirit should be very sippable and have botanicals that compliment each other without becoming overpowering. Rifters have won multiple awards, including the Gold at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for the Quartz Gin, and Silver at the 2021 New Zealand Spirit Awards and 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for both the Original Dry Gin and Quartz Gin.
Since their Gold wins in San Francisco last year, Rifters saw a huge jump in sales and international enquiries. It would be the pair's dream to export internationally one day, however, they don’t quite yet have the operations to support this. First things first, an upgrade from the distilling shed to a public premise where guests can tour the distillery would allow the distillers to welcome people to their much-loved region, have tastings and tell the Rifters' story.
Though Rifters was launched in August 2020 and has only ever existed in a Covid-affected market, the business has still been slow at times. But as tourism starts to pick up and travellers make their way back to Arrowtown, Queenstown and Wānaka, an open distillery would bring great reward to Bourke and Clark, who enjoy seeing smiles on people’s faces as they enjoy a Rifter’s drop.
This Spring, Rifters has a new limited-release floral gin coming out.
Find out more at riftersgin.com
