David Nash: Bluff Distillery co-founder on the New Zealand gin taking home several international awards

Alcohol out of New Zealand's showing strong results around the world. 

Bluff Distillery's London Dry Gin had a very good day out at the Gin Guide Awards in London, winning five awards, including Best Contemporary gin over 42 percent.

They also took out Best Australasian gin and best branding.

Bluff Distillery co-founder David Nash talks to Mike Hosking about the success. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Not just our wine that wins international awards. As it
turns out, Bluff Distilleries London Dry Gin had a very
good day out of the Gin Guide Awards in London,
five wins, including best Contemporary Gin over forty two percent
that's an alcohol, Best Australasian Gin, and Best Branding. This
follows a goal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
David Nash is the co founder of Bluff Distillery and
he's with us. David, Morning, Morning, Mike. How are you

(00:22):
very well? Indeed, what's a contemporary gin?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
So it's over forty two abd so more than modern styles,
slightly gin that tastes like gin as we like to
call its.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, So how old your business?

Speaker 2 (00:37):
The business itself, we launched publicly in March of last year,
so we're just over a year on the board, but
we've been sort of in development for about three years
prior to that.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
And you come from drink or no, yes, so.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, previously in the wine business. So my background's on
the branding side. Chris Fraser, who is our distiller who's
based down in in Vericago, he's on the spirit side
of things. So yeah, it's a good combination of branding
and storytelling and then obviously having a great maker at
the heart of it.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
And is that part of that branding, that storytelling, the
Bluff bit.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm sure you've been down to
Bluff for about four thousand people descended on it just
this weekend for the well it's defense of all. You know,
Bluff is an amazing place, just full of incredible stories
and a huge amount of talent as well. And I think,
you know, bringing the world back to that story and
back to that place is a huge part of the
Bluff Distillery story.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Gin seems to be a thing, is it? As in,
like everyone's into Gin, the whole world's awards Gin? You know.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, No, GIN is a massive growth globally. I think
at the moment it's about a sixteen billion dollar business
and the predicting that to be closer to thirty by
about twenty thirty, with you know, Europe and North America
being the big growth markets at the moment, but Asia
Pacific's really catching up. So it's a huge opportunity internationally.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Why are they coming from another drink or is it
just I've never tried it. Let's have a crack Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I think the premieritization across you know, all alcohol categories
is really making a big play. And obviously, you know,
jen is a great base for lots of premium cocktails.
But then I think also, you know, people are looking
for you know, those more kind of artisan boutique products
to have at home, and we've all heard the kind
of rhetoric of drinking less but drinking better. You know,

(02:27):
people want a great product that's got some providence, and
the Bluff story definitely fits into that.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
And is winning awards worth something? I mean or was
it like everyone's got awards and there's a million of them.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Winning the right awards? I mean definitely for us, we
want to get some attention internationally and take the brand
offshore and attract the right partners to do that. So
getting those awards and getting the validation of those international judges,
as you touched on, we picked up Gold at San Francisco,
which is a really really old show with great judging panels,

(03:00):
and definitely the gin Guides got probably the best of
the best from the UK, so you're getting a ton
of consistent scoring across all those international markets.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Fantastic, Well, congratulations, go well with David Nash, who's the
co founder and brand director at to Bluff Distillery.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
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