Four Pillars

FOUR PILLARS STARTED IN DECEMBER 2013, WHEN CAMERON MACKENZIE AND STUART GREGOR – BOTH WINE INDUSTRY VETERANS – GOT TALKING ABOUT THEIR NEXT ADVENTURE. THE ORIGINAL PLAN WAS TO MAKE TONIC, BUT THAT IDEA LASTED ABOUT 72 HOURS – UNTIL THEY SAW A GIANT ALCOHOL MACHINE AND DECIDED, ‘WHO WANTS TO MAKE SOFT DRINKS?!’ THE THIRD FOUNDER AND BRAND GURU, MATT JONES CAME ON BOARD A FEW MONTHS LATER AND WITH THAT THE TRIO WAS COMPLETE.

Four Pillars founders Matt Jones, Cameron Mackenzie and Stu Gregor with stills Jude and Wilma. AUSTRALIA’S SHRINE TO ALL THINGS gin, the Four Pillars Distillery is located in Healesville – deep in the heart of the Yarra Valley, which is about an hour’s drive from the CBD of Melbourne. Comfortably housed at this site is the trio’s original copper still Wilma (450L) and her two new siblings Jude and Eileen, who were also manufactured in Germany. Jude is a 600L still, while Eileen is a small experimental still, which provides the gin makers with the capabilities to produce batches of all sorts of crazy liquid.

But the fun doesn’t stop there. The Four Pillars Distillery also houses a fullyfunctioning tasting room and a long copper bar serving paddles of Gin & Tonic three different ways, build your own Negronis, Scotty’s Ginger Mules – which is a delectable concoction of gin and ginger beer – the World’s Best Practice Red Snappers, really good nuts and olives, marmalade on toast, great coffee and even beer and wine if you ask nicely. There is also a state of the art Hoshizaki ice machine, which carves up many creations, regular tours, masterclasses and all manner of really good times.

As for the gin making process, the Four Pillars Distillers use nine different dry botanicals in their Rare Dry Gin, which combines a mix of both the local and the exotic. The local botanicals include Tasmanian pepper berry and lemon myrtle, while the exotics include juniper of course, plus cardamom, star anise, coriander seeds, lavender, angelica root and cinnamon.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the distillation process is that they also use whole oranges. While it is quite unusual to use fresh fruit in gin, the Australian citrus is highly aromatic and supports the spicier botanicals of coriander, cardamom and star anise. The Tassie pepper is also brilliant on the palate, giving warmth rather than heat and the lemon myrtle is a beautiful, complex and unique alternative to lemon peel. Ultimately, Four Pillars is about trying to deliver a perfect classic gin and something that will fascinate and delight even the most hardened Gin fanatics – which is exactly what they have achieved.

Overall, the Four Pillars trio has made six gins so fartheir core product, which is the Rare Dry Gin, followed by the Barrel Aged Gin, which is the Rare Dry Gin at a slightly higher proof matured in French Oak Chardonnay barrels for about six to eight months. This product is also considered the whisky drinkers’ gin, as it’s a cool sipping spirit made for the thoughtful, the ruminators and those who love an old fashioned. The Navy Strength Gin – which is 58.8 per cent ABV – is for people who, put simply, just like their drinks strong and awesome while the Spiced Negroni Gin, initially made as a collaboration with the Keystone Hospitality Group, makes a mean Negroni (naturally) and a spicy Gin & Tonic. Then there is the Bloody Shiraz Gin (gin steeped in shiraz grapes) and the Modern Australian Gin that was crafted with the Rockpool Mixologists for Qantas.

But a lot of this simply needs to be seen and consumed to be believed. So don’t take our word for it – head up the highway from Melbourne and drop in to the Four Pillars Distillery for a drink and be sure to book a room, because you’ll definitely want to stay a while.

Now for a little bit on the Four Pillars Master Distiller Cameron Mackenzie, who has also assumed the role of operations guru, educator, locavore and still shiner. Cameron, quite simply, is the heart and soul of Four Pillars. A Healesville local, before throwing his lot into the production of craft spirits, Cam was a 15 year veteran of the wine trade, having made, sold, marketed and judged many of Victoria’s best known wine brands. Cam is also a former Olympian, having run in the 4x400m at the 1996 Olympics, before he started working with Stuart on an Olympic scholarship in 1998. His running career then went rapidly downhill – he missed a spot in the 2000 Olympic team by one place – and Stuart has felt guilty ever since.

As a result Cameron’s career in the spirits industry was born and is now a role he says is his dream job, the job he wants to do for the rest of his life; making gin, lots of different gins and telling a lot of people about gin. Cam has been distilling gin (professionally and legally) since 2013 and in that time he has won gold medals in major international competitions for all four of the brands commercially available gins. He has also won gold medals at the World Spirits Competition for Rare Dry and Barrel Aged Gin and gold’s at the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Competition for the Navy Strength and Spiced Negroni Gin. He’s a very, very good distiller and it appears as though the Olympic Games’ loss was at the advantage of Four Pillars.

As for the future of Four Pillars, 2016 is set to be a landmark year – much the same as the brand’s first two years but bigger and hopefully better. With the two new stills (Jude big and Eileen small) the distillers now have greater flexibility than ever. They can make good quantities of the Rare Dry Gin and satisfy increasing demand both at home and abroad, while also making many, smaller and creative batches. The trio will also continue to champion Australian distilling and craft distilling in particular, exploring native botanicals as well as the world for the new and most interesting. Four Pillars will also make Australia a destination for gin lovers across the world and will start hosting some gin-focused events that might just be the envy of the gin world – so get ready to soak up some gin drenched fun! ❧

LEFT: Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin, Navy Strength Gin, Barrel Aged Gin and Spiced Negroni Gin.

RIGHT: At the Four Pillars Distillery, looking through the glass to Wilma, the original still.