6 minute read
Distillery Profile
MEET DUNEDIN’S NEWEST DISTILLERY No8 Distillery
In a sunny street in Dunedin sits a funky café and venue called Dog With Two Tails and in the window of Dog With Two Tails sits a shiny copper still.
When the first COVID-19 lockdown hit last year, Dog With Two Tails had to close and its owners, Michael Wilson and Julien Delavoie sat at home bored and restless. They fancied the idea of setting up a still in the window of their establishment and, like that, No8 Distillery was born.
No8 is the first distillery to open in Dunedin since legendary Willowbank Distillery auctioned off their last whisky barrel in 1997. But despite being new, the Kiwi distillery has a legacy that dates back over four generations, drawing upon treasured family recipes and distilling knowledge.
From the success of Dog With Two Tails, Wilson and Delavoie draw on their long hospitality experience. Wilson brings his flavour extraction expertise from 15 years in coffee roasting, brewing and bean to bar chocolate manufacturing, while Delavoie draws upon his French heritage and experience making gin, calvados, and cider with his grandparents in Normandy.
“I was basically breast-fed calvados,” joked
Delavoi about his background.
The boys’ experience is vast. Delavoi has worked as a chef/pastry chef for 18 years, including at
Michelin-starred restaurants in France and has been in New Zealand for the last six years. Born in Dunedin, Wilson studied genetics at university, was a Royal Engineer in the British Army, started the first speciality coffee company in Scotland and
Malaysia, and has a craft bean-to-bar chocolate operation in Kuala Lumpur.
“I come from a family of distillers; I have this great picture of my grandmother scrubbing out an ageing barrel from the inside,” explained
Delavoi, adding that the shiny, copper still they use is named Thérèse, after his spirits-making grandmother.
“All the current liqueurs sold have been made in France for the last 20 years. The absinthe recipe that we use was developed in 1926 and is ridiculously smooth for a drop at 72% ABV. But my great love is rum, I’m excited that our first batch age will be released in August.”
Wilson doesn’t drink but reckons Delavoie drinks enough for both of them. However, he loves tasting the drinks and has spent many years working with fermentation and flavours. He spends hours each week running around the mountains in Dunedin looking for leaves and flowers for Delavoie to extract flavours from. He also lived in Scotland for seven years and became fascinated with whiskey.
According to the boys, gin is a drink that can be savoured throughout the day and so needs to appeal to the different moods that we all have at different times. “We’ve gone for three distinctively different gins in order to appeal to times when we need a hug, want some inspiration, or feel it’s time to party.”
Delavoie went on to explain that the quality of the botanic, the bush or three forages need to be selected carefully, to be sublimated during preparation and during distillation, like a fine dining dish. The many botanicals should address depth of flavour, body, and aftertaste, but there needs to be some flavours that stand out and make it distinct.
“Well-crafted gin should set out the rules and fulfil your desires while asserting that you’re drinking something of quality.”
When combining different distillates for a new drink, Delavoie and Wilson get an informal panel together to decide which combination works best.
“After all, we’re making spirits for people to enjoy and the best way to work out what combinations to go for, is to get immediate feedback from drinkers,” said Delavoie.
“We extract flavours from the botanicals at four points: before distillation, this can be simple
Still my beating heart
maceration or something as complex as vacuum extraction; in the pot still; in the gin basket; and after distillation. This means that we can get many different flavours from the same plant and combine them to create unique flavours.”
The name No8 Distillery is a tribute to the pair’s Kiwi ingenuity and drive to make things happen. As well as making spirits and liqueurs, they have undertaken all the design work, construction, distilling and are constantly tinkering, coming up with new and, occasionally, better ways of extracting flavours from plants as well as running the business. The spirits they have created also reflect influences of the pair’s backgrounds.
“The Dunners Dry Gin borrows from both our culinary heritages, blending New Zealand native plants with Mediterranean herbs into a strong bushy/ herby, hybrid love-child,” expressed Delavoie.
“The Hibiscus Gin is full of flavours like kaffir lime, passionfruit, hibiscus, mandarin and cinnamon from Southeast Asia where I travelled extensively. Hibiscus is also the national flower of Malaysia where Michael lived for six years.”
There is also the Horopito Gin which is remarkable for the separation of flavours as they hit in four waves: First the citrus, then cardamom, then cinnamon and finally there’s the piquancy of horopito. The pair describe it like a rollercoaster for the tastebuds.
Among the No8 collection is Absinthe-1926, a recipe passed down by Delavoie’s family from their distilling business in France. Flavour-maestro Wilson said tasting Absinthe-1926 is like being smacked in the face with a log of soft-eating liquorice.
All three of No8’s gins picked up medals at the London Spirits Competition and the seven spirits that they entered in the NZ Spirits Competition also picked up awards.
“No8 is all about experimentation and making things work with what we’ve got to hand. This starts with the foraging of plants in the local area, the design of our brand, and the fact that we’re squeezed into the window space at Dog with Two Tails.
With our time spent in hospitality, we appreciate that different flavours appeal to different people and to the same people at different times and moods - we’re not just creating drinks for us to drink.”
Sustainability and being kind to the environment underpin the ethos that this pair live by and not surprisingly it’s entwined in No8 Distillery.
The beautiful No 8 bottles can be refilled and swapped at No8 and receive a $5 return credit. They chose eco paper for their labels and they aim to be zero waste. This means choosing to use second-grade fruit such as apricots and walnuts from Otago Farmers Market, which are often rejected as imperfect by consumers but are full of flavour for spirits making. Where possible they choose organic fruit and ingredients. The botanic mash left after spirits are made goes to a worm farm and any excess fruit is made into marmalade.
Wilson and Delavoie are currently working on a rum and calvados as well as a new spirit fermented and made solely from Aotearoa natives. The pair are always looking at innovative ways of serving their cocktails and supplying their wholesale customers.
“We need to get into bigger premises. We’ve tested the market and it makes sense for us to expand soon,” concluded Delavoie.
“We are also always looking for collabs with a bars or restaurants to do pairing or tasting nights, but also a brewery, chocolate or cheese maker to twist and educate the palette of everyone.”