Two Adelaide Distilleries Win at Influential International Spirit Awards

Never Never Distilling Co. and Adelaide Hills Distillery have both picked up gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The global competition is one of the most influential spirit awards in the world.

The wins are especially impressive considering more than 2200 spirits from across the globe were judged this year – the largest number of entries in the awards’ 18-year history.

Never Never Distilling Co. is barely a year old, but the SA-based producer scored a nod for its hugely popular flagship Triple Juniper Gin. Our writer called it a “punchy, don’t-fuck-with-the-main-ingredient statement gin” in our recent wrap of top Australian spirits. The “straight shooting” drink puts the juniper front and centre in a market crowded with complex, botanicals-packed, flavoured alternatives.

Adelaide Hills Distillery’s Italian Bitter Orange won double gold (which is only awarded when a spirit receives gold-medal ratings by all members of the judging panel) for the second year in a row. The herbal, slightly bitter liqueur is inspired by the classic aperitifs of Italy and flavoured with native-Australian ingredients: Riverland oranges, riberries, native thyme, sunrise lime and quandong. The result sits halfway between the bitterness of Campari and the sweetness of Aperol.

It was also the only locally produced spirit to win at Tasting Australia’s inaugural Spirit Awards last month, picking up the Best Liqueur award.

Adelaide Hills Distillery also won gold for its Green Ant Gin collaboration with Something Wild and a silver medal for its signature 78 Degrees Gin.

The full list of medal winners will be published online this month