FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 34 OF 80
THE BOUTIQUE DISTILLERY, Gloucestershire, UK
(A honorary post in the world tour, given the distiller is Kiwi!)
AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,
PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE
I don't think this gin needs much introduction as it already has so many UK fans and supporters! So for today, it's an honorary Kiwi post, as I cannot leave New Zealand without mentioning The Boutique Distillery!
Let's go back to where it all started. Jonny Harper hails from the North Island of New Zealand, where he learnt the art of distillation from a local moonshiner, Steve, back in the 1980s. And this wasn't just a little bit of home experimentation. Jonny has talked about making hooch with Steve up in the New Zealand bush and selling it in jars. His fascination with copper stills had already begun, and that interest continued when, as a teenage apprentice engineer in the aerospace industry, he started experimenting with stills and distillation.
So there's a rather obvious thread running through Jonny's story: New Zealand, engineering, distillation and a willingness to make things himself.
Fast forward a few decades and Jonny brought all of that experience to the UK, where he founded The Boutique Distillery in the Cotswolds in 2018. When I visited, it really was a tiny, hands-on operation. Jonny was producing everything in small batches and doing almost everything himself. He had even built his own still, which he fondly called Ginavive — a bespoke copper still with its own vapour infuser.
I was one of the privileged few invited into his little secret lair and got to see just how much work went into producing every bottle. The whole process was very much a labour of love, with Jonny making, filling, labelling and finishing the bottles himself. And he didn't mess about — he's straight to the point, hugely passionate about what he does and clearly not someone who believes in taking the easy route!
Things have moved on considerably since my visit. The Boutique Distillery has now been rebranded as HAKA, bringing Jonny's New Zealand heritage right to the front of the brand. The range has expanded too, with HAKA Rum joining the gins, and Jonny has moved into a new, much more developed distillery in Gloucestershire.
The new setup has a strong focus on sustainability, with renewable energy, upcycled materials and equipment designed to reduce water consumption. So whilst the surroundings, the branding and the scale have changed, the philosophy hasn't.
Jonny still builds and adapts his own equipment, still works in small batches and still puts an enormous amount of himself into what he makes.
And then there's the water. Jonny uses Malvern Hills spring water, chosen because its purity reminded him of the snowmelt water he knew from New Zealand. It's a lovely little bit of New Zealand transported to Gloucestershire. But the real Kiwi connection comes through in the botanicals. Jonny grows some of his own unusual botanicals at the distillery, including New Zealand feijoa, also known as pineapple guava. There is now a feijoa tree growing at the distillery — a rather lovely living reminder of where this whole story began.
The current HAKA Exquisitely Refined Dry Gin contains 18 botanicals, including juniper, coriander, chamomile, New Zealand feijoa, African peppercorns, red grapefruit, lime, organic orange and cardamom. So whilst the gin is now made in Gloucestershire, there is still a definite taste of New Zealand running through it.
And Jonny's route to becoming a distiller hasn't been entirely conventional either. Alongside his engineering background and distilling, he has also worked as a wedding photographer, photographing weddings around the Cotswolds. I suspect the distilling has rather taken over now, but it's another interesting chapter in the story of a man who clearly doesn't like being confined to one box!
And then there is the rum. Jonny has been experimenting with rum for years, and HAKA Premium Rum is now part of the range. His early experiments included fresh sugar cane juice from Fiji — and, in true Jonny fashion, an old hand-cranked washing-machine mangle was involved in crushing the cane. Yes, a washing machine! At this point I'm beginning to think there isn't a piece of equipment in the average household that Jonny couldn't repurpose into a distilling apparatus. If he can't buy the equipment he wants, he builds it. If he wants a Kiwi botanical, he grows it. And if he wants to crush sugar cane, he finds a washing machine!
The scale may have changed, the brand has evolved and the range has expanded, but the philosophy seems remarkably consistent. It's still very much a labour of love.
So from a teenage Kiwi learning the secrets of moonshine in the New Zealand bush, to building his own copper still, to growing New Zealand botanicals in Gloucestershire, to creating HAKA gin and rum in his own eco-distillery. Quite a journey — and I rather suspect Jonny is nowhere near finished yet.
P.S. He is also an exceptional cook and sells his own hot sauce - move over Levi Roots!
"HAKA Gin — from New Zealand moonshine to a home-built still and a Kiwi-inspired distillery born in the Cotswolds
My favourite serve is still a G&T, with grapefruit and rosemary garnish, and with that in mind I thought I would see how a Breakfast Martini, using grapefruit marmalade, turned out. Delicious!
"Show me a bottle
and I'll tell you a story."
