THE GIN PASSPORT ATLAS - DISTILLERY STORY- PINNED ON THE MAP - AFRICA
HOUT BAY HARBOUR GIN, Cape Town, South Africa
If you're in Cape Town, you need to head to Hout Bay and visit this tiny distillery that is churning out world-class products.
I visited Hout Bay Harbour Distillery in February 2025 and managed to get an hour with Mike Schmidt, who talked me through their products, their history and what they were doing next.
The distillery is tucked into the heart of Hout Bay Harbour, at the Harvest Centre on Harbour Road. It is a tiny operation, surrounded by the working harbour, fishing boats and dramatic mountains, with the sea just outside the door.
It's a brilliant location for a distillery, particularly one that has built its reputation around doing things on a small scale.
The story behind Hout Bay Harbour Distillery actually starts long before the first bottle of gin.
Mike and Paula Schmidt were already well established in the drinks business. In 2006 they founded Frankie's Olde Soft Drink Company, building the brand into a successful South African craft soft-drinks business. The company was sold to Clover in October 2015, after which Mike remained with the business for a period before the Schmidts eventually decided it was time for another adventure.
They moved from KwaZulu-Natal to Cape Town in 2018 and began working on their next drinks venture. This time, it was gin.
The contrast between the two businesses is rather fun. They had already learned about production, distribution, branding and building a drinks company with Frankie’s, but distilling was a completely new challenge.
The licensing process took around a year and Mike described it as one of the most frustratingly laborious processes he'd encountered. They finally obtained their micro-manufacturing licence in 2019, although they had produced their first gin in November 2018 while developing the recipe and getting feedback.
Hout Bay Harbour Distillery was born and it didn't take long for people to notice.
Their Navy Strength Gin, bottled at 57% ABV, won World's Best Navy Gin at the 2020 World Gin Awards. Around 40 gins had entered the category, making it quite an introduction to the international gin world for a brand that was still in its infancy.
The following year, Harbour Dry Gin was named South African Country Winner in the London Dry category at the World Gin Awards. It wasn't a one-off. When I visited in February 2025, they had just secured the same Country Winner and Gold result again for Harbour Dry in the 2025 World Gin Awards.
Three major World Gin Awards wins, from a tiny distillery in a working harbour. Not bad at all.
Harbour Dry is their classic London Dry, vapour infused with juniper, citrus and spices. The recipe includes cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, orange and lemon, producing a spicy, citrus-led gin with a soft finish.
The Navy Strength takes the same general style up to 57% ABV. Despite the extra alcohol, it has become one of their signature products and the award-winning expression that first put Hout Bay Harbour on the international map.
The range had already expanded beyond those two gins by the time I visited, with flavoured expressions including Lavender, Elderflower and Hibiscus, as well as Chilli and other experimental releases.
There was clearly plenty going on behind the scenes too, with Mike keen to talk about the ambitions for the business. They were already exporting internationally and wanted to get their bottles into bars across the Cape Peninsula. The scale of the distillery makes those ambitions even more impressive.
Emily and her sister Jessica were also part of the family venture, making Hout Bay Harbour very much a family business.
The story didn't stop there, although I obviously didn't know that when I visited - although there may have been a hint or two, which only now makes sense!
A NEW CHAPTER:
Since my visit, Hout Bay Harbour Distillery has changed hands, with Andre Fourie and his son Daniel taking over the business in late 2025.
Andre brings an interesting background to the distillery. He spent around 15 years in the global brewing industry, including senior roles with SABMiller, South African Breweries and Anheuser-Busch InBev, ultimately becoming Global Vice President of Sustainability at AB InBev. He describes the distillery as an unexpected addition to his retirement plans, but an opportunity to finally pursue his dream of owning a boutique distillery.
Daniel is now the Owner and Distiller, bringing the hands-on side of the business to the father-and-son partnership.
There are already signs of some interesting plans under the new ownership, including aged gin, with oak being used to add another dimension to the spirit. They've also been looking at ways to reuse the spent botanicals from distillation rather than simply throwing them away — something that fits particularly well with Andre's background in sustainability.
The awards have continued too. In 2026, Hout Bay's Lavender Gin picked up a Silver at the World Gin Awards, adding another international medal to the distillery's growing collection.
I visited during the final chapter of the Schmidt era without knowing it at the time. Now there's a new father-and-son team at the helm, a sustainability focus and some new experiments coming out of the still.
I'm definitely going back to see what they've been up to.
