Dunedin has its first distillery since the legendary Willowbank Distillery auctioned off their last whisky barrel in 1997.
No.8 Distillery was established by Michael Wilson and Julien Delavoie, owners of café and venue Dog With Two Tails, and draws upon Delavoie’s French heritage and experience making gin, calvados and cider with his grandparents in Normandy.
While teetotal Michael brings his flavour extraction expertise from a 15 year background in coffee roasting and brewing, and bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturing.
The name No.8 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 coming up with new ways of extracting flavours from plants, as well as running the business.
“Everyone has different tastes and different preferences depending on the time of the day and their mood,” says Delavoie.
The No.8 Distillery Gin Collection includes Dunners Dry Gin, Hibiscus Gin, Horopito Gin and Absinthe -1926 – a recipe dating back to 1926 made and passed down by Julien’s family from their family distilling business in France.
Sustainability and being kind to the environment underpin the ethos that this pair lives by. The No.8 bottles can be refilled and swapped at No.8 for a $5 return credit.
Visitors to Dunedin can sample No8’s offerings at Dog With Two Tails or they can be purchased online at https://www.no8distillery.com/.
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