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New Zealand’s Lighthouse Gin opens distillery
Owned by Foley Family Wines & Spirits, Lighthouse makes its gin with nine botanicals including local Yen Ben lemons.
Lighthouse Gin has opened the doors to its new distillery in Martinborough, New Zealand, which is based in a 19,000 square foot building known as The Runholder. The new production facility was custom-built and features a distillery, bottling room and warehouse.
“Our first distillery, which was cobbled together in an old orchard shed, was a true passion project and I am incredibly proud of what we were able to achieve from those humble beginnings,” head distiller Rachel Hall said. “This new distillery was purpose-built from the ground up, which is an incredible luxury for any head distiller, especially when handcrafting a clean, pure gin like Lighthouse.”
Lighthouse Gin is made with nine botanicals, most notably locally sourced Yen Ben lemons, and is bottled at 40% ABV. Lighthouse re-entered the US market in 2023 with a new bottle design inspired by the Fresnel lens of its namesake, the famous Cape Palliser Lighthouse. It is priced at US$50.
The new distilling space will feature floor-to-ceiling windows that put the brand’s 700-litre CARL hybrid still on display. The Runholder building opened last autumn and sits on 38 acres, slightly inland from Cape Palliser. The building is also home to Foley Family wineries Te Kairanga and Martinborough Vineyard and features a tasting room, restaurant, and private dining space. The project ties together Foley Family founder Bill Foley’s ethos of blending wine, spirits and hospitality under one roof.
Lighthouse was founded in 2005 and adds to a growing landscape of new world gins. In January, The Spirits Business spoke with Hall about the new distillery space, which measures 2,486 square feet. At the time, Hall was already conducting test distillation runs and said they were awaiting additional safety measures due to New Zealand’s frequent earthquakes.
“I think people see the brand or they see the bottle, but they don’t understand the craftsmanship and the work behind it – now we can actually showcase that,” Hall said at the time.
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