Hastings Distillers is New Zealand’s first producer of certified organic artisan spirits and liqueurs. Our decades long backgrounds in winemaking provide an ideal starting point to further explore our long time love of all things botanical and spiritous.
About us
Throughout our careers we’ve made wine in many parts of the globe. We’ve created wine brands – ‘Alluviale’, and the avant-garde ‘DaDa’, a bottle of which sits in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. We raised a family, formed our wine consultancy company and spent years perfecting the art of growing, harvesting, fermentation, extraction, aging and blending.
In 2015 we took a break and travelled to Europe, where our curiosity for distillation was reignited. For David it had always been there. As a child, time spent with his grandfather while he was distilling, studies at university in Bordeaux and quietly bubbling away while he was visiting friends in Cognac and Armagnac. For Kate it was the opportunity to further explore an interest in therapeutic herbs - and so, Hastings Distillers was born. Extensive travel followed with David learning from some of the best in France, Germany, UK and North America. Meanwhile Kate embarked on a 3 year project, growing, foraging and distilling anything of interest resulting in the creation of an olfactory library of over 300 botanicals.
Building on our winemaking skills, we set out to create sophisticated, unique spirits and liqueurs. Classics given a modern interpretation. To find the purest expression of our collection of botanicals, the choice to use only organic and biodynamic ingredients was evident.
Great thinkers and artists inform our craft: Tolstoy, Steiner, Hauschka, Shauberger, Tuwhare, Baxter. We love what we do, the eternal quest for beauty following our guiding tenet: Natura enim est Mensura - Nature is the measure.
– Kate Galloway and David Ramonteu
Hawkes Bay
Situated on the North Islands east coast, Hawkes Bay is one of the warmest, driest regions of New Zealand. Beginning with the high, forested Ruahine and Kaweka Ranges, the land steps down towards the coast, flattening out to become the fertile Heretaunga Plains. Wide rivers run swiftly to meet the Pacific ocean. At the heart of the plains lies Hastings, a town of ca. 45,000; the major service centre for the surrounding farming communities.
While the 19th Century economy was mainly based around pastoralism, the 20th saw diversification into horticulture led by pioneers such as James Williams and his famous 60 mile orchard, which earned Hastings the title of ‘Fruit Bowl of New Zealand’.
While orchards and vineyards were springing up, so too was a keen interest in esoteric culture with the establishment of Havelock Work, a group of like-minded people with an interest in philosophical and spiritual pursuit.
Theosophy and later Anthroposophy was introduced from Europe constituting the seed of what we have today in a thriving Steiner and Anthroposophical community. At the heart of this is the teaching of Rudolf Steiner whose inspiration and genius led to holistic ways of working in many fields including biodynamic agriculture.
Today we are blessed with such a rich landscape and cultural inheritance and the opportunity to work with incredible individuals who grow our botanicals in local Gin Gardens.
