A group of eight friends who turned a kitchen hobby into a shipping-container distillery in Earnscleugh have scooped up national recognition for their gin and vodka.

Prophecy Distilling, founded by four couples - three based in Alexandra and one in Dunedin - has had its small-batch spirits on the market for barely a season.

But already the company has impressed judges at the New Zealand Spirit Awards, earning a silver medal for its Omeo Vodka, a bronze medal for its Finders Gin, and the coveted title of Best Emerging Product of the Year.

“It’s all pretty surreal because we actually only launched in April of this year,” co-founder Lexi White said. 

“We were really shocked to find out that we got a bronze for the gin and a silver for the vodka, which is really, really cool.”

The idea for the venture sparked three years ago when Lexi and friend Anna Ballantine were sitting in Melbourne’s Four Pillars Gin Distillery and thought: why not give it a go? 

Back home in Central Otago, they bought a three-litre still and began experimenting in Anna’s kitchen - running bottles of Smirnoff vodka through their makeshift setup and foraging for botanicals on the nearby hills.

Those early experiments weren’t exactly smooth sipping. “We’d been sampling some pretty terrible gin,” Lexi said. 

But curiosity and persistence led them into the science of distilling - balancing botanicals, learning about “hearts, heads and tails”, and eventually landing on a recipe they felt could go commercial.

Setting up a fully compliant distillery was another hurdle. The group invested in converting a shipping container on a rural property near Alexandra, navigating council approvals, customs licensing, and even bringing in a specialist from Christchurch to sign off fire safety systems.

Now, Prophecy’s gin and vodka are stocked at local bottle shops and some Clyde and Alexandra restaurants and bars. 

Key to the spirits’ character, Lexi said, was its “untouched” water source and the use of distinctive local botanicals such as speargrass root, red clover, and horopito for a “peppery kick”.

The brand itself references local landmark Prophecy Rock, named for a 19th-century gold miner.

“The whole ethos is making something special from not a lot,” Lexi said.

“It’s all done in-house by us, we put in the graft ourselves, and we thought it was a really nice nod to the forefathers who worked this area.”

\With a label designed by a Dunedin woodcut illustrator, and encased in champagne-style bottles, the spirits look unique.

"We just wanted something that would stand out and, you know, capture people’s eyes and go, hey, what’s that? Let’s have a look,” Lexi said.

Despite its early success, Prophecy Distillery remains a side hustle. Each of the eight owners has a day job, and most have young families. But the shared workload has made the dream possible.

“It’s actually worked to our advantage having all couples involved, because we’ve all got our own strengths that we bring to the business,” Lexi said.

“We’re only at the beginning, really…we’re just so happy and elated and excited to see where the journey takes us.”

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