Chemistry one of “World’s best London Dry Gins”: IWSC
The International Wine and Spirits Competition has included New Zealand’s Chemistry Gin in its list of the 10 best London Dry Gins from the 2023 competition.
The International Wine and Spirits Competition has named New Zealand’s Chemistry Gin one of its “Top 10 London Dry Gins to try”.
It is the only gin from the southern hemisphere included in the list.
Published in the March 2024 issue of its magazine, Club Oenologique, the IWSC judges state:
“With expressive citrus notes and a distinctive juniper core, there's a reason the classic style of gin continues to flourish. Here are 10 of the best London Dry gins from the IWSC 2023.”
Chemistry Gin competed in the 2023 IWSC, scoring an impressive 92 out of 100 possible points in the London Dry category, and taking home a silver medal.
The IWSC article lists a number of well-known gin brands, from Beefeater London Dry (which scored 91), No. 3 London Dry Gin (93), Gibson’s London Dry to Aldi’s Haysmith’s London Dry Gin (93). Topping the list with a score of 95 was Gyre & Gimble’s NOHOW London Dry Gin, which won a Gold medal.
“For Chemistry Gin to be included in this prestigious list is an honour,” noted Dr Marie van Drimmelen, co-founder of the Karori Drinks Company and the person who created the distinctive recipe for Chemistry Gin.
“We entered the IWSC competition only a few months after launching our product. We had already won a gold medal at the Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards, so were keen to try our luck at one of the most well-known and highly regarded spirits competitions in London.”
“Chemistry is a juniper-forward gin — it’s a modern London Dry that people describe as super fresh and easy to drink. Its botanicals include Sichuan peppercorns, which impart citrus, as well as sage and seaweed.
“At 44 per cent alcohol by volume, it’s full of flavour. That’s because the alcohol carries the flavour. As a result, Chemistry stands up in cocktails like a Negroni or a Southside. It’s also delicious in a Martini, or on its own,” she added.
In their tasting notes for Chemistry Gin, the IWSC judges noted, “Bold nose of cut grass and pine forest. The texture is silky, with touches of green cardamom pods alongside juniper and citrus. The flavours extend in an attractive floral finish.”
To purchase a bottle of Chemistry Gin for delivery in New Zealand, click here.
You can read the IWSC article here: Top 10 London Dry Gins to Try.
Doctor’s gin wins on world stage: Gold medal for New Zealand’s Chemistry Gin at 2024 World Gin Awards
A gin created by a New Zealand doctor has won a gold medal at the 2024 World Gin Awards. Chemistry Gin has won Gold in the Contemporary Gin category.
Chemistry Gin has won a gold medal at the 2024 World Gin Awards
Media release: 8 February, 2024
A sustainable gin created by a Wellington doctor has won a gold medal at a prestigious spirits competition.
Chemistry Gin, created by chemical pathologist Dr Marie van Drimmelen, has won a gold medal at the World Gin Awards in London.
Co-founder of the Karori Drinks Company, Dr Marie van Drimmelen created the unique recipe for Chemistry Gin.
“We’re absolutely delighted that our gin has been singled out for a gold medal at such a prestigious competition,” noted Dr van Drimmelen. Chemistry Gin won a gold medal in the Contemporary Gin category.
A modern London Dry gin, Chemistry is a vegan gin created with only 8 botanicals, and bottled at 44 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) in a recycled glass bottle with a unique glass stopper.
“We’ve put sustainability at the heart of the development of Chemistry Gin,” noted van Drimmelen. “From our choice of botanicals, to selecting our bottle and stopper, sustainability has been key.”
Chemistry Gin is created from sustainably-sourced botanicals, and is the first New Zealand spirit bottled in one hundred per cent post-consumer glass.
In addition to its sustainability ethos, Chemistry Gin supports women in science. “As a women-owned enterprise, we’re keen to help create opportunities for women to develop their careers in the sciences,” noted van Drimmelen. Parent company of Chemistry Gin, the Karori Drinks Company donates two dollars from every bottle of Chemistry sold to women in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Dr van Drimmelen, who emigrated to New Zealand in 2019, started work on the gin in late 2020. Together with her co-founder, Canadian comedian Laura Bruce, she launched Chemistry Gin in October 2022. The gin won its first gold medal the following month.
Chemistry Gin’s World Gin Awards gold medal joins a Silver from the International Wine and Spirits Competition in 2023, and a Gold medal from the Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards.
Chemistry Gin is available online from its website www.chemistrygin.com and at fine retailers in the North and South Island.
If you’ve found that refreshing reading, click here to take a look in the chemistry gin shop!
Celebrating our first year!
A wee thank you as we mark our first anniversary at Chemistry Gin.
Delighted to have made it to our first anniversary, a huge thank you to everyone who’s contributed to our success. Big thanks our distiller, Soren, and Ben from Elemental, both of whom helped to distil the Chemistry Gin recipe to our specifications and such a delicious result! (Sorry for being so fussy, but wasn’t it worth it?)
To our designers at SingleDouble - Trudy, Ewa, Clay, and illustrator Igor for your amazing teamwork on this multiple-award-winning package and brand! Mwah!
To our printer MCC Auckland, and Phoebe Rudge and her amazing team for looking after us so well, with such a complex job and such dazzling (Pride in Print-Category award-winning results!)
To our bottle suppliers, Estal — and Ana and Jesús in particular for looking after us across the world and supplying the most beautiful 100% recycled glass WildGlass bottle!
To all the pubs, restaurants, bistros and hotels who have taken us on, and to our wonderful retailers who are helping share Chemistry across Aotearoa (and hopefully soon beyond!) — thank you for the role you play as ambassadors!
To Marcel Thompson for guidance and encouragement!
To the DSA for the warm welcome, guidance and support!
And finally, to our cheerleaders Erin, Lisa, Jenny and Mark — thanks for helping to spread the love and share the gin! We couldn’t have done it without you. xx
Chemistry Gin co-founders Laura and Marié
Chemistry gin featured at Paris packaging week
We were thrilled to hear our design team, SingleDouble in Auckland, was approached by Paris Packaging Week for a case study on Chemistry Gin. You can read the case study here:
https://www.parispackagingweek.com/en/2023/08/14/design-case-study-singledoubles-design-for-chemistry-gin/
https://www.parispackagingweek.com/en/2023/08/14/design-case-study-singledoubles-design-for-chemistry-gin/
pride in print award champion
Another win for the stunning Chemistry Gin packaging — this time from New Zealand’s Pride in Print Awards, where the Chemistry Gin label won MCC Auckland both a Gold medal, and the overall Label Category win. Go team!
Our printer, MCC Auckland, has won a prestigious industry award for its work on our Chemistry Gin label! Awarded recently at the Pride in Print Awards New Zealand, MCC took out a Gold Medal for the Chemistry Label, and went on to triumph as the overall winner in the “Label”category for its work for us.
We were so pleased to hear the news. This amazing label, designed by our incredible design team at SingleDouble in Auckland, was a challenging print job. Many components had to come together perfectly for it to work, and work it did!
An amazing achievement and here’s what the judges had to say:
“A great example of a creative concept combined with high-quality digital print and finishing, this label has expertly drawn together a silver foil, high-build varnish and beautiful colours to deliver an amazing effect.”
We are very grateful to Phoebe Rudge and all the team at MCC for the stellar job they did, bringing the amazing design by SingleDouble to life!
When people handle the Chemistry Gin bottle, they are completely taken by our stunning label and they immediately run their fingers over it — it seems three-dimensional!
Having such a beautiful label, attached to our 100% recycled glass bottle (ours is the only New Zealand gin in 100% recycled glass, incidentally!) has really helped Chemistry to jump off the shelf, and win the hearts of Kiwis. Thanks team! <3
If you’d like to get your hands on one of these beautiful bottles — bonus: it’s filled with delicious vegan gin! — click here to visit our shop. xx
IWSC win for Chemistry Gin
A New Zealand gin that launched just six months ago has won a silver medal at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London.
Fantastic news! Chemistry Gin has won a Silver Medal in the ‘London Dry Gin’ category at the 2023 International Wine and Spirits Competition in London! Really gratifying as Chemistry Gin was launched just six months ago!
With a score of 92 out of a possible 100 points, Chemistry Gin was among New Zealand’s highest-scoring gins.
Today’s IWSC Silver joins our Gold from the Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards, awarded in November 2022, also in London.
We’re absolutely delighted that our gin has scored among the best in New Zealand – and the world! – at what is widely considered the most prestigious spirits competition.
But there’s a lot more to Chemistry Gin than just our gin. There’s the story of how “Chemistry” came to be.
Marie is the “chemist” in Chemistry Gin. As some of you may be aware, in the wake of the 2020 lockdown, Marie turned her love of flavours as a talented home chef and instructor in the Wellington Continuing Education College, to creating an easy-drinking gin that we would enjoy. Two years later, we launched Chemistry Gin.
Chemistry Gin is unusual among New Zealand gins in that we use a vegan base alcohol, resulting in one of New Zealand’s few vegan gins.
We had the opportunity to choose a base spirit that wasn’t derived from dairy, which meant our gin would be vegan. That was an easy decision, so we’re pleased that Chemistry is also vegan-friendly.
We’re proud that Chemistry is blazing another trail as the first New Zealand gin bottled in one-hundred per cent post-consumer glass.
Sustainability was key for us. We chose a beautiful bottle – but chose it based on its environmental credentials first, and beauty second.
We also sourced a glass stopper, so that our customers’ Chemistry bottles can be infinitely re-used.
Sustainability was also key to our recipe development. Marie selected only widely available botanicals that could be sourced sustainably. She did this to ensure that Chemistry treaded lightly on the planet. Our main botanicals include Sichuan peppercorns, sage and seaweed.
For every bottle of Chemistry Gin sold, we donate two dollars to women in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
Chemistry Gin’s wins at IWSC and the Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards join numerous medals Chemistry Gin has won for its branding and package design. Chemistry’s design team, SingleDouble in Auckland, won Gold at the New Zealand Designers Institute “Best Awards” in October 2022 – only four weeks after the gin’s launch – and a slew of medals have followed. SingleDouble took a coveted “Black” award at the World Brand Design Awards in January, one of only 7 packaging designs worldwide to win the honour.
Chemistry Gin is available online from our website www.chemistrygin.com and at fine retailers in the North and South Island including Glengarry Wines, Moore Wilson’s, Regional Wines and Spirits, La Bella Italia, Ballantynes in Christchurch, The Gin Room in Marlborough, Down to Find Wine in Greytown, and selected LiquorLand shops across the country.
The full list of IWSC winners is available on its website here: https://iwsc.net/results/search
Chemistry gin featured at #Prowein
Chemistry Gin is delighted that our award-winning gin will be featured at ProWein in Dusseldorf. Our bottle manufacturer, Estal, asked if they could showcase our gin at their stand at the world’s largest wine and spirits trade show.
Naturally, we said, “Yes!”
Chemistry Gin is the first (and still only!) New Zealand gin bottled in 100% post-consumer glass. We chose Estal’s “WildGlass” range because of its impeccable environmental credentials.
Glass requires minimal inputs to be re-used, and can be infinitely recycled.
We chose a glass stopper for Chemistry Gin, which means our bottle can be infinitely re-used!
We’re grateful to Ana and the team at Estal for choosing to showcase our beautiful bottle, and to our design team at SingleDouble in Auckland, New Zealand, for packaging up our gin bottle so beautifully.
To everyone who has helped Chemistry Gin to get off the ground we say, “Cheers to that!”
“Karori gin goes global”
That’s the headline on the front page of our local paper here in Karori this morning. We are delighted by the coverage of our gold medal win in today’s Independent Herald.
Getting the support of our local paper and people here in Karori and Kelburn for our gin is incredibly gratifying.
Thanks to everyone for your support, we really appreciate it.
We were invited to a poetry reading - gin tasting last night, and the response to Chemistry Gin was phenomenal.
Laura performed her 2019 Burns-Night “Toast to the Laddies”, written shortly before we left Scotland
We were delighted to meet New Zealand’s Poet Laureate who also gave a reading. He’s now a fan of Chemistry! 🥳
Here’s a link to the article in today’s paper: click here
gold medal at women’s wine and Spirit awards 2023
We’re delighted to announce Chemistry Gin has won a Gold medal at the Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards 2023 in London.
We’re over the moon! We just got word we’ve won a Gold medal at the 2023 Women’s Wine and Spirit Awards in London!
The Women’s Wine and Spirits Awards is the most important wine and spirits competition in the world judged by women buyers.
According to the WWSA, “Women’s Wine & Spirits Awards 2023 triple-blind tasted a record-breaking number of samples from 19 countries around the world. Held in both London and Hong Kong - the results create global impact at the highest level.”
We’re thrilled and couldn’t be prouder of winning Gold in the first competition Chemistry Gin has entered. This win at the WWSA comes on the heels of our design team SingleDouble’s Gold Medal at the Best Awards for Chemistry Gin’s stunning packaging. It’s been a fantastic first few months for our business.
If you haven’t tried Chemistry Gin, what are you waiting for? You can order from our website here or pick up a bottle at many New Zealand retailers including Regional Wines, Moore Wilson’s and Glengarry Wines nationwide.
In-store tasting alert: to celebrate our Gold medal, we’ll be doing an in-store tasting at Glengarry Wines’ Thorndon Branch Friday, 25 November from 4-6pm. Come along and experiment with Chemistry!
design award: gold medal for chemistry gin at Designers Institute of New Zealand
Chemistry Gin has won Gold at the Designers Institute of New Zealand “Best Awards”.
Our packaging made a huge impression and we’re delighted to win a Gold award in this prestigious competition. Congratulations to our talented team from SingleDouble who created this dazzling label design!
Our designers Ewa and Trudy from SingleDouble celebrate their Best Awards Gold medal at the Designers Institute of New Zealand Best Awards 2022.
The New Zealand Best Awards gave us a Gold for our Chemistry Gin packaging!
We’re delighted to announce that Chemistry Gin has won Gold at the Designers Institute of New Zealand “Best Awards”.
Our packaging made a huge impression and we’re delighted to win a Gold award in this prestigious competition. Congratulations to our talented team from SingleDouble who created this dazzling label design!
The judges noted:
“Such a progressive label design that cuts through the category. We loved the printing detail and consideration.”
Thanks also to our fabulous printers, MCC Label in Auckland, New Zealand.
Here’s a video of the labels on the press at MCC. If you love printing like we do, then you’ll enjoy this!
Chemistry Gin label printing at MCC Label in Auckland, New Zealand in July 2022.
If you haven’t gotten your own bottle of Chemistry Gin, what are you waiting for? Click here to order yours!
Nearly there!
Chemistry Gin is about to launch! Here’s a sneak peek at our beautiful labels hot off the press!
We’re delighted to announce we’re nearly there. Nearly ready to release our wonderful new gin to the world!
A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of seeing our beautiful labels on the press. The finishing touch on a process that began more than two years ago when, during lockdown, we started to consider what we would like in a gin!
It’s been an exciting process, but it’s only the beginning. All the time spent up til now, choosing a recipe, refining the recipe, choosing a name, choosing a bottle, choosing a stopper. . . it’s all led to this!
Here’s a little peek at our Chemistry Gin bottle labels hot off the press!
