Doctor’s gin wins on world stage: Gold medal for New Zealand’s Chemistry Gin at 2024 World Gin Awards
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.