Auckland Gin In Fortnight

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29725, 19 January 1962, Page 11

Auckland Gin In Fortnight

(N.Z. Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Jan. 18. The first New Zealandmade gin will be on sale at hotels throughout the country on February 5. The gin which will be marketed under the brand names of the three companies operating the grain distillery at Auckland, will be cheaper than imported gin. The locally-manufactured product has been sampled by overseas experts who have pronounced it to be at least equal to the best Lon-

don gins and “as good as there is anywhere in the world.” Hotel prices in Auckland will be as follows, with those of English gins in parenthesis: standard quart (28oz). 31s (36s 6d); half-bottles. 17s (10s>: quarter-bottles. 9s (10s): flasks. 7s 3d (8s); miniatures. 3s (not imported) There will be small increases in these prices in other centres to cover freight. Australian gins sell at 33s 6d a standard bottle.

Nips of New Zealand gin sold through public and private bars of hotels will be Is Id, against the present Is 3d for imported gin. The first proof spirit wa* produced in the Auckland distillery on January 15. The plant will use 40.000 sacks of barley and 10.000 sacks of malt a year, most of it coming from Canterbury The companies compounding the gin for sale are Seager Evane. Ltd., Gilbeys. Ltd.. and the Distillers Company (N.Z.), Ltd.