Watching the Australian team compete at the Paris Olympics has been a proud moment for Four Pillars co-founder and Head Distiller Cameron Mackenzie.
Not only is he a former Olympian himself, but he also made a podium-worthy gin in support of the Australian Olympic Team Appeal, called Paris 24.
Mackenzie invited some of his Olympic mates to distil the gin together, including James Tomkins, Anna Meares, Nick Green, Lauren Burns, Giaan Rooney, Steve Hooker and Daniel Kowalski.
These legends of Australian sport created a sensational spirit in celebration of their time representing Australia on the world’s biggest sporting stage.
Paris 2024 Gin pays homage to this year’s host country, utilising botanicals such as lavender and frangipane, combined with native Australian botanicals including macadamia nuts grown by Olympic Gold Medallist, Giaan Rooney.
“This gin has a fragrant, bright style, reflecting the beautiful perfumeries of Paris, mixed with a strong green and gold base of lemon myrtle and wattle,” Mackenzie said.
While Paris 2024 Gin was made exclusively for the AOC, so is not available to the public for purchase, Mackenzie says its Four Pillars stablemates make an equally fabulous French 75 or G&T to sip while watching the Games.
From Olympian to award-winning distiller
Mackenzie split his youth between working at wineries and competing on the athletic field. His dedication scored him a spot in the men’s 4 x 400m relay at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
“I became a bit of an anomaly in track and field, working in the booze industry, even once turning up to a training with purple-stained legs after crushing Shiraz grapes for a few hours,” he recalls.
“What I’ve learned, and I am sure the other Olympians here with me can agree on, is that the life lessons you gain from being an athlete carry through to what we do now.
“The work ethic and especially accountability are core to how I’ve worked at Four Pillars over the last 10 years.”
Without his sporting experience and the help of the Olympic jobs scheme, Mackenzie says he might never have met Four Pillars co-founder Stuart Gregor (below).
“If you were to graph my athletics career and my booze career, the point at which one plummeted and the other skyrocketed was the day I met him,” he recalls.
The two have been best mates ever since.
Over the years, Mackenzie has proved himself as worthy in the spirits industry as he has on the track, leading to him being inducted into the Australian Distillers Hall of Fame earlier this year at the Australian Distillers Annual Conference.
Four Pillars Gin has also scored a series of accolades since its beginning in 2013. Most notably, it has been named International Gin Producer of the Year three times (2019, 2020, and 2023) as part of the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC), arguably the world’s most prestigious spirits show.
Four Pillars Gin recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, honouring the big and little wins throughout the years and the people who helped along the way.
“There is so much you take for granted, we’re 10 years into Four Pillars and truly the greatest 10 years of my life.
“To think we started out wanting to make about 15,000 bottles of gin a year and now in 2024 we’ll do 1.2 million bottles… it absolutely
blows my mind!”
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