Prohibition gin, with its distillery in Adelaide city from 2017, racking up multi awards and popularity overseas
Prohibition Liquor Co. bar complements its gin distillery in Gilbert Street, Adelaide city. Top right: Founders Wes Heddles and Adam Capenter. Below right: The expanding range of Prohibition gins that experienced growing popularity in Asia.
Prohibition Liquor Co., claiming the only permanent distillery in Adelaide city centre from 2017, amassed a flow of international and national awards for its gin.
The venture had its origins in authentic Prohibition-era bootleg style, when Wes Heddles, with experience in the food and beverage industry, and Adam Carpenter, a graphic designer passionate about creating brands, started distilling their first gin in an inner Adelaide suburb backyard garage. They chose gin in memory of Heddles's stepmothe Mary, who died from a rare cancer, and her favourite drink.
Heddles and Carpenter whet the growing taste for locally-made gin while they were Adelaide Central Market’s producer in residence. This led to their setting up their permanent distillery in Gilbert Steet, Adelaide city. It gained a custom-built 900-litre copper still that greatly increased production capacity and quality control. The distillery was supplemented with a bar and casual eatery.
Prohibition started collecting its 100-plus national and international awards, significantly a double gold medal for Prohibition Original Gin and a silver medal for their Shiraz Barred Aged Gin at the Singapore World Spirits Competition in 2019. This signalled its solid following in Asia. It also had wins that year at the San Francisco world spirits competition and Australian distilled spirits awards.
Prohibition’s rise was interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown but it also presented opportunities. Besides taken on a coffee shop to keep their bar staff employed, Prohibition grew online sales by 600%. Another Covid-19 opportunity for Prohibition was using its alcohol to produce hand sanitiser. During the pandemic peak in South Australia and interstate, customers were able to place an order online for a bottle of gin and get a bonus 100 millilitres of hand sanitiser.
Post pandemic, Prohibition expanded at home to Penny’s Hill winery in the McLaren Vale region south of Adelaide. Platters featuring the Prohibition gin-infused cheese produced by Woodside Cheese were also available there.
Besides adding to its range with recipes such as the colour-changing Moonlight Gin, Prohibition Gin was building on exporting to Singapore, along with New Zealand, France, Hong Kong and Japan, helped by a grant from the South Australia Export Accelerator programme.
Adam Carpenter said many South Australians were unaware of how widely regarded locally made spirits were internationally: "We're in more of the top bars in Singapore than we are in Adelaide … South Australia probably takes out more awards internationally than any other small region in the world. If I'm in other places in the world, we're talking about South Australia as a place of provenance for amazing quality food and botanicals … and that's what we're using in our gins. The quality of the produce and the clean environment here means that we technically can make better gins than other places in the world."
