Perth distillery Old Young’s that was started in an old tin shed wins international award

A small Australian gin brand has been named the best in the world at a prestigious international awards ceremony.

old youngStarted by Perth’s James Young, it took home two gongs in The Icons of Gin competition by winning the Craft Producer of the Year and Brand Innovator of the Year categories.

It is the first time that an Australian distillery has won the award for best craft producer and only the second time that one has won the award for innovative brand in the competition.

Old Young’s has come a long way since James opened it in 2016 from an old tin shed in Perth’s Swan Valley.

James said winning the awards was a “career wish list item” and he feels like “a proud father whose son just won an Oscar.”

“Winning just one trophy at The Icon of Gin Awards would be a career bucket list item, but two, WOW!” James said.

“When you look at past winners of these two awards, it’s who’s who of the world’s most respected brands, selling in dozens of countries and selling hundreds of thousands of bottles a year.”

Seven years ago, James took over a ‘shutdown’ distillery housed in a 36 square meter tin ‘hotbox’ shed and worked tirelessly to create his line of high quality gins and vodkas by hand.

‘The company started from very humble beginnings. We started in a 6 meter by 6 meter garden shed,’ James previously told Daily Mail Australia.

“I remember the shed was not insulated and the temperature inside was 57 degrees so we would go outside at 42 degrees to cool off.”

But the humble shed could only produce 5,000 to 6,000 bottles of gin and vodka each month, limiting Old Young’s ability to exceed customer demands.

An upgrade to a 2,200-square-foot distillery and new tasting room in Gingin, a small town an hour north of Perth, allowed the company increased production capacity.

Since then, Old Young’s has achieved an average growth of 90 percent annually, generated $5.3 million in revenue in 2022, and sold nearly 72,000 bottles.

Old Young’s has three varieties of gin, including 1829, Six Seasons, and Common, as well as four varieties of vodka; Pure, Smoked, Cold Drip Coffee and even Pavlova.

“Central to winning this award is our signature gin, Old Young’s 1829 Gin. I am like a proud father whose son just won an Oscar!” James said.

“The gin’s base is Tuscan juniper berries, with the Swan Valley and surrounding areas offering some of the best botanicals I’ve seen, giving 1829 its balance of bright citrus characters and savory spice.”

Old Young’s is no stranger to award winning, with the label previously winning back-to-back Champion Australian Distiller titles at the Australian Distilled Spirit Awards in 2017 and 2018, a feat that has only been accomplished once since.

The recent win comes just after James launched a stock offering for clients to become part owners of his business.

He plans to use the money to expand the business further so that the gins can be stocked in bars and bottle shops across the country and buy equipment to handle more than 250,000 bottles each year.

James has another line of spirits under the Old Young name Gingin Gin, the bottle is a love letter to the people of Gingin where the liquor is made

The business owner said: ‘People have said to me, ‘I have this idea to make gin in GinGin’, but guess what? I finally did it.’

Mr. Young describes the liquor as a profound love letter to the city of Gingin, a place he has held close to his heart since childhood, passing through the city on regular road trips with his parents.

“The city has always been in the back of my mind, I could never get it out of my head,” he said.

Their love story continued not only in the name, but also in the spirit itself, as the gin features three local ingredients from the city.

“I wanted to make sure the gin included local products from the city, so it has olive leaf, lemon zest and orange from GinGin,” he said.

“But it’s actually a fusion, of exotic flavors like almond, licorice, green tea. He wanted the gin to be a contemporary classic by giving a classic drink a more contemporary flair.”

It was finally in recipe number 24 that Mr. Young was satisfied that the gin gave its namesake the justice it deserved.

But the love affair with the small town of GinGin doesn’t stop at the name of the liquor, as Young said the idea had been on his mind for 10 years, stored away as a beloved passion project.

“I was never going to hit Gingin Gin, so I took everything I’ve learned in the past few years in the industry and put it into this project,” he said.

‘When I got the chance to do this project, I knew it had to be gin made in Gingin.’ The bottle itself has Gingin’s coordinates around it,” she said.