Cambridge Distillery

What began as a lockdown hobby in a Cambridge laundry has grown into an exciting small-batch distillery in the Waikato. The story of Cambridge Gin Distillery Co is one of friendship, curiosity, and a shared desire to create something meaningful, rooted in place and community. Co-founders James Coote and Will Rendell first met in 2018 after both moved to Cambridge with their young families.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, James, a Rowing NZ coach and avid food and wine enthusiast, began searching for a lockdown hobby. As he puts it, he was “too poor to buy a vineyard and too old to start in a kitchen.” Gin, however, offered a creative outlet without the long aging process required for whisky or rum.

Will, a banker,  was quick to join in, “It was a bit of a COVID cliché,” he admits, “but it sounded like fun and I was over baking sourdough.”

Their earliest batches were distilled in Will’s laundry. The initial plan was to produce a professional-looking, bottled product for friends and family. But when they looked into the cost of bottles and printing labels, it became clear that buying in bulk was more economical and producing at a slightly larger scale made sense.

Taking a chance, they dropped six bottles into the local Cambridge Wine shop. Within a day, the shop asked for more. Then more again. Within a few days, the pair had sold out of their entire batch. It was an early sign that their hobby had potential as a business.

Scaling up meant investing in better equipment, including a 50-litre still, and committing more time to refining their process. From there, operations shifted to Will’s garage. After a year in the garage, they took another leap, moving into a micro-distillery space on Alpha Street, where they eventually opened a tasting room in early 2024.

“We always wanted to offer an experience,” says James. Inspired by wine tastings he had enjoyed across New Zealand and overseas, they envisioned a space where visitors could connect not just with the product, but with the story behind it.

Today, the distillery operates just behind the tasting room, creating an immersive experience for customers.

Central to their identity is a strong sense of place. Much of their gin’s character comes from locally sourced botanicals – grapefruit from friends’ backyards, lemons from a family orchard, and Douglas fir collected from trees around Lake Te Koo Utu. This commitment to local ingredients gives their gin a distinctly regional flavour profile.

“The fruit has a huge influence on the outcome,” Will explains. “By sourcing locally, we’re creating something that reflects this area.”

Juniper is imported from Mediterranean countries. It is fundamental to gin because, without it, the spirit legally and technically isn’t gin. James explains the defining flavour of gin comes from the berries of the juniper plant, and regulations in most countries require that juniper be the dominant botanical, although there are some ‘newer wave’ gins where juniper is less dominant.

Production remains hands-on and small-scale. Each batch yields around 30 to 36 bottles, all carefully crafted, bottled, and labelled by hand. While they initially fermented their own base spirit, growth has led them to outsource this step to a specialist producer, ensuring consistency and quality. Using their own recipe, the neutral 96.4% proof spirit is made from sugar cane. It is deliberately flavourless, allowing the botanicals to take centre stage.

Their range has expanded to include several distinctive gins. Cambridge Dry offers bright citrus notes with cardamom and grapefruit, while Knocknaveagh 1862 blends traditional and modern influences for a fuller botanical profile. Alpha Street gin, created to mark the opening of their distillery, leans into richer, spiced flavours with hints of star anise and myrrh. They also produce a lighter, less sugary limoncello using their spirit base.

Despite their growth, the operation remains a side venture – for now. James continues his work as a rowing coach, with ambitions tied to the upcoming Olympic campaign in LA, while Will maintains his career in banking. Evenings are spent distilling, bottling, and managing logistics, supported by staff who run the tasting room on weekends. Technology, including sensors and remote monitoring, helps them keep the still running efficiently around their busy schedules.

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Cambridge Distillery Company’s products are now stocked in more than 30 retail outlets and restaurants across New Zealand, and they have earned recognition at national and international spirits awards. For the founders, however, accolades are secondary. “The awards are validation of our product quality,” James says, “but what really matters is the experience and the story.”

The gin market is a crowded place with big companies with large marketing budgets. James and Will think the success of their distillery will remain in telling a good story, and providing a real wrap-around experience.

They’re now looking to invest in two 200-litre stills.  As they expand, they’re still staying true to their original vision: creating gin that balances boldness and refinement, and that holds its character whether sipped neat or mixed in a cocktail.