Central Coast distillery wins gold medal for its gin; giving it international recognition

Dec 16, 2023

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"This medal sets the standards for the industry. It means this gin is objectively one of the best gin's in the world," Fog's End Distillery co-owners Henry and Steven Wales said.

Fog's End Distillery in Gonzales, winning the first gold medal for their 17 Mile Gin, from one of the most prestigious international spirit contests — the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

"It's been extremely validating. We put a lot of ourselves into this," Steven said. "Winning that award means everything," Henry said.

The success for cousins Steven and Henry Wales started in 2020 when they bought the company from Craig Pakish, who founded the company in 2008 after retiring from the Monterey County Sheriff's Office.

"Craig's background isn't in the spirits business, but you don't stay in business for as long as he did without doing something right," Steven said. "A lot of our products, we try to carry that legacy." Including continuing to make and sell Pakish's award-winning Monterey Rye Whiskey.

The cousins then began adding their own recipes to the mix with their Whaler's Cove Rum and 17 Mile Gin.

"We didn't see any gins that we personally like, so we wanted to make something that we could enjoy. It's not just for mixing. You can actually drink it straight," Henry said.

"It's California-grown, produced, and sourced ingredients. It is 100% California in that bottle," Steven said.

Their process for creating the spirits: long days, hours pumping ingredients through the still, waiting for the right temperature, and keeping a detailed log.

"All trial and error, guess and check," Henry said. "So I'll take for the gin, for example, we took like 30 ingredients. I distilled everyone by itself, and then we tasted it, blended each ingredient together in different ratios, to finally come up with our final recipe."

They say it takes about a year to come up with the recipe, but only takes about a week to produce it, pumping out about 240 bottles a batch. With two out of their three bottles now gold medal winners, Steven and Henry hope their efforts to set them apart in the spirit industry continue to be recognized by all who enjoy their product.

"Most people want wine, most people want beer, and spirits are considered more of an aggressive or macho kind of thing. We're trying to show with our products that there is some delicacy to be had there. Take the time to slow down and actually enjoy it and think about what it is that they're mindfully drinking," Steven said.

You can find Fog's End Distillery spirits on shelves in about 200 stores all over the Central Coast.