The Australian Gin Distillers Association has two main activities. Firstly to co-ordinate and manage the Australian Gin Awards coupled with the Australian Gin Marketing Competition and secondly to plan, coordinate and manage large-scale public events featuring members’ products.

Membership: There is no paid membership. Distillers automatically become members when they take part in the Association’s activities.

The Awards: Our aim is to shine a light on the excellence of gin production and for the awards judges to concentrate on one spirit – GIN.
Any Australian and New Zealand gin distillery is eligible to enter their gin. Mikey Enright, Co Founder & Director of the Barrelhouse Group, based in Sydney, will Chair the Australian Gin Awards and there will be 12 senior judges.

The public events: 2019 We launched the Gin Palooza concept with two successful events in Sydney. 2020 despite being surrounded by Covid restrictions we managed to present the Sydney Christmas Gin Palooza to 41 distillers and 1800 gin lovers. In the same year we held the inaugural Canberra Gin Palooza at Pialligo Estate to a crowd of 1000.

These events have all been very successful with the distillers reporting significant sales figures.

2022 – 2023 saw sixteen major public events held in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Hunter Valley, Hobart, Canberra and Auckland.

2024 will see the continuation of these gin festivals with the addition of an extra gin festival in Melbourne’s St Kilda Town Hall.

In 2022 Gin Events Pty Ltd’s CEO Judith Kennedy appointed Kitty Wilson to the senior position of Festivals Executive and Kate Meyer is the Chair and CFO.

CEO Ms Judith Kennedy AM

Founder of the Association of Australian Boutique Winemakers in 1996, Kennedy’s wealth of experience includes having personally managed the Australian and New Zealand Boutique Wine Awards for 22 years and the Six Nations Wine Challenge for 14 years. Judith was awarded the Order of Australia General Merit Medal for 20 years’ service to the wine industry and to children’s health projects. In 2017 Judith founded  the Australian Gin Distillers Association Inc. with the plan to give Australian gin distillers their own system of Awards. She launched Gin Events Pty Ltd in 2021, a company to oversee the management of a strong system of gin festivals reaching across Australia and further afield. These festivals aim to explore marketing opportunities for Australia’s craft distillers at the same time educating drinkers regarding the exciting developments in the world of craft gin production.