Niche found with still skill

TUCKED away in Gerringong"s old dairy, Christine Anderson and Ian Fields are producing 20,000 bottles a month of the Illawarra"s own vodka.

The couple set up the Australian Spirits Distillery about 18 months ago and have just received a NSW Government grant that aims to help out regionally based businesses.

They produce 151 East vodka, which is sold along the coast between West Sydney and Mollymook.

They will have a corn-grain whiskey, called Gun Alley, for sale in about seven weeks.

The vodka"s name comes from the longitude of the Illawarra.

"Australia has the best grains and we can make everything so well but we haven"t had a world class, Australian-made vodka or whiskey before," Ms Anderson said.

"We"ve had a really good response to the products and wonderful local support from Gerringong."

Mr Fields said the couple managed to spend at least 30 hours each working in the distillery, even though they both have full-time jobs.

Ms Anderson said their children helped out occasionally with the bottling.

"We"ve got a few local employees coming in and we also have sales reps, but it"s mainly just the two of us," said Mr Fields, adding they would probably use some of the grant money to employ more local people.

The couple agreed their main goal for the business was to start exporting.

With this in mind, they are hosting an Asian cohort in early April will look at taking on the export of their products. On the day the Independent went to the distillery, there was a Rotary friendship exchange group from the US and Canada looking over the handmade copper stills and discussing how they could help the couple get into the US market.

Other plans include doubling capacity within the next financial year and promoting tours of the distillery.

The company slogan is "Our coast, our vodka" and the couple is obviously passionate about promoting the region as well as their products.