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Brick-walled hall with a timber-clad box structure, copper-topped counters and a Way Out sign, and a person walking past
HealesvilleYarra ValleyVictoriaAustraliaSpirits

Four Pillars Gin

four PILL-ers · Healesville is HEELS-vil
Gold TierTypically Under $45
Last verified · August 2026

The Free Bacchus Story

The oranges in Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin go into the still whole and fresh, bought from different Australian growers depending on the season. The distillery describes them as biodynamic and organically grown; no certifier lists the growers, so that is its word rather than a register's.

Established in 2013 in the Yarra Valley by Cameron Mackenzie, Matt Jones and Stuart Gregor, it was built on botanical sourcing rather than scale, and it has been wholly owned by the drinks company Lion since 2023. Gin is a useful category for this, because in EU law it has to taste predominantly of juniper: the botanicals cannot be refined away, so the farming behind them arrives in the glass whether or not anyone intended it to.

A bottle of Four Pillars Spiced Negroni Gin on a glass block atop ribbed pedestals, against an orange wall with a round opening

The Rare Dry Gin uses Tasmanian pepperberry alongside juniper, cardamom and lavender, and its owner, Lion, has been a certified B Corp since 2025, a company-wide certification of how the business is run rather than of how anything is farmed. The Bloody Shiraz Gin, made by steeping Yarra Valley Shiraz grapes in gin, is the more idiosyncratic bottle, and the one the distillery calls a cult favourite.

Since 2015 the spent oranges have gone into marmalade, 25,000 jars of it in a single year.

What we take from Four Pillars is that international distribution and sourcing discipline are not in tension. Buying whole fresh fruit all year does not scale easily, and they did it anyway while getting considerably larger.

“Distilling uses a lot of energy, glass and waste, we recognise that.”
Cameron MackenzieCo-founder and distiller, on what gin-making actually costs, 2022 · SmartCompany

Why it’s remarkable

Oranges only
organically grown fruit does not make this a certified organic distillery
Four Pillars says the whole oranges in its Rare Dry Gin are organically grown, but neither the distillery nor the finished gin carries organic certification. Its B Corp status sits with Lion, the parent company, rather than with the distillery on its own. Both distinctions matter if you are buying on the strength of the words.
25,000 jars
of marmalade, made from oranges that had already been used once
Rare Dry Gin is distilled with whole fresh oranges. Since 2015 the spent fruit has gone into marmalade: 25,000 jars in a twelve-month period, on the company’s own count in 2022.
80,000 litres
of fresh water saved by 1,650 metres of copper tube
The 2022 distillery expansion wrapped the building in a copper veil that cools waste water from the stills so it can be reused; the company put the fresh-water saving at 80,000 litres. The building itself uses recycled and upcycled concrete brick.
800kg
of glass a week saved by pouring gin and drinks on tap at the distillery bar
Since the 2022 rebuild, gin runs through copper pipes straight to the bar and tonic comes from kegs; the company put the saving at 800kg of glass a week in 2022. A bottle-refill service, trialled that December, is now permanent.
Verified on documented practice rather than a certificate. Not a compromise on quality — see how we verify.

Free Bacchus Verification

Track B
Verified chemical-free practice, corroborated independently where formal certification is not held.

No organic certification for the distillery or its gins

Verified practice1
  • No organic certification for the distillery or its gins; the distillery describes its oranges as organically grown
Also on record1
  • Owner Lion is a certified B Corp (2025), an ethics certification, not a farming one
Re-confirmed annually against the three conditions for Track B listing. How re-verification works
The producer’s own sitefourpillarsgin.com
Producers don’t pay to be here. There is no fee to be listed and no way to buy a higher tier. If the evidence doesn’t hold, the bottle isn’t here.
Flagship
Rare Dry Gin

If you’re buying

Price
Around US$30–37 for the flagship bottling. Approximate, and it moves with the market.
Drinking now
Rare Dry Gin is the one to start with. It is ready to drink when bottled, and the distillery says an open bottle keeps indefinitely.
Serving
Over plenty of ice with a light tonic and a wedge of orange rather than lime.
Availability
Generally obtainable through specialist retailers.
Tastes like
Bright and citrus-led rather than juniper-heavy — whole oranges go into the still and you can taste them.
Price bands are approximate and move with vintage, market and region. They are a guide, not a quotation.

Cheat sheet

Save it to your phone. Everything you need to recognise this producer, and three things worth saying about it, at a glance in a shop or across a table.

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