For immediate release: 1 April 2011

Wanaka based Broken Shed Vodka Wins Silver Medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition

Naturally smooth premium vodka from New Zealand gets boost from prestigious spirits competition.

Broken Shed Vodka, a recently launched premium vodka from Wanaka, New Zealand, announced it won a Silver Medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, widely regarded as the leading international spirits contest, held its 11th annual competition on March 20th 2011 in San Francisco. It was their largest competition in history with a record number of entries where 1106 products from 61 countries were evaluated by 33 leading judges from the spirits industry.

Founded in early 2010 and first bottled in December 2010, Broken Shed has just started presenting its offering to leading cocktail establishments and outlets in New Zealand. Broken Shed is a naturally smooth vodka that is crafted without including any additives or sugars.

“We knew it was good and we have been getting such a positive response from our customers, but it feels great to get such a strong result from an important competition,” said Mark Simmonds, Co-Founder and chief crafter of Broken Shed. “Based in Wanaka, we make our vodka in a relatively remote area, and we have only been presenting it to select outlets in New Zealand; so honestly we were very curious how we would fare against so many leading brands in the industry. We couldn’t be happier.”

The founders of Broken Shed starting making vodka in an old shed in Wanaka. They still use the Shed for events and offices, but have moved production to a facility in Central Otago. They tested over ten different water sources from all over New Zealand and also tested four different types of spirit. They also refined a number of processing and filtering techniques to make the vodka very smooth, yet without the traditional additives that many types of vodkas have to add to mask their harshness.

“We are proud to have all New Zealand based ingredients in our vodka. We use water from the Southern Alps and our spirit is the highest grade available made from whey,” said Co-Founder Mark O’Brien. “We spent a lot of time evaluating water and spirit sources and working on our blending techniques, so to get recognised by the San Francisco World Spirits Competition is outstanding for us.”

Asked about the longer term strategy for Broken Shed, Mark O’Brien responded,

“We intend to slowly build Broken Shed as a premium vodka brand. We are taking a long term approach to our brand development and market penetration. We certainly plan to export to larger markets in the future, but right now we are focused on supporting our New Zealand launch.”

For immediate release: 4 August 2011

Broken Shed Vodka Wins Silver Award in the 2011 International Wine and Spirits Competition

Wanaka-Based Premium Vodka gains Second Prestigious Medal in Spirits Competition.

Broken Shed Vodka is delighted to announce that they have won a silver award in the 2011 International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC). Founded in 1969, the IWSC is considered to be the oldest and most prestigious competition of its kind in the world. The awards given by the competition are believed to be among some of the highest honours in the industry. Judging includes a blind tasting consisting of panels selected from over 300 fully experienced and qualified industry judges followed by a detailed chemical analysis.

Broken Shed is a naturally smooth vodka that is crafted without including any additives or sugars. Based in Wanaka and still within its first year of production, Broken Shed has gained a strong following with leading cocktail establishments and spirit retailers in New Zealand.

"We have worked hard to make our vodka naturally smooth without any additives or sweeteners, so to win another award is very exciting for us," said Mark Simmonds, co-founder and chief crafter of Broken Shed. "It is a crowded vodka market, so achieving another important award supports our customers in continuing to make Broken Shed Vodka a leader in New Zealand."

Broken Shed Vodka has all New Zealand-based ingredients. The alcohol is distilled from New Zealand whey to the highest standard and then craft blended with spring water from Central Otago.

"Winning our second award within our first year feels great. Early this year we won a silver medal in the San Francisco World Spirits competition, and now this silver in the IWSC should add to our momentum," said co-founder Mark O'Brien. "We still judge ourselves based on the positive response from customers in New Zealand, but it is nice to get international recognition from the leading spirit competitions."

Asked about export opportunities for Broken Shed, O'Brien responded, "While we do not want to take our eye off the ball for the New Zealand market, we have received strong interest for exporting Broken Shed. We are expanding our employee base to tackle some export interest while remaining focused on our local markets."