But now the No8 Distillery has put on its big boy pants and moved to its own much larger premises in Hanover St.
It would soon have a new 300-litre still named Jacquie to respond to domestic demand and also to increase production for export to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany where discussions had started with distributors.
The move allowed No8 to quadruple production and respond to high volume orders and for Mr Delavoie to have a bigger space in which to work.
Most importantly, Mr Delavoie said it allowed No8 to offer a fully immersive experience for the public with tours, a bar and bottle shop.
The distillery was established during the first Covid-19 lockdown. Back then, it was believed to be the first distillery to open in the city since the Willowbank Distillery auctioned off its last whisky barrel in 1997.
It had the novelty factor; Mr Delavoie distilling spirits in the window of the Moray Pl cafe and bar from a shiny copper still called Therese, named in honour of his grandmother.
Its legacy dated back over four generations, drawing on family recipes and the collaboration between a Frenchman with an extensive background in the hospitality industry and a teetotal New Zealander with a passion for flavours.
Mr Delavoie’s distillation experience included making rum, calvados and cider with his grandparents in Normandy. He also spent 18 years as a chef and pastry chef. Michael Wilson brought his flavour extraction expertise from a 15 year background in coffee roasting and brewing, and bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturing.
The name No8 Distillery was a tribute to the pair’s Kiwi ingenuity and drive to "make things happen".
As well as making spirits and liqueurs, the pair had undertaken all the design work, construction and distilling. They were constantly tinkering, coming up with new and, occasionally, better ways of extracting flavours from plants, and running the business.
They had a sustainability programme and a zero waste target.
All organic products were given to farmers for compost. Leftover citrus was juiced or dehydrated.
Every Saturday, No8 was at the Otago Farmers Market, selling its spirits, and it also worked with producers to use leftover stone fruit or berries, that would otherwise be binned, to make liqueur or alcohol. Mr Delavoie foraged for botanics in Dunedin and Central Otago as he tried to source locally for its products.
Last year, No8 won three medals at the London Spirits Competition. Horopito Fire and Dunners Dry were both awarded silver medals and Hibiscus received a bronze medal.
In this year’s World Gin Awards, No8 won the Best in Country award in the Contemporary Style Gin category for its No8 Horopito Gin, also gaining a bronze for its Dunners Gin.
Mr Delavoie was particularly interested in feedback, saying original recipes could be tweaked to improve them.
"Life is a perpetual learning time and when I started the Horopito Gin six years ago, I’m not deeply infused in gin yet to notice that.
"The difference between the Horopito Gin [that] won in London versus Horopito won at the World best gin, comes from the oranges which is now a mix of navel and tangelo from Gisborne and horopito is a new bush variety that comes from the hill.
"Being the new contemporary country winner at the World Best gin award for our Horopito Gin and also having bronze for our Dunners Dry, was a great surprise and recognition but validated my tweak change."
Mr Delavoie has a colourful way of describing the Horopito Gin: "On the nosing you are blinded by a flash-bang of orange, cardamom and a hint of cordite. When tasting, the gin bursts through your trap peppering you with sustained, accurate heat that gives way to a body of cardamom and cinnamon. As it walks away from you, the little bugger fires off a parting shot of pepper. The finish has a zesty orange citrus and the sweet smell of victory."
As well as three distinctive gins, No8 also has a limoncello, elderflower liqueur, pineapple rum elixir, ouzo and an absinthe from a family recipe dating back to 1926.
Coming this year was a new gin, Otago cherry liqueur and vodka. The long-term project was aged rum and calvados.
Having a distillery was fun but No8 also wanted to offer the public "a fully deep experience and journey in the heart of [it]", Mr Delavoie said.
The distillery, bar and retail area would be open from Tuesday to Thursday, and Friday and Saturday. There would be tours and tastings, cocktail workshops and a tour called — Be a Forager to Be a Distiller — had also started.
Small groups would join Mr Delavoie to do a small hike to discover the native plants that could be foraged, returning to the distillery to design their own spirits. Various workshops would also be held.
The next step would be for customers to create their own spirits with supervision. Also, a PledgeMe crowdfunding campaign was planned to raise capital for six distillation stations and a five-litre copper pot still.
