The winning Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin.

Australian gin distillery Four Pillars has been awarded a Double Gold medal for the second time at one of the world's most competitive spirits competitions. The Victoria-based business learned it had achieved Double Gold status at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition on Tuesday morning after first earning the medal in 2014.

Double Gold at the World Spirits Competition is awarded to a spirit that receives a gold medal from every judge in its the class. The competition is in its 16th year and spirits are blind-judged by a panel of experts. Four Pillars Rare Dry is the only Australian gin to achieve Double Gold in 2016.

From left to right: Four Pillars co-founders Stu Gregor, Cam MacKenzie and Matt Jones. Photo: Anson Smart

"It's unreal," says Stuart Gregor, who co-founded Four Pillars with chief distiller Cameron MacKenzie and branding guru Matt Jones in 2013. "Not to quote Oscar Wilde, but to do one was good fortune and to do two was something kind of remarkable.

"We were not even four months old when we won the first Double Gold and now, to be at the ancient age of two-and-a-half years, to have done it again proves that we're on the right track. Especially because we've done it with our main product that we put all the attention on."

Four Pillars Rare Dry is nationally available at major and independent bottle shops for a recommended retail price of $75. The win comes at an ideal time for the Healesville distillery which starts shipping product to the US for the first time in April.

A tasting flight of Four Pillars gins at the distillery and tasting room in Healesville. Photo: Supplied

Full competition results won't be released until April 4. The other winners and exact size of the category are under wraps until then, however Gregor estimates more than 150 gins were entered in the competition. "When we entered in 2014, there were 92 gins in the class and we suspect it would be a lot more than that now given the rapid growth in the industry," he says.

"Gin is in the middle of a spectacular renaissance worldwide. People are rediscovering it's the great white spirit. In Australia now, there are about a dozen fantastic gin distilleries and to take out Double Gold twice at San Francisco is a massive statement for Aussie gin."