Gabriel Fine

The Work Today

In distilling, Gabriel Fine sits in a narrow lane where technical control has to meet the practical demands of making spirits that move from grain to glass. As co-owner and chemical engineer behind Primal Spirits Distillery in Johannesburg, South Africa, he brings a laboratory-trained discipline to a process that still depends on timing, judgment, and restraint. One of the specialties tied to his work is kosher gin, which signals a practice built around precision as much as intent. The academic track through Redhill, the University of Cape Town, and Imperial College London forms the base of that practice. Those years did not pull Gabriel Fine away from ingredients, process, or formulation; they strengthened the habits that distilling asks for: measuring, building, and refining. Since 2025, he has been co-founder of Primal Spirits Distillery, where chemistry and spirit-making operate in the same room, and where technical fluency shows up in flavor, texture, and balance.

Signature

Gabriel's signature wines include Applewood Gin and Primal Lemon Tonic (PLT). In trade terms, they read as evidence of a style that is clean, exact, and controlled without being flat. Applewood Gin points to a profile with a measured aromatic edge, while Primal Lemon Tonic (PLT) suggests brightness and lift. Both sit inside Primal Spirits Distillery’s grain-to-glass framework, where the finished bottle carries the logic of its process.

In Their Words “We didn’t have the capital to start this thing on our own.” That line is plainspoken, and it frames the business side of the distillery without dressing it up. It points to a build carried by resourcefulness and tight management rather than excess. Read alongside Fine’s role, it matches the way the work is described: pragmatic, technically grounded, and made to function.

Acclaim

Chemical engineering is the credential that defines Gabriel Fine’s entry into distilling. He has brought that training into the work itself, rather than leaving it in a separate lane. The specialty most closely attached to his name is kosher gin, which has become the clearest shorthand for his work and how it is recognized.