Margaret River distiller + winemaker join all-female festival

"I find I’m potentially more warmly received by our customer base being a young female in the industry," Ms Lovis said. "The most common phrase I hear is ‘wow, how amazing you get to do this for your job!’. 

"I also like that I can communicate to the younger generation to let them know that there are so many more career paths available than what you may think.

"I do genuinely find that Margaret River is a very progressive place and being a female producer isn’t anything out of the ordinary here.

Together with Jo Perry from Dormilona Wines, Katie will be flying the flag for women at Australia's first drinks festival with an all female lineup - winemakers, distillers and brewers - in Sydney International Women's Day festival March 8-9. 

Ms Perry drew her inspiration for her winemaking career from her early days spent with her grandfather, head brewer at Swan Brewery.

"He taught me how to ferment. He also sent me to do a vintage as my school work experience at the age of 14 and to be honest I never looked at anything else as I loved it," she told the Mail.

While the physical differences between men and women are a reality in any industry, Ms Perry said she gave plenty of her male counterparts a run for their money on dig out competitions. "A balanced work place is a happy work place," she said.

For Lovis, the role of distiller came about after many years in the hospitality industry. 

"I still have a lot to learn, and I’m happy to have a supportive environment. It has been a new and exciting challenge and I hope to continue moving forward in my role," she said. 

"I first started in production and was mainly focused on bottling and packing. I worked up to be a full time production assistant and Giniversity class instructor. "I now operate all gin production from our Margaret River facility with the full support and guidance of our owner and master distiller Cameron Syme."

She said women, and every other person in the industry brought great contributions to the table. "Every single person is going to bring something to the table and that’s what I love about the gin industry; It is so varied and unique it requires an array of personalities to make it work.

"Our larger company operates from 5 different locations, and it runs thanks to the efforts of a wide variety of people, men and women, from a range of backgrounds and cultures. I believe our success shows what can be achieved when you truly value diversity."