India, South Africa, Australia, and many other countries have made a name among adventurous whiskey drinkers eager for unique flavors from different parts of the globe. But there’s one nation whose whiskeys are still virtually unknown, despite being home to dozens of creative, high-quality distilleries: New Zealand.
Though the country’s whiskey industry is still young, it’s thriving. Fueled by New Zealand’s agricultural and natural resources, coupled with a culture of creativity and surprisingly loose laws, distillers are letting their imaginations guide them. The whiskeys they’re creating offer drinkers an exciting, diverse world of flavors to explore, one that’s growing by the day.
A new industry
European colonization brought whiskey to New Zealand in the 19th century. Though some settlers brought distilling traditions with them, especially to the South Island, local Prohibition laws forced their low-quality whiskey production underground. For decades, imported spirits dominated. It wasn’t until the 1970s that New Zealand had its first commercially viable distillery, called Willowbank, which produced the Wilson’s brand.
Though the Willowbank Distillery closed in 1997, some of its whiskey stayed in barrel and was eventually bottled by The New Zealand Whisky Collection in the mid-2000s. This was around the same time that a few new distilleries popped up in the country, with the express goal of making New Zealand whisky a viable global category.
“We were essentially forging a path for a new industry,” says Desiree Reid, founder of Cardrona Distillery on the South Island, which was in development for several years before beginning production in 2015.
“We wanted to put New Zealand on the map as a whisky-producing nation and develop a brand for export,” says Matt Johns, a veteran of the scotch industry and founder of Pokeno on the North Island, which began producing whiskey in 2019. “The domestic market is important, but there are only four and a half million people in New Zealand,” he says — a number that’s too small to support a sizable industry.
Other early and notable players in New Zealand whisky include Thomson Whisky, Waiheke Whisky, and Workshops Whisky, a craft distillery acquired by Scapegrace in 2018, when it was solely a gin producer. Nowadays, there are 16 active whiskey distilleries in the country, and more in development, most of them making single malt.
The challenges of a growing category
The growth of the New Zealand whiskey industry has been energetic, but not without hiccups. Without modern distilleries, New Zealand lacked important infrastructure. “In Scotland, you have coppersmiths, bonded warehouses, cooperages, bottle and cork suppliers, everything [at] your fingertips,” says Johns. “In New Zealand, you have absolutely nothing. We have to be very self-sufficient, which is cool but also challenging.”
Reid wanted to use locally grown barley from the beginning. New Zealand is an agricultural powerhouse, but no one was farming the right strains for whiskey. “There was resistance from seed importers to bring in the varieties we needed, due to the cost,” she says. But she persisted, and since 2021, Cardrona has been using all South Island–grown barley, which goes into its single malts, as well as its vodka, gin, and liqueurs.
Despite the challenges, New Zealand’s startup industry had at least one distinct advantage: The country allows home distilling, as long as the spirits aren’t sold, allowing individuals to experiment on their own before making the leap to commercial production.
“You don’t need a license to distill. You can order a still off Alibaba,” says Tash McGill, a whiskey consultant and writer. “The barrier to entry is very low,” and that, she says, leads to a huge variety in how people are making whiskey.
Unique Kiwi flavors
Many distillers cite New Zealand’s highly diverse geography and climate as key factors in creating their whiskey’s flavor.
The Northland region of New Zealand’s North Island, where Pokeno is located, has a subtropical climate, with warm temperatures and high humidity. These conditions lead to more interaction between whiskey and barrel, yielding mature flavors — which Johns notes as being distinctly fruity — after just a few years.
Sarah Elsom, master distiller, Cardrona Distillery
“We’re doing traditional whisky-making in an extreme environment, and letting that environment speak through the whisky.”
— Sarah Elsom, master distiller, Cardrona Distillery
The South Island, meanwhile, is much cooler and drier, setting up the conditions for longer aging, though individual microclimates matter greatly. In the Cardrona Valley, for example, temperatures drop well below freezing in winter and can get into the 100s during the summer, with wide diurnal swings to boot.
“We’re doing traditional whisky-making in an extreme environment, and letting that environment speak through the whisky,” says Cardrona Distillery master distiller Sarah Elsom.
The water source is another element that impacts how whiskey flavor develops in New Zealand. Pokeno uses iron- and manganese-rich volcanic spring water, while Scapegrace and Cardrona rely on alpine snowmelt from the surrounding mountains and distilling from locally grown barley.
“There’s an underlying sweetness that goes through New Zealand single malts,” says Johns. “I think that’s down to the growing conditions. It’s a lot warmer [than Scotland] and the barley is sweeter.”
Some distilleries age their whiskey in New Zealand wine casks, in particular, Pinot Noir. Cardrona has built relationships with renowned wineries such as Felton Road and Mt Difficulty, giving the distillery access to high-quality casks that are always freshly emptied. Cask aging makes a huge difference to the whiskey, highlighting the wine’s vibrancy even after years of maturation.
Matt Johns, founder of Pokeno on the North Island, New Zealand
“There’s an underlying sweetness that goes through New Zealand single malts. I think that’s down to the growing conditions. It’s a lot warmer [than Scotland] and the barley is sweeter.”
— Matt Johns, founder of Pokeno on the North Island, New Zealand
Perhaps most exciting is the use of native wood, in the form of both smoke and casks. Scapegrace and Thomson use malted barley smoked over manuka wood, a nod to the peat tradition of Scotland that is utterly unique. Mark Neal, marketing director at Scapegrace, which opened a huge new distillery last year, describes the smoke’s flavor as “floral, sweet, naturally complex, and distinct.”
Pokeno, meanwhile, has an in-house cooperage that makes casks out of native wood, including totara, which creates flavors that Johns says are “completely different” from oak. “Creamy coconut, lychee, tropical fruits, sweet spice — it’s the most New Zealand product we could ever make,” he says.
An exciting future
With all the variation in approach and flavor, and given that the industry is so young, it’s next to impossible to generalize about New Zealand whisky. “And that’s a good thing,” says Reid, pointing out that if Scotland, a much smaller country, can support a wide diversity of whisky styles, so too can New Zealand. The nation’s distillers are simply in the nascent stages of forming a cohesive identity, something that scotch has had centuries to figure out. “We have to be ready and open to things evolving,” says Elsom.
What whiskey makers broadly agree on is supporting creativity while upholding quality. They reached an important milestone in this effort in 2021, when Distilled Spirits Aotearoa, a trade group, published voluntary guidelines for New Zealand whisky and New Zealand single malt whisky. The idea, says McGill, who was instrumental in organizing distillers in the effort, was “to provide clarity for both distillers and consumers, to protect and define a premium category for New Zealand whisky going forward. The utopian dream was [to create] a standard and a benchmark, but also allow room for true innovation.”
The guidelines aren’t official in regulatory terms, but mark a crucial step for New Zealand distilleries, especially those that are looking to make their mark abroad, where sticking together can help them compete with other global whiskeys. That attitude of collegiality and collaboration pervades New Zealand’s whiskey industry. It’s perhaps the only common thread that can be identified at this stage. And it’s crucial to both current and future success.
“We’re not big enough to compete on quantity,” says Elsom. “We need to be at the top end of the scale to be recognized internationally. It’s really important that we work together to build a reputation of quality first, so we’ll be taken seriously.”
For whiskey drinkers, this moment offers a rare chance to follow the progression of not just individual distilleries, but an entire industry, from its earliest days. “It’s exciting,” says Neal. “Who knows what will happen in the next five, ten, twenty years? It’ll just be cool to be part of that journey.”
Must-try New Zealand whiskies
Cardrona The Falcon
Food & Wine / Cardrona Distillery
Combining sherry, bourbon, and local Pinot Noir casks, this elegant single malt balances dessert-like sweetness with zesty citrus, spice, and a velvety-lush texture, enriched by bottling at 52% ABV. It’s named for Cardrona’s “mascot,” an endangered karearea that is often spotted around the distillery.
Pokeno Origin
Food & Wine / Pokeno Whiskey
A refreshing, at times delicate whiskey with notes of vanilla, sea salt, jasmine, and lemon, playing softly on the palate at 43% ABV. It’s a solid starting point for exploring the rest of the distillery’s extensive range.
Scapegrace Anthem
Food & Wine / Scapegrace Distillery
Manuka wood smoke lends this whiskey an intriguing pungency, floral and thick, which mingles with sweet malt and hot cinnamon on a silky, medium-bodied palate. The distillery’s other core single malt, Vanguard, is unsmoked, making for a nice comparison between the two.
Dining and Cooking