Pōkeno Whisky Company

Pōkeno Whisky Company is the passion project of Matt and Céline Johns, who founded the distillery in 2017 with a dream of putting Aotearoa New Zealand on the whisky region map and producing some of the world's best single malt. This dream has become reality; it could be said that New Zealand Whisky is becoming the new Tasmanian Whisky.

Originally from the UK, Matt's whisky career kicked off in 1999 and saw him working at a couple of Club-favourite distilleries; Tullibardine and Glenmorangie. He brought his experience to The Land of the Long White Cloud and found the perfect location for the distillery, just south of Auckland in the small town of Pōkeno. As craft distillers, Matt and the Pōkeno crew are able to focus on quality over quantity, on doing things their way, not the easy way.

Set in a warm yet often misty valley, under volcanic hills that are home to the springs from which they (as well as Pure NZ Water, which is right across the road) get their water, Pōkeno is the perfect location for a distillery.

Laureate barley is sourced from three family-owned farms in the South Island's Canterbury region. The fertile soils of these farms produce premium barley, and the Pōkeno team work closely with the farmers to ensure its ongoing quality.

Head Distiller Rohan McGowan doesn't rush anything, taking his time with a long fermentation time of 72 to 80 hours to extract everything he can from the barley, and then double distils it incredibly slowly, maximising copper contact through the process to refine the profile and ensure that only the purest spirit is taken for maturation. 

The result? A front-ended, clean spirit with massive amounts of tropical fruits, and a viscous malty biscuit base.

The distillery itself is state-of-the-art, featuring four 3,000L stainless steel fermenters, a Scottish-made 4,000L wash still and 3,800L spirit still with an upwards-tilted swan neck, to help create a light and fruity whisky. Pōkeno is the largest whisky distillery in New Zealand, but even with its 100,000L per annum capacity only produces about a week's output from a typical Scottish distillery.

The spirit is laid up in ex-Bourbon casks from Jack Daniels, as well as a variety of Sherry and New Zealand red wine casks. The distillery also has the luxury of an in-house cooperage.

All of this allows Pōkeno to create single malt whisky with exceptional body and flavour; whisky that captures the pure spirit of New Zealand.