Kiwi Spirit Distillery

Drew H (00:00):
A special note to whiskey lore Patreon members that you can hear this episode with an extended interview@whiskeylord.com slash patreon. And if you're not a Patreon member, feel free to check it out using a seven day free trial. That's whiskey lore.com/patreon. Welcome to Whiskey Lore's Whiskey Flights, your weekly home for discovering great craft distillery experiences around the globe. I'm your travel guide Drew Hannush, the bestselling author of experiencing Irish Whiskey and experiencing Kentucky Bourbon and also the brand new whiskey myth busting book, whiskey lore Volume one available this week at your favorite bookseller, and today we're going to be flying virtually from Tasmania to Golden Bay and New Zealand for our next distillery destination. And a trip like this between two off the beat and path locations does require a little bit of pre-planning and introspection. On the planning side, just like Australia requires more than just a visa, you need an ETA, which is an electronic travel authorization.

(01:14):
Well, New Zealand is the same and theirs is the N-Z-E-T-A, which costs about 12 New Zealand dollars. And then you also have to pay for what is called the IVL, which is the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy. That's going to be around 35 New Zealand dollars. And if that sounds like you're spending a lot of money, well in US dollars, both those together are going to be about 25 bucks. You can download the N-Z-E-T-A mobile app and take care of all of that right there and make sure you do it at least three days before you fly into New Zealand. As for introspection, well, the question is how much do you want to drive? Because New Zealand doesn't necessarily look that big on a map, but it's bigger than you think. I of course love driving. I'm going to go to all 48 states next year, and I am so excited about doing that, but not a lot of people like being on the road a lot, so you're going to have to be choosy on which airport you go to as to how close you're going to get to the distillery.

(02:26):
The town of Nelson is only two hours away from Kiwi Spirit. The distillery we will be visiting coming from Heller's Road Distillery in Tasmania. Basically it's a flight to Melbourne, then Christchurch, then you can fly into Nelson and then you can rent a car from there. Or if you're a driver like me, then you might rent a car in Christchurch, skit the extra flight. I'm not a big fan of a lot of the layovers and then drive the six hours from Christchurch up through some beautiful country. One thing to keep in mind in doing this kind of travel also is that you got to be very cognizant of the fact that there aren't a ton of hotels on these roadways. Americans are very spoiled at having a hotel at every exit. This is not going to be the case here. You're going to drive for a long period of time before you bump into a place that you can stay. I like to stay in B and Bs, so those take some extra planning ahead of time, reserving your spot hotels, you're going to find some along the way, but again, I would probably get reservations just to be safe and as I get close to our destination and turn off of Highway 60 to make the last couple of turns into Kiwi spirit, let's take a moment to learn a little bit more about this beautiful area. I'm in Golden Bay, New Zealand.

(03:50):
Get your rental car or camper van rented. Get ready to see some of the most incredible landscapes, waters and beaches in the world. Tucked away in the northwest corner of the south island of New Zealand, golden Bay is a paradise that offers a slice of kiwi life like no other. To start your adventure book a tour of the farewell spit, the longest in New Zealand where you can walk miles of pristine beaches, spot rare birds and seals in their natural habitat, and enjoy the panoramic views of season sands from the lighthouse tours. Leave from Collingwood about 30 minutes from the distillery. Make sure you have reservations. Just a 15 minute drive away from Kiwi Spirit, you'll find another stunning natural wonder. The Tera Poo springs home of some of the clearest freshwater in the world revered by both scientists and the indigenous Maori people for its purity and spiritual significance. Golden Bay is also the gateway to Abel Tasman National Park, home to golden beaches, turquoise waters and stunning coastal walking trails. And along the way, you might encounter first seals lounging on the rocks or even dolphins, cutting through the waves and enjoy some of the local kiwi culture by enjoying a hungry meal, which is food prepared in an earth and barbecue pit. There's plenty to do and see if you're in Golden Bay, but just remember the seasons are opposite in the southern hemisphere. So plan your warm weather getaway between November and February.

(05:35):
Well, for most of us in the northern hemisphere, getting to New Zealand is quite a jaunt and probably something we're only going to do once in a lifetime. There are a lot of distilleries according to Jeremy Knight, the man we're going to be talking to here at Kiwi Spirit, 185 or so, and a lot of them are just really small distilleries. We're going to learn a little bit more about the history of distilling in New Zealand and we're going to learn some about the seller door, which is the bar that Jeremy manages. Jeremy is the son of Terry Knight who is the founder of Kiwi Spirit who unfortunately passed away not too long ago, but his spirit remains and they're doing some amazing things working with gins, vodkas, laurs, and using honey barrels for their whiskey. So we're going to jump into all of that and also an eyeopening spirit for me, something called Quiana. So let's find out more about Kiwi spirit by talking with Jeremy. And I want to get started off by kind of talking about that history of whiskey in New Zealand.

Jeremy (06:51):
So New Zealand is one of the oldest whiskey producing nations in the world. So when we were first being settled, we had a huge amount of both Scottish and Irish immigrants come here. And I believe that we are classed officially as the third oldest whiskey producing nation in the world. Wow. And I was chatting with a friend earlier this morning and he was saying that New Zealand had the third 30-year-old whiskey release, and that was from one of the Southland distilleries called Willow

Drew H (07:21):
Bank. So how did you guys get involved in creating whiskey gin? I mean, you've got quite a bit of spirits there behind you.

Jeremy (07:31):
We originally were a metery to start with, so we were doing a method traditional sparkling honey wine, and then we had a mite come into New Zealand called Varroa Mite, and it just completely decimated the honey industry. You could no longer get organic honey anymore. It was just an issue. Plus this is in 2002 and we were just a little bit before our time I guess, in terms of producing that method, traditional sparkling honey wine. We ended up doing a still honey wine and then we ended up doing some schnoes and leurs laas utilizing all the local fruit. So in the area we are in, one of the food baskets of New Zealand and a tremendously massive amount of orchards are here. This region was settled by pretty much a bunch of hippies and farmers

(08:22):
And what they ended up producing was just the most beautiful organic fruit and over the years people started to just get older, they left their land, they couldn't look after them, so they had these huge orchards that just weren't being utilized. And so we kind of took on that European local village distillery aspect and started just asking go, Hey, can we come in and pick all the fruit? It's just dropping on the ground, we don't like to see that. And it started to make different schnucks Laurs started experimenting with spirits a little bit. Then eventually after that chose to start getting into whiskeys around that 2008, 2010 side of things. And then after a while started getting into the te kiwi as well as gins and vodkas and other bits and pieces too. So we've done things very backwards to a lot of places. It will start with a gin and then finish with a whiskey, whereas we more started with whiskey and have finished with gin.

Drew H (09:19):
So did you already have this property that you're on because you've got gardens there and you're growing things on site? As I understand

Jeremy (09:27):
This is the third property that we've been on. So we were originally in a valley called Poo Valley, which is PUP, which is the valley leading up to kuru poo springs, which is classed as the clearest freshwater springs in the world. It's got a visibility of about 77 meters. So the water there is amazing, and that's the same water that runs all through Golden Bay. So we started there. That was in an old garden shed because in New Zealand it's totally legal to brew your own spirits and brew your own alcohol at home. There's no laws against that.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
And

Jeremy (10:06):
So we were there for about five, six years and then we moved into an old engineering factory in town and town is a subjective word, it's one street. And we were there for about 12 years. That's when we started to produce the bulk of what we were doing and started to get a really good idea and a really good grasp on things. And then about eight, nine years ago, we sold that business with a bunch of stock and a few other bits and pieces so we could purchase this property out where we are now. And because we're using this to grow all of the agave as well as a bunch of the other herbs and ingredients that we use for us spirits.

Drew H (10:45):
The thing that threw me off was when I started reading about your tequila. So talk about how that came about because of course I do history research and have gone into this. You can make tequila in Mexico, you can't make it anywhere else kind of thing. And we don't think of tequila. I mean in the US we call it agave. So is that kind of the direction that you guys have to go with it?

Jeremy (11:11):
Yeah, so obviously with bourbon and champagne and various other things, we are not allowed to refer to it as tequila, so that's a really big no-no. From my side of things, you can call it tequila. I can't.

(11:22):
So ours is called Te Kiwi because with a lot of those trademarks, you're not allowed to make up words, you're not allowed to change spelling or anything like that. So we've gone with a little bit of Tere, which is the local Maori language and called it Te Kiwi, which just means the New Zealander, the quite a journey that this has been under. It started in the eighties, so the seeds were acquired from a French seed collection in the eighties brought to New Zealand. Now it's totally illegal to do that because New Zealand's joined up to a thing called the CES agreement,

(12:01):
Which is a big international trade deal which limits the importation and exportation of certain plants and animals and things like that. It'd kind of be sending tigers around, you can do it, but you need a lot of money and a lot of influence to be able to send that sort of stuff. So we were lucky and we got in about four or five years before New Zealand signed up to that law and they started being planted up in one of the valleys because of where we are. There's little microclimates in each valley and things grow amazingly well here. After eight, nine years, I think it was actually a little bit longer, it was probably closer to 20, we ended up doing our first harvest with the plants that we put. And what resulted from that was amazing. It is a really unique, really, really lovely spirit.

(12:48):
We have a saying in New Zealand, it's kind of like a number eight wire attitude and it's because we've always been a little bit rural. And number eight wire is a thickness of fencing wire and it's generally used that you can make or you can fix with a little piece of wire alone. So because we are in New Zealand, we had to self-teach ourselves, we had to learn ourselves, we had to study, we had to do everything. So we built our own oven for cooking those. We pressed them originally through a old hand press washing machine instead of using a Tahoe wheel, which is a very different side of things. And I surmise with this, I don't know, but I like to say the flavor that's came out of our agave spirit is unparalleled beautiful. It is soft, it's clean. The agave notes, it's come through beautifully.

(13:44):
And I think yet again, as I say, I surmise, it's kind of like using an extra virgin olive press as opposed to a regular olive oil. And I'm not diminishing what other, I'm just saying that when it's going through that hand press, you're not getting the same amount of pressure, so you're just getting the juices that want to come out of the plant instead of squeezing everything out of 'em. So the flavors are lovely, soft, a little bit fruity, but in terms of growing the plant, prickly bastards, they are really, really hard to grow. A lot of people always ask, obviously they grow in Mexico, a lot of people think that Mexico is just desert and it's obviously not. And so they're always wondering, it grows here. We have a higher rainfall, we have all of these things. And our main answer to that is just because it grows there doesn't mean it can't grow elsewhere. So where they grow really, really well here, the trimming process, everything, we don't look after them as tightly as possibly we could or should or what they had traditionally done over in Mexico and we let nature kind of take its course. They're very much so like a semi wild plant once they are in, there's a lot of self-care involved with that themselves and we don't like going through there. I personally have had those spikes go through the, I dunno what the part's called, the fleshy piece between your thumb and fingers

(15:13):
And one of our gardeners has had the spikes go straight through his fingers before. So we always treat them with a lot of respect. Yes,

Drew H (15:20):
Oh my. What have you gotten yourself into? Right,

Jeremy (15:24):
Exactly. I did segue a little bit there as well, and I apologize. After we grew them in that initial plantation, we took a lot of the pups and everything and took them out to where we currently are and started our next ones here. So obviously it's an eight to 10 year process normally with those plants. So we are getting up to one of our next harvests probably next year, which we're really excited about and we've upgraded a lot of our systems. We've got a Tahoe wheel being built using some of the local black marble, which is a little bit different. So we tried to keep everything as close to home as possible for this stuff. And we've tried to really stick with the handcrafted nature of the product we've sourced. Our bottles are all hand blowing bottles from local glass blowers. The boxes are all handmade. Everything is a local local product for that.

Drew H (16:16):
Very nice. That was originally a winery.

Jeremy (16:19):
Yes, yes it was. So Golden Bay has a huge amount of history in the alcohol industry in New Zealand. So I think we had the second winery in New Zealand was here and it was lit not on this property but on our neighboring property. And then where we are now, used to be a sparkling winery, used to be called Petros, and it was a beautiful, beautiful wine was produced here because it's all on gently sloped alluvial soil and it is just perfect for growing grapes. Really, really hot, really good draining. It is amazing grape growing environment here and constantly also great for growing agave because those roots won't get waterlogged, which is the main problem we need to watch out for.

Drew H (17:06):
Has that kind of caused you to, are you growing grapes still on site or has it caused you to find things to grow there that would work perfectly in that kind of climate?

Jeremy (17:20):
We are not growing grapes anymore. There's a rule in New Zealand, so whenever you're growing a big commercial crop of something, pretty much if you stop producing with it and stop looking after it, you have to take the crop out because it increases the chances of different bugs and viruses and things like that getting hold. So we used to have two rows of the grapes still around, but I came in one morning about five years ago and the gardener had taken them all out because they didn't like seeded grapes. So one of those things. But we are growing, we've got an orchard with maybe about 20 peach trees. We've got about 30 lemon trees, little citrus grove on the property as well. But mainly most of it will be for planting out the agave here, but we are growing as many ingredients as we can that go into our gins and laurs and other bits and pieces.

Drew H (18:15):
So has your bee population come back?

Jeremy (18:17):
Yes, yes, yes it has. So we used to own about 800 beehives, but it was a few years ago, so please forgive me if my information's not a hundred percent on point here. So to get rid of that varoma, you still check for that. And if you find varoma in your hives, you have to burn your hive, you have to kill the whole lot. So you get a little tiny strip and your bees walk over that when they enter the hive and that pretty much cleans them, I dunno, the full science behind it, but that makes sure that no varroa is entering the hives or at least increases the chances of no varroa entering those hives. So the bee population here has come through beautifully and it's a thriving industry here.

Drew H (18:58):
So are you back to making meat again?

Jeremy (19:01):
Yes and no. So we're upgrading some of our facilities at the moment so we can start producing some more larger batches and start to get down that category side of things. It was one of my absolute favorite drinks.

(19:15):
What New Zealand has that makes it really unique for honey wines is because we've got some poisonous plants here. And then because obviously Manuka is such a prized honey, a lot of the beekeepers will test all the pollens and their honey. Every single harvest, every hive will have it all tested out. So you can pick and choose which honeys you're going to be using. And I know in the states, obviously you take things to a blueberry orchard, you'll get a blueberry flavored honey and so forth and so forth. But we can specifically choose the different parts of the forest and different styles. So we've got a tree here called Arata and it produces the most beautiful, delicious honey you'll come across. It's not sweet and it's buttery and lovely. And so we used to make a lot of our mead using the Ter honey as well as another local tree called Karma, and that is also an outstandingly delicious honey. So you're not getting something that's sweet and full bodied and sugary and intense. You're getting a really dry mead. So I'm really looking forward to starting and playing around with some of those local honeys again.

Drew H (20:23):
So there is a mead connection with your whiskey, as I understand

Jeremy (20:28):
It's a little bit of a story, so I apologize if I do segue halfway through this story, but what we do is we start with a virgin cask. We use Bulgarian oak barrels for them as opposed to your more traditional American or your French oak. The Bulgarian barrels are amazing. Absolutely. They're kind of like a cross between your European and American. They've really beautiful. You were mentioned before, caramels, vanillas a little bit of kind of toaster coconut tones coming through. And then you also have these really beautiful spice aspects that your European oaks a little bit better known for and they go stunningly with the mead. So what we do is we start with that virgin cask. We make our own Manuka honey mead that goes into the barrel for a year and that's what primes our barrels. So it's not a huge amount of that flavor going in, but it's still a decent bit.

(21:20):
And because it's manuka, it's not a sweet honey, it's this bitter kind of floral medicinal style of flavor. So you're not adding huge amounts of sweetness to the barrel, but you're adding more of a complexity of flavors. So after that one year of the mead being in the barrel, then it comes out of that barrel and it goes into the next barrel. So it's your Solaris system where the honey wine just keeps rotating through the different barrels, and that's just a honey wine that is specifically made for the barrel maturation. After that, then the whiskey goes in while the barrel's still wet and sits in there for a minimum of eight years. And over the time we get some really hot summers, the winter's here aren't so cold. So you get a really, really good absorption rate, I guess into the oak and some really outstanding flavors coming back into it because you're not getting that Cold Ages really well the entire way and it's literally just sitting in the warehouse behind us, which is effectively a giant big tin shed. So I know that a lot of the distilleries in New Zealand don't have the same barrel room technology, I guess you could say, as some of the larger distilleries in the world where they're a little bit more temperature controlled and looked after a bit more. There was one thing I wanted to touch on, if that's okay, is why we use the honey wine in our barrels. Yeah, sweet.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah,

Jeremy (22:41):
So there's a little bit of surmising in this because a lot of the history just doesn't exist anymore, so there's a little bit of guesswork involved. Whiskey originally was obviously made over in Ireland to start with, but this is before the word whiskey came about. And so that knowledge of distillation came when the Irish monks were bringing religion over towards the Middle East and they learned that knowledge of perfume production distillation, and they ended up bringing that back into Ireland at the time. And what Ireland had back then is they had a molted Bali beer and they had a honey mead. So Honey Mead was the national drink of Ireland back then. And what ended up happening is, so for instance, hops is a very new addition to beer. It's not been in beer for thousands of years. It was never really the main ingredient. And the reason we use hops is because it's got antibacterial properties

(23:37):
And it makes beer last longer. So that's why you've got your APAs and your IPAs and things like that because you'd add extra hops for those journeys. But beer used to go off really, really fast. So once they had learned to make these new spirits and they'd learned that knowledge of distillation, you've got to store your new found products. So you've got three options to store it in. You've either got a brand new barrel, you've got a really beautiful sweet honey wine barrel, which would've been worth a fortune back then because sugar wasn't really around or you've got a half rotten beer barrel now, probably not going to use a half rotten beer barrel, might use the new barrel, but also might end up using that honey wine barrel as well. You've got some of the first whiskeys out there have had a honey aspect.

(24:26):
You can look at Drambuie as a really good example, or you've got Irish Mist, which is arguably the world's first lcu, and that's a honey based lcu as well. And you've got some of the original terminology that was used for to describe whiskey as well. So the main one being Amber nectar is one of the main words that was used to describe it back then. So we've taken a little bit of a leeway with that kind of history that we know for a fact and we've had to surmise a little bit. So we've surmised that originally that molted spirit that they would've created would've then been aged in their honey wine barrels. So that's why we've chosen to do a honey wine barrel and we've chosen to do a manuka honey wine barrel just to get that little bit of kiwiana, that little bit of New Zealand and add that into that ultra traditional style of production for it.

(25:23):
You've got some old text from Kings going back in the day, and I've forgotten the names and I do apologize that effectively describe a spirit that had a honey notes and honey taste to it. And so that's where we've got an inspiration from to do our unique aging process the way and why we do. I will say as well, even I know that I've talked about honey a lot. Normally when people come into the cellar door, I don't mention the unique aging of the whiskey because if you are thinking Honey, honey, honey, that's what you're going to taste.

(25:55):
But if you're not thinking that, then you have this whole array of other flavor profiles coming through. So my favorite whiskey that I've ever done or tasted for me anyway, the tasting notes on it was charred pineapple and honey buttered whole grain toast. Wow. It was an amazing, amazing barrel. That one was delicious. And a lot of people get chocolate on the nose as well, so it's not necessarily, you're not tasting that. It's more fruits and other things. So if you're comparing it to another place that produces whiskey in the world, I would say it's more like a space side sherry cask. So you're getting these really amazing, really smooth, luscious, fruity tones coming out of it and it's a beautiful, beautiful whiskey.

Drew H (26:41):
I mean so much of the initial creation of the spirit is trying to find flavors and then what grains you're using. So where do you get your barley from?

Jeremy (26:53):
So barley comes from a place called Glad Fields's Malt. They're based in Canterbury and I believe they are a third or fourth generation grain grower for the New Zealand whiskey industry. We are working on having some local grains going for us in Golden Bay. There's a really, really awesome local bakery of all things, and they have started the bull rolling on that and started planting out a couple paddocks with grain and testing we in Golden Bay that they grow well. And so we are going to be jumping on that bag bandwagon shortly and joining them with starting to use some of the local Golden Bay growing grains. The cool thing about what they're doing as well is that they are strictly speaking, strictly growing heritage grains and things are a little bit less common. So it'll be really interesting once that comes through to see the varietals and the flavor profiles that'll be coming through from that because there'll be a totally different kettle of fish from something that's been specifically growing for whiskey for a fair chunk of time. But Glad Fields is amazing, they're the main grain producer in New Zealand and when you're buying from them, it's just New Zealand growing grain.

Drew H (28:03):
So how do people get to the distillery? Most people are probably going to fly into Auckland, would you say?

Jeremy (28:11):
Yep, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, the main international airports in New Zealand. So we are in the South island at the very, very top, quite close to a city called Nelson. So if you make it to Nelson, you can drive over to see us. It will take about two hours to get here. A lot of people look at us on the map and they will say, oh, it's just really close. And we'll get a phone call or a message saying, Hey, we're going to be over. I've got the day in Nelson. We're going to come and see you. And you have to let them know that it's a four five hour round trip to get here. And that puts a lot of a damper on people. If you do make it to Wellington, you can fly directly into Golden Bay on a little six person Cessna. They are really, really fun to fly. You can use your phone the whole trip. It's a great time. And the local airport has car rentals as well. And then also if you do make it to Nelson, we do have a helicopter site, helicopter pad, sorry, on site at the distillery. So there's a couple different local helicopter companies that include us in their tours and they can just bring you over as well. Should that be the way that you choose to do your touring of New Zealand?

(29:24):
In terms of where we're situated, we are in one of the most beautiful places in the entire country. A lot of people, if they're coming to New Zealand, they'll have heard about the Abel Tasman National Park, which is our smallest but most visited national park. And so we are located right next to that and then right next to one of our other national parks. So we are surrounded by pristine beaches. It's like going to Hawaii. You've just got these amazing turquoise, crystal clear water, beautiful golden sand beaches, all surrounding us and amazing beautiful rainforest and mountains on surrounding us as well. It's a really, really small but absolutely stunning part of the country.

Drew H (30:08):
Yeah, whenever I hear somebody talking about New Zealand, I always hear Lord of the Rings. Was it filmed anywhere around that area?

Jeremy (30:16):
Yep, we did have a whole bunch of the hobbits were drinking in one of the local pubs when it was being filmed that caused quite a bit of a stir. And so a lot of the hills where they're surrounding us, which used as filming locations as well because it is all just big limestone formations, completely surrounding where we are. So there was a little bit of that filming done on top of the Tarika Hill, which is also known as the Marble Mountain, which is a very lord of the Rings name as well.

Drew H (30:46):
Yeah. Well if somebody's coming to the distillery, what would be a good way to plan out a day while you're you're coming to visit?

Jeremy (30:55):
Visit, I would definitely bring a sober driver. You are more than welcome to bring food to the distillery. We currently don't have a kitchen on site, but we do have some things so you can make your own platter while you're here. What I'd recommend doing is we've got a salmon farm about 10 minutes drive from there, so go catch a salmon, they'll turn and they'll smoke it, they'll cook it whatever way you want, do that, come down to the distillery in terms of the process that the cellar door has, it's a very personalized experience, so we'll sit you down, we'll make sure that you've got no random allergies that we need to worry about. Go through that all fun health and safety side of things. And a lot of it's a lot more question based. So we'll ask you a few questions, find out the things that you enjoy.

(31:40):
So each experience is a lot more tailor made just for you. Instead of just going down and having a flight of drinks put in front of you and walking away, we'll stay at the table, we'll help with any questions that you've got. We'll do our absolute best to make sure that you feel like you're walking away knowing everything that you can possibly need to know or want to know. We do a variety of leurs, which are phenomenal. We only use local ingredients for those. We also do, obviously we've got the whiskey, we've got a couple different gins, we've got a few different vodkas every once in a while we've got some schnoes, so like fruit, wine, distillates, absolutely delicious stuff. And then obviously the TA Kiwi as well. Everything's available for tastings and all of the staff here are really, really knowledgeable and if we can't find the answer to a question that you've got, we will get that answer for you immediately. There's always somebody around that can answer something if any of us are ever stumped. But we'll normally try, depending on what people like, we'll normally go through a couple of different gins, try it with different mixes so people can see how different flavor profiles change with different spirits and how those different spirits affect other ingredients. For instance, we do one called, we do a boysenberry lcu, which is outstanding. Have you heard of Boysenberries?

Drew H (33:09):
I have heard of them. I don't think I've ever tasted one before.

Jeremy (33:12):
So they, they're an American made fruit. They massive in New Zealand. They are huge here

(33:19):
And they only grow in three countries in the world. So you've got Australia, New Zealand and America. So what we'll do is we'll sit down and go, here's the laquire on its own. We are going to add a mixer. Normally we'll use some ginger ale, so we'll add a little bit of that, then taste it like that and see how the flavors change. Then we'll add a little bit of lemon juice to be like, this is what lemon juice does when you add lemon juice into a cocktail. This is how it changes flavors. And then we'll add a little bit of gin. We'll normally use our greenstone gin because it matches amazingly well and we'll add that in and we go, this is how this changes. And if they're really lucky, if there's two people, we may choose different gins for each person. So they have a really good example to say, this is how this gin influences this cocktail and this is how this gin influences this cocktail.

(34:03):
And that may be the reason why you would choose certain products over another and that it's not so cut and dry, I guess to just say, I can use any gin and the drink that I'm making. And the same if we did more whiskeys, it would be more available for that and it would be included that way as well. So we'll build often just mini only about 60 mils to two ounce cocktails just to show people that process and how flavors change. And so we try and focus a lot more on information as opposed to just giving you something and walking off.

Drew H (34:35):
That's fantastic. So how long does somebody usually hang out at the seller door?

Jeremy (34:41):
They're honestly quite long tasting experiences. I would normally recommend that somebody stays from anywhere between half an hour to an hour to get an hour will give you a really wonderful, amazing experience. The best time of year, I think obviously summer is hectic and it's busy. We have about 30,000 tourists come into Golden Baying, so it is a really, really busy time of year. So either of the shoulder seasons is personally the best time, the weather's the best, and then you'll get a lot more one-on-one time and you can just sit up at the bar and have a really good in-depth conversation and real good chats and that'll be personally, that's the best time to come.

Drew H (35:21):
Thank you so much for giving us some background and giving us a feel for what's going on in New Zealand and getting people interested in coming down to check out Kiwi spirit. Well, I hope you enjoyed this virtual flight to Kiwi spirit. If I piqued your interest in traveling to the distillery, make sure to head to whiskey lo.com/flights where you can view the profile of Kiwi spirit, the growing list of worldwide distilleries we're featuring on the show. Then dig deeper into the whiskey lore online distillery travel guide. Use the heart feature to show your interest in a distillery or log in with a free membership and bookmark your favorite distilleries by adding them to your wishlist. The site features, planning tools, maps, tour dates, and booking links for nearly 600 distilleries worldwide. Start your journey@whiskeyau.com slash flights. Now stay tuned because in just a moment, I'm going to have my three reasons why I think you should visit Kiwi Spirit. But first, it's time for this week in whiskey lore.

(36:27):
It was 237 years ago this week that an advertisement appeared in the Kentucky Gazette announcing the opening of a new school in Lebanon town in Fayette County, Virginia on the Royal Spring. Notice was given that on Monday, January the 28th, the school would begin teaching boys in Latin Greek and the important sciences of the day. The cost was 25 shillings, a quarter half could be paid in cash, the other half could be bartered with produce, which likely included whiskey. The school was the brainchild of a Baptist minister. Reverend Elijah Craig, the man of several talents was not only known for building what some to as Craig's Academy, he also built a church, the area's First Bowling mill, a paper mill, a grist mill, and a distilling operation. Today he's referred to as the father of bourbon. The reality is that he may actually have closer ties to being called the father of the First Amendment, although even those tithes are very weak.

(37:32):
He was a frequent petitioner of the Virginia General Assembly, fought for religious freedom and was known to both Patrick Henry and James Madison, the father of the Constitution. It's true influence isn't known, but what's interesting is this association with bourbon when in his day he was much more known as an activist champion for religious freedom and an entrepreneur rather than a distiller. As for his academy, some believed that it later turned into what is now Georgetown College and that Elijah was that college's founder. However, that's just one of several myths that surround Craig. The original name of the academy was the Rittenhouse Academy, not the Craig's Academy. And just like its founder, the school always seemed to be in financial trouble and eventually failed. Georgetown Academy was founded in 1829 over two decades after Elijah's death. If you want to hear more about the life of Elijah Craig and connection to the title the Father of Bourbon, check out my new book, whiskey Lore Volume one, which is available this Thursday from Amazon or through your favorite bookseller in paperback ebook or audiobook. For more information, head to whiskey-lore.com/book.

(38:57):
Well, as we prepare to leave Kiwi Spirit, just a program, note that starting next week, whiskey flights will be grounded. Not to say that it's going away, but instead to say we're going to go on a massive road trip in the new year, we're going to start Kentucky, then Tennessee out to Texas, Oklahoma, and then do a big sweep around the United States. I'm calling it the great 48 tour, and it is the largest whiskey undertaking of my life. We'll be visiting at least one craft distillery in each of the 48 contiguous states, interviewing founders, distillers ambassadors, and bringing you up close and personal with America's great craft distilling industry. At the same time, I'm going to be building out our great travel resource whiskey lore.com/travel. Well, as we close out this trip to Kiwi Spirit, if you're still on fence about the trip to New Zealand and this fun craft distillery, let me give you my three reasons why I think you should have this distillery on your whiskey lower wishlist.

(39:59):
Well, first, let me remind you of that fascinating list of tasting notes that Jeremy provided with their whiskey. This is a true small batch producer aging in some of the most unique barrels in the world, and the tasting experience alone is worth the trip. Second, grab yourself a salmon and enjoy an afternoon at the cellar door doing a tasting sampling along with Jeremy and learning from he and his staff. And you'll get a chance to learn about the farm and what they're growing on site and what they are developing in terms of their spirits. And third, well, this distillery is in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Golden Bay should be on everybody's list of places to see at least once in their lifetime. And think of Kiwi Spirit as a gateway to that beauty and adventure. Well, thanks to the wonders of virtual travel, the jet lag will be minimized as I head back to the United States and begin a new year off right, the trip to Kentucky and the Barred Distillery, which will be the first stop on an epic great 48 tour that's going to see us hit every state in the contiguous United States.

(41:09):
It's all next year. Can't wait to share a nation filled with amazing craft spirits and amazing entrepreneurs. Make sure you're subscribed to the Whiskey Lord Podcast so you don't miss a moment. I'm your travel guide Drew Hanish. And until next time, cheers. And for transcripts and travel information, including maps, distillery planning information and more, head to whiskey lord.com/flights. Whiskey loza production of Travel fuels life LLC.