Paul Anderson and the 40-year Scotch whisky Glenfarclas - the 1000th whisky on the list at Indigo restaurant in Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
Paul Anderson and the 40-year Scotch whisky Glenfarclas - the 1000th whisky on the list at Indigo restaurant in Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
Restaurant-goers will have their reasons for having their favourite eatery.
But some of those at Napier Indian cuisine specialist Indigo have 1000 reasons – precisely.
That's the number of whiskies now available after the arrival of owner Paul Anderson's latest import, a 40-year Glenfarclas Highland Single Malt, from Ballindalloch infamous whisky territory Speyside in Scotland.
The collection is reputed to be the largest in the southern hemisphere and its elevation to the 1000-club will be celebrated at a premium tasting next month.
Anderson started the collection about 30 years ago, bringing 60-70 when he came from the UK to New Zealand about 15 years ago.
Paul Anderson and the 40-year Scotch whisky Glenfarclas - the 1000th whisky on the list at Indigo restaurant in Napier. Photo / Warren Buckland
Still holding one of the original bottles, a Glenmorangie 10ys from the 1970s – the range had grown mainly parallel to the growth of the Hastings St restaurant he set up nine years ago to bring a higher quality of Indian food to Napier.
A special is the Single Barrel Speyside 1975 Single Malt he has lined-up for his son's 21st, produced from spirit originally still at the Glen Rothe Distillery, and which has a tag of around $500 a nip.
He says the targets passed 100, 200, then 500, and now 1000, but he has no plans on going for the next. "That's 2000," he says.
There's Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, among bottles from as many as 20 countries, including New Zealand's finest, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Sweden, Canada, the US, England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland, from whence comes, wouldn't you believe it, those from Glasgow bottler Douglas Laing.
With about 250 gins, 200 Hawke's Bay wines, 60 rums and 50 tequilas, he says his stock is also the largest beverage range in New Zealand, which has a unique whisky heritage.
Distilling downunder began when Scottish settlers began arriving in the 1830s. It flourished so much that Scottish banks became wary of the popularity of the godzone drop they agreed to fund New Zealand's railways so long as the Government outlawed local distilling.
The local industry was shut down for a century before relaxation of the control heralded the establishment of Willowbank Distillery in Dunedin in the 1970s, and the arrival of Kiwi labels Wilson's and 45 South.
Most of the punters are in the $20-$30 a nip range, but there is regular call for the Bush Mills Millennium Malt, distilled in 1975 and released for the year 2000.
The bottles range mainly from 275ml to 1000ml, but are mainly "the standard" 750ml, and some may be worth up to $5000. Although in plans for an off-licence he hopes to dispense in miniatures from the range of prized vessels.
Anderson is a connoisseur, but to become one the whisky-taster probably needs to speak with the man himself, as he talks of those worth a quiet one at 5pm on a Friday after a day at work, to the last before calling it a night, or more specifically a cold night in front of the fire.
He has a hankering for "my own", the Napier 2020 he's had bottled, being that Napier is his own and his son's middle name, and a Charles Napier was his grandfather, although there appears to be no family connection to "the" Charles Napier after whom the city was named.
