Matt Johns of Pōkeno Whisky in the warehouse. Photo / Supplied
NZME’s On The Up is a national campaign showcasing amazing stories of inspiration, success, courage and possibilities. This is the story of Pōkeno Whisky, whose team have had a busy few years since the Waikato Herald caught up with them last.
A strong, sweet and woody alcohol scent emerges as Pōkeno Whisky founder Matt Johns opens the door to the warehouse, revealing racks of full barrels, stacked all the way to the ceiling.
The majority of the barrels are former bourbon, sherry and red wine casks, however, Pōkeno Whisky also worked with a few other gems.
They had a busy year: the team made whiskies finished in a Spanish orange wine cask, in an over 100-year-old hogshead, in a former beer barrel and in a port cask.
In 2023, they also launched a special project: a New Zealand native wood cask.
The world’s first tōtara cask whisky was a success, winning gold at the International Wine and Spirit Competition, silver at the World Whiskies Awards and silver at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition all last year.
Now, they are ready to launch their second native wood whisky – a kauri single-cask.
Johns said the kauri cask almost didn’t make it to release.
“Kauri [wood] is really difficult, and not only because it’s nearly impossible to get.
“It’s very brittle and snaps and breaks and cracks.”
The team was offered the wood by a Te Kauwhata resident who’d had slabs in his shed for 30 years.
“Some were old and cracked, but we had enough to make two barrels.”
Cooper Mike Tawse, originally from Scotland, said he is the only person in New Zealand who has been trained to make wooden barrels.
Tawse said making the kauri cask had “certainly been a challenge”.
“It was breaking as I was making it, but I just persevered.
“In the end, it was a bit smaller than I would have liked it to be, but I just had to say that’s good enough.”
Looking at the wall full of mostly 200-litre and 250-litre barrels in the warehouse, the 150-litre kauri cask is eye-catching, not only due to its small size: droplets of whisky have forced themselves through staves in several parts of the barrel.
So what about the taste?
“It’s interesting on the nose, very rich and perfumy that you wouldn’t associate with whisky at all. But when we first tried it, it did have a dryness that wasn’t good,” Johns said.
“So we thought we’d leave it in there for a bit longer.”
But even after trying it again after three and six months, it was still not up to their standard, and Johns was ready to give up on it.
“We thought let’s just put it in the warehouse and forget about it.
“A year in, we randomly found it and tried it again and we thought oh wow, it’s actually good. It’s difficult to describe.
“Is it the best whisky we ever made? No. But is it the most original whisky we made? Probably.”
He said they would launch around 100 bottles of the kauri cask, for the New Zealand market only, in July.
Unlike the tōtara cask whisky, the next barrels of which are already sitting in the warehouse, the kauri cask would only be a one-off release.
Another special edition ready to launch soon is a full-maturation, sauvignon blanc cask in collaboration with The Hunting Lodge Winery.
“Usually we age the whisky in a bourbon cask for a few years and then finish it for a couple of months in another cask, like the orange wine cask, for example,” Johns said.
“But this whisky spent all its life in that sauvignon blanc barrel and has taken on so much more of the flavours.
“You can really smell and taste the sauvignon blanc and those lovely citrus notes.
“It’s so cool to be launching a sauvignon blanc and a kauri cask as they are iconic New Zealand products.
“It’s New Zealand barley, New Zealand water and New Zealand wood. You can’t get any more Kiwi than that.”
Johns said while work on the next native wood cask was already in progress, the release was likely two years away.
“We are currently experimenting with tawa ... but when you do New Zealand native wood products it takes a lot of time.
“This just shows how rare this series is going to be.
“We don’t want it to be a gimmick, it has to be sustainable, it has to work and it has to add something to the product.”
Tawse, who is used to working with oak because that is the type of wood barrels legally have to be made of in Scotland, said it was cool to learn about different types of New Zealand native wood.
However, a recent highlight had been restoring a sherry cask that was more than 100 years old.
Johns said the historic single cask had been a collaboration with Christchurch supplier Whisky Galore.
“Two years ago I was down in Christchurch catching up with Michael Fraser Milne [Whisky Galore founder].
“He had this old cask that was used for display purposes and it started falling apart.”
When asked about it, Fraser Milne said it had a lot of history, going back to 1919 and Spanish bodega Solera La Ina.
The cask is the bodega’s 121st hogshead, which is why it’s called Solera La Ina Hogshead No. 121.
“In 1921, the cask was sent from Spain to Scotland where it was used for 30 years to mature whisky,” Johns said.
In the 1950s it was sent – full – to New Zealand for bottling, a common thing to do, Johns said.
“Then it lay discarded in a warehouse for 50 years, before Michael found it and used it for display.”
According to Johns, the cask was in such a bad state that Fraser Milne didn’t believe it could be restored, but Tawse got it done.
“It was special to be a part of something like this,” Tawse said.
“You get some enjoyment out of it. It took me about three weeks to a month. I tried to keep it as original as possible, no wood has been replaced.”
Johns said the cooperage, New Zealand’s only one, has just opened to outside work.
“We just started repairing barrels and refinishing them for wineries and other distilleries.
“At this stage, that amount of work doesn’t justify taking on an apprentice just yet.
“I’m sure it will happen, but not for the time being.”
Johns founded Pōkeno Whisky, which only produces single-malt whisky, in 2017 with his wife Celine.
The distillery, at 22 Gateway Park Drive in Pōkeno, is only open on Saturdays from 11am to 5pm and offers distillery tours.
Pōkeno Whisky is also at Fieldays, where they launched their first Port Cask Whisky. You can find them in The Pantry.
Danielle Zollickhofer is the Waikato news director and a multimedia journalist. She joined NZME in 2021 and is based in Hamilton.
Farmers flocked to Fieldays, boosted by high milk and red meat prices.