Speight's signs deal with NZ Whisky Company

The Speight's factory in Duendin. Photo / ODT files

The New Zealand Whisky Company has signed a deal with Speight's to supply the fledgling distiller with half a million litres of "wash", the basic ingredient for whisky distillation.

Under the name The NZ Whisky Collection, the company is this week starting crowdfunding to raise $2 million though PledgeMe, to fund the opening of a new distillery and production expansion.

The NZ Whisky Collection general manager Grant Finn said Speight's "wash" was the base for all single malt whisky.

"Wash is a rich, sweet, flat beer without any hops added for bitterness," he said in a statement yesterday.

He said Speight's would produce the 500,000 litres of wash the company needs annually, at a consistent high quality.

In 2010 the New Zealand Whisky Company purchased 443 barrels of whisky made by the former Wilsons distillery in Dunedin, of which it has 103 left. The Whisky Company is working with another production partner and has more than 100 other barrels maturing.

The company had secured a long-term lease for the Northern Hotel and warehouse in Oamaru, where it plans to fit out a new bonded warehouse space, for maturing whisky casks, and also have tasting and cellar door operations.