I tasted these three whiskies at The Whisky Show during the final minutes of the show ( and they are damn strict with the close time ). It looks like these whiskies are all of them distilled by Willowbank Distillery.
The Willowbank Distillery was established by the Baker family, with production commencing in December 1969. In 1974 the first whisky went on sale and the company was renamed Wilson Distillers Ltd. Located in Dunedin, New Zealand, Willowbank was the most southerly whisky distillery in the world.
The distillery was acquired by Seagram Company Ltd in 1981. Under Seagram’s ownership the distillery released the 10 year old Lammerlaw Whisky, named after the nearby mountain range. Sadly, the distillery ceased production in 1997. The distillery was mothballed in 2000 and the stills were reportedly shipped to Fiji for the production of rum.
The New Zealand Malt Whisky Company (NZMWC) secured the remaining whisky stocks, still ageing in barrels. After a few years of uncertainty, the company was revived in late 2010 when American, Australian and New Zealand investors came together to breathe life back into NZMWC. The company name has since been shortened to the ‘New Zealand Whisky Company’ and in addition to the existing product line, a new range of whiskies was introduced in 2011.
So here there are a few of them. I would love to tell you more, but as I said it was the very last minutes of the show and the guy pouring the drams was flirting with a very pretty blonde ( no complains! I would have done the same… but I was on whisky! ).
Read the full story »