New Zealand Whisky Company negotiating premises and committed to town

NZ Whisky Co general Manager Grant Finn outside the company's cellar door shop in Oamaru's Victorian Precinct. Photo: Andrew Ashton

Despite plans to develop a distillery in Waterfront Rd at Oamaru Harbour falling through in June, the New Zealand Whisky Company remains "100% committed to Oamaru".

New Zealand Whisky Company owner Greg Ramsay, speaking from Hobart, Tasmania, said late last week the company was negotiating with "a couple of different" property owners "about distilling there in the near future".

"We're going to have a very significant presence in Oamaru, and a growing presence in Oamaru in the short, medium, and long term. There's no doubt about that," he said.

Greg Ramsay

"We're a long way down the track with detailed discussions with a couple of separate landlords and opportunities in Oamaru and we're looking forward to resolving what's been a longer period of time to actually secure an appropriate property for a long-term investment.

"We'll be in Oamaru for good, I expect."

New Zealand Whisky Company general manager Grant Finn, of Oamaru, in February confirmed the company had chosen Oamaru over Dunedin as its preferred site for a new $3 million distillery development after years of discussions about where to establish its production base and when the deal fell through for the Waterfront Rd property he said the situation was uncertain.

Mr Ramsay said Dunedin and Oamaru "aren't mutually exclusive, it might end up that we end up with cellar doors and premises in both areas".

"What's come out of that property falling away is a whole range of new opportunities, but it just takes time to weigh them all up and make a decision," he said.

"I'm impressed with how much Dunedin is economically just buzzing at the moment and Oamaru, obviously, from when we bought the business in 2010, Oamaru is just a completely transformed destination. Full credit to the community, and to the leadership along the way. But the harbour and the waterfront have been utilised and the historic precinct itself, which was probably only half full when we bought the business, people are ... scrambling for the next tenancy. It's a credit to everyone."

Stills for the operation would arrive in New Zealand from China in September. But the company was not in a rush to begin production as it had "plenty of years of whisky" left. The whisky company initially bought 450 barrels of whisky in October 2010, which originated from the former Wilsons distillery in Willowbank, Dunedin.

After a board restructuring in August 2016, the company committed to production. Since December 2016, through a third-party contractor in Christchurch, the company has put into cask thousands of litres of whisky, now stored in Oamaru.

The company had previously targeted production to begin in Oamaru as soon as September this year.

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz