Waiheke Island Distillery with Mark Izzard Show Notes
Notes and Reviews for Whiskey Ring Podcast Episode 205: Waiheke Island Distillery with Mark Izzard Show Notes
OK…clearly, I have a liking for Australasian whisky (Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, etc.)
I can’t help it - this area of the world is not only putting out some of the best whiskey I’ve had in the past few years, they’re also not holding back on using the land and their local resources to impart a sense of place. Think back on Cape Byron’s Brookie’s Gin, made with a dozen local botanicals from Australia’s Gold Coast, or any number of distilleries using local wine or apera sherry casks.
So, when friend of the podcast Raj Sabharwal recommended I check out Waiheke Island Distillery, a.k.a. Waiheke Whisky, I didn’t need to be told twice.
I was likely to be interested for any number of reasons, but the one that Raj teased me with was that Waiheke was using local New Zealand peat.
Waiheke started distilling in 2008 - in New Zealand, there’s nothing like bootlegging, as people can distill at home legally. So, Mark and his friends started distilling two years before Waiheke Island Distillery was incorporated in 2010. They spent the time distilling and fermenting honey, hopped beer, and other bases to learn the craft, so by the time they started the real company, they either knew what they were doing or knew who to ask for help.
It still started out as a hobby. Mark is a surgeon by training and, while hailing from the UK, hadn’t visited a Scottish distillery since the 90s. Despite that, the dream was still to make the best single malt they could. Oh, and did I mention, they were one of the first New Zealand distilleries up and running, now in their 15th year.
Why Waiheke? It’s a subtropical paradise where you can grow bananas and watermelons and gets a lot of visitor traffic (over 1 million unique visitors per year!). There’s an existing wine culture with 30 wineries on the island, and so the “terroir” is present in the flavors and the people who make it. They use local water (either rain or bore) and lots of wind, solar, and geothermal power for 100% sustainability. They’re also sitting near a dormant/somewhat active volcano, meaning the soil is top-notch for agriculture.
15 years in, they’ve taken it slow; they are just starting to export in serious quantities. They’re producing 200lpa per day, about 8,000 per year (5 days a week), with a max capacity of 38,000lpa. They have purposefully kept things slow, though - even the visitors center is only about two years old as of this recording, and the first releases happened around COVID. Granted, they’re in their third distillery build - the first one was all hand-built by them, from worm tubs to stills, whereas the equipment for the newest iteration has stills built in Scotland to their design. They had to go through multiple stillmakers to find someone willing to make their stills, which Mark and his team had built on CAD. Finally, LH Stainless/Speyside made the geodesic stills for them.
Why geodesic? If there’s anything we see as a commonality among distillers worldwide, it’s stills. Column stills are largely like column stills, pot stills are largely like other pot stills. And yet, here is a group of guys with basic-at-best distilling knowledge (at the time) thinking hey, can we innovate here? It creates the biggest surface-area-to-volume ratio. A sphere has the lowest ratio, whereas a geodesic still made of lots of small triangles has the highest. They had lots of flexibility to run the stills slow, hard, however they want to get a lighter spirit or a heavier spirit to include or bypass most of that reflux. The downside, of course, is cost - they include a lot more copper and are more expensive to create, but they clearly make Waiheke unique.
At the same time as they were in the second distillery, Gladfields Malting had started making peated and manuka-smoked malt, and after a “peat-iphany” Mark and Co. decided this was something they had to pursue. Suddenly, New Zealand peat was a thing. The maltsters are on the South Island, so it’s not currently practical to use peat right in their backyard, but they can at least use New Zealand peat from the South with plans for the local stuff in the future.
New Zealand peat is completely different, having much less lignin (let alone the differences in local flora and fauna) and thus a much less smoky profile. If there is a comparison to be made, I could compare it to a Highland Park or Hebrides-style, where it’s lighter, brighter, even if the on-paper ppm is the same as an Ardbeg yet comes across much more subtly. The peat has a lot more flavor from being shallow-dug, and that comes through on the pours as a fresher, more vegetal, and less medicinal. Their peat is renewable and sustainable - the source of their peat is still growing faster than it is being dug out, something rare in whiskey-making regions.
There are some fascinating economic stats in here, like the price of importing Scotch malt around the world being half the price of using local malt, and how they can flex production to reflect costs and availability of resources. Sustainable energy is cheaper there than fossil fuels. They are highly automated, with everything measured along the way (the tasting packs come with deep-dive info from specific gravity of the wash to what yeast strain is being used). They’ve sent samples to Scotland for GCMS analysis, bringing in multiple PhDs, and studying the influence of manuka (tea tree) on the peat since the tree is oily and doesn’t really rot in the bog.
So what market is there? There isn’t a real New Zealand through-line, since everyone in New Zealand is making their own styles of single malt and other spirits, and while a guild exists, it’s not for the purposes of homogenizing the style. Each producer has to build its own audience, and even with Auckland (New Zealand’s largest city) just a ferry ride away, it can only support so many producers.
Diversification is the market. They weren’t ready to export a few years ago, so they made a bourbon-esque whiskey (+51% corn, rye, malt). They’ve opened a 250-seat restaurant. A grain-based gin and vodka followed, as did a manuka honey “bourbon” with the phenols from the tea tree in it. Those won’t be mass-produced or exported - this is a whiskey distillery - but the income from the cocktails, bars, and local sales helps keep things running while the whiskey ages and their stocks grow.
To start closing down, they do have some 10+ year-old spirit that’s still in casks. Very little is left, and by Mark’s own admission it’s nowhere near as good as what they’re producing now. That being said, they don’t want it to evaporate to nothing - instead, it represents a “family photograph” or “snapshot” of what they were doing at the time. Losing 8-10% a year in angel’s share, nothing they have is going to get to 20 years, but Waiheke has also never released anything under five years old. They will be releasing Altered Carbon, a 2-year-old spirit that will act more like a progress report of how the spirit is aging at cask strength just for fun.
They’ve been filling wet wine casks for maturation and finishing, and special releases will continue to roll out, but the barrel sample I received (notes below) will be the backbone for the core going forward.
Finally, it’s worth noting that no New Zealand producers have closed down or are in clear sights to do so. The scene is loved by enthusiasts and, more importantly, run by enthusiasts. Mark is one of them, as is previous guest Matt Johns at Pokeno Whisky and (hopefully future guest) Matt Thompson. When you’re run by enthusiasts who love what they’re doing and have a passion for high quality spirits, all I can think is that the future of New Zealand whisky is bright.
Thank you to Mark for entering the whiskey ring!
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Waiheke Island Distillery
Thank you to Waiheke Island Distillery for providing samples at no charge for the purposes of this interview. All opinions are my own.
Image courtesy of Waiheke Whisky.
Waiheke Whisky Dyad Quartet New Zealand Single Malt Whisky: Specs
Classification: New Zealand Single Malt Whisky
Producer: Waiheke Whiskey (Waiheke Island Distillery)
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 92º (46% ABV)
Age: 6-7 Years Old
Location: Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Waiheke Whisky Dyad Quartet New Zealand Single Malt Whisky Price: Unknown
Waiheke Whisky Dyad Quartet New Zealand Single Malt Whisky: Tasting Notes
Eye: Cherrywood, luscious brown. Thin, mountainous rims, thin striping legs.
Nose: Funky fruit, dried fruit for trail mix with a touch of barnyard. Moist and cakey, like a sticky toffee pudding or that Hampden Estate Panettone. Deeper, luscious red fruits open, the ruby port and apera taking charge. No proof on the nose.
Palate: Malt is front and center, like if the trail mix from the nose was made with malt instead of nuts. Raisins, dried cherries, dark chocolate, a hint of oak on the tip of my tongue, decadent red berry coulis. Mouthfeel is silky, textured just enough not to slide away. The proof is minimal, the oak mild and body-providing. Oily and moderately coating.
Finish: Cigar humidor comes out of nowhere, the smoking edge of a sherry barrel. Toasted rice and dried berries, warm honey, and a hint of candied citrus. Medium length.
Overall: Decadent without being heavy. I could see someone finishing this in just a few pours, it’s that easy to drink. Such varied red fruits and berries, oily texture to boost the flavors, and a new flavor introduced at each step keep this intriguing. Enough malt and oak to not forget it’s single malt underneath.
Final Rating: 7.6
Waiheke Whisky Seris 2 Peated New Zealand Single Malt Whisky: Specs
Image courtesy of Waiheke Whisky.
Classification: New Zealand Single Malt Whisky
Producer: Waiheke Whiskey (Waiheke Island Distillery)
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 84º (42% ABV)
Age: ~5 Years Old
Location: Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Waiheke Whisky Seris 2 Peated New Zealand Single Malt Whisky Price: $199.99
Waiheke Whisky Seris 2 Peated New Zealand Single Malt Whisky: Tasting Notes
Eye: Golden honey. Thin rims, medium legs with medium drops.
Nose: Intensely fruity malt flowing out of the glass. Peat smoke and earth come second. French vanilla and stone fruit syrup blooms from the apera. Red wine sangria with orange segments. Peat is sweet, a touch peppery, and more a background note.
Palate: Spicier than expected, jumps to the mid-palate and latches on. Peat remains orchard/stone fruit sweet, petrichor in high summer. Leaves falling into a fire. Mouthfeel is closer to 100 proof, a little higher than bottling, with an oily astringency that builds latently and suddenly. Red fruits settle down behind the oak. A touch numbing over the whole tongue, raisin-studded challah opening late.
Finish: Fruit cake being soaked for French toast or stuffed with red fruit preserves. Rainier cherries, clove spice, mild astringency that lingers for a long time.
Overall: The peat is remarkably subtle behind the red fruit and influence from STR bourbon and apera barrels. Still kind of hard to identify what the malt’s flavor is below the casks, but the pour overall is quite good and seriously full-bodied for 84 proof.
Final Rating: 7.1
Waiheke Whisky Dyad Peat + Muscat New Zealand Single Malt Whisky: Specs
Image courtesy of Waiheke Whisky.
Classification: New Zealand Single Malt Whisky
Producer: Waiheke Whiskey (Waiheke Island Distillery)
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 92º (46% ABV)
Age: ~5 Years Old
Location: Waiheke Island, New Zealand
Waiheke Whisky Dyad Peat + Muscat New Zealand Single Malt Whisky Price: Unknown
Waiheke Whisky Dyad Peat + Muscat New Zealand Single Malt Whisky: Tasting Notes
Eye: Golden hay. Medium syrupy rims, medium legs, large teardrops.
Nose: Ooh - the muscat is potent, matching the peat step for step. White fruit, grapes and golden delicious apples. White Pineau des Charentes. Smells bright and fresh, creamsicles and morning buns. Delicious.
Palate: Peat is fresher, like it’s from a more surface-level peat. Grassy and piquant, black pepper, brand new barnyard. A bit of proof, mild astringency, fortified wine white fruit and brandy notes. Mouthfeel is coating and oily, medium-bodied, sits on the front half of my tongue. Smoke goes to the sides and under my tongue as fruit oils disperse.
Finish: Peat ramps up to the fore, white fruit remains prominent after the earthy and sweet smoke. Dried fruits being rehydrated in brandy.
Overall: The peat and fruit are both brighter and whiter, grapes and sweet earthiness. The peat tastes fresher and grassier, more surface level, cinnamon and candied orange. A great side by side for the Seris 2, and I get much more malt character here.
Final Rating: 7.6
