Pokeno

Founded in 2017 by husband-and-wife duo Matt and Celine Johns in the town of Pōkeno [POH•keh•noh], in a valley surrounded by lush volcanic hills, Pōkeno Whisky is New Zealand’s largest single malt whisky distillery and home to the country’s only cooperage.

When Matt and Celine moved to New Zealand in 2013, Matt brought over two decades of whisky experience with them. Having worked with Scottish distilleries such as Glenmorangie and Tullibardine, he instantly recognized the potential for New Zealand as a great whisky-making country and set to work establishing Pōkeno with the intent of becoming a premier producer of single malt whisky.

Rather than simply distilling Scotch in New Zealand, Pōkeno whisky is crafted to capture characteristics unique to New Zealand. The distillery sources domestically grown Laureate barley from three family farms on New Zealand’s South Island and exclusively uses volcanic spring water from a natural spring below the distillery for production. As the home to New Zealand’s only cooperage, Pōkeno experiments with local wood to craft barrels for special releases, further exemplifying the desire to highlight the country’s natural bounty.

Each small batch of whisky is produced slowly to achieve Pōkeno’s signature sweet and fruity style of malt. After a long, eighty-hour fermentation in stainless steel, a slow distillation occurs in copper pot stills with high reflux. This slow distillation yields just two liters of whisky per minute—roughly a sixth of what the average single malt distillery produces. Whiskies are individually aged for a minimum of three years before they are batched, blended, and bottled on-site.

With a core range that includes Origins and Discovery, an “Experience” series of limited, experimental releases, and single-cask bottlings—along with a growing list of awards and accolades to match—Pōkeno is at the forefront of a new generation of single malt producers distilling world-class whiskies that proudly display their provenance from field to bottle.