The New Zealand Whisky Collection and Lion NZ have come to an agreement to allow the Oamaru distillers to produce some of its whisky out of the Speight’s Brewery in Dunedin.
NZ Whisky Collection founder Greg Ramsey said the company had been planning to increase production since buying whisky stocks from the old Seagram’s distillery in 2010.
"It’s always been our intention to relaunch and redistribute those whiskies and then start that production again.
"We’re down to the last 15% of those stocks and we’re going to need a lot of whisky in the next couple of years.
"We’re really excited to be going into such a really impressive downtown space with a lot of different opportunities of working with Speight’s."
Mr Ramsay said work had begun setting up for the stills to come in at the end of the month and he was hoping production at the Dunedin brewery would begin in June.
He said the company expected to hire at least one distiller to work there and it would supplement the main production out of Oamaru.
The deal to operate out of the Speight’s brewery came after a 2018 agreement where the NZ Whisky Collection would buy "wash", the basic ingredient for whisky distillation, from Speight’s.
"They approached us with a terrific proposal about actually locating our stills ... in some of their un-utilised space within Speight’s, which makes the whole production effort much more efficient."
Speight’s brewery manager Arron Goodwin said he was pleased to have whisky at the brewery again.
"We’re incredibly proud to be hosting and supplying the New Zealand Whisky Co for this next stage of their journey.
"James Speight apprenticed at the Wellpark Brewery, which became the Willowbank Distillery, so this whisky and our brewery have heritage going back over 150 years."
