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Reefton Distilling Co, co-founded
by local Patsy Bass, has attracted
more than 120 investors
and raised $1.25m of its goal $1.5m
to take over the former Department of
Conservation building in the middle of
town and fit it out for distilling. Bass
says the facility, due to open mid-year
alongside a tasting lounge and retail
outlet, aims to create up to 50 jobs
and will start producing a range of gin
and liqeuers with pure West Coast
rain water from May, when the first
stills are installed. Many of the backers
are local people, and the business
will initially employ six people – Bass,
head distiller and director Sean Whitaker,
along with tour guides of the distillery
and its water source. Whitaker
says the company’s first whisky will
be out of the barrel in 2021, and each
batch of spirits will be individually
labelled so customers can trace the
provenance of all ingredients from
water and grain to barrels. “We’ll also
offer whisky and bourbon customers
the option to purchase their own
barrel of spirits and store it for them
until they deem it mature enough
to bottle.” Whitaker says Reefton is
the perfect location for a distillery,
as premium spirits need the purest
water and “fortunately we have
plenty of that on the West Coast.”
The distillery’s products will be made
with rain that has travelled thousands
of kilometres across the wild southern
oceans before being dropped in a
deluge into the stills. Bass, a Reefton
native, grew up in the homestead on
the original Westland Brewery in the
1960s, and Whitaker – who has eight
years of craft distilling experience –
will move to Reefton this year. Bass’
chef/teacher husband Shane Thrower
will take care of hospitality in the new
facility, and the co-founders say support
from the community is uplifting.
One of the distillery’s special features
will be a display of more than 100 historic
whisky jugs collected and gifted
by Reefton teetotaller twins Steffan
and Nigel McKay (69), including Royal
Doulton vessels from the 1880s.
Bass says the twins are keen to support
the distillery, and a limited edition
of The Real MacKay whisky will be
sold in pottery whisky jugs made by
Black’s Point potter Chris Lewis. The
twins have already designed the logo
for their whiskey, named to honour
their Scottish ancestry and using the
correct spelling of their surname.
Other branding has been inspired by
local characters such as legendary
gold prospectors George Fairweather
Moonlight (Moonlight Whisky) and
Bridget Goodwin (Little Biddy gin).
More than 65,000 tourists visit Reefton’s
visitor centre each year.
NEW DISTILLERY
FOR WEST COAST
Reefton – a tiny town on the west coast of the
South Island – is set to become the latest location
for a distillery.
NEWS
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