Pōkeno Origin

Pōkeno Origin celebrates their unique place in the world. Produced from the finest local barley, and unrushed through fermentation and distillation to enhance body and flavour, they mature it only in first fill bourbon casks. It is an incredibly sweet and round whisky, with beautiful citrus, honey, grapefruit and creamy toffee notes, giving way to a complex and lingering finish.

NOSE: Warm fudge, allspice, black pepper, and a touch of lemon peel.

TASTE: Big helpings of vanilla caramel, warm oak, cinnamon, and candied citrus.

FINISH: Brown sugar notes and peppery spice.

About the Distillery

In 2017 Pōkeno Whisky was founded with a vision to put New Zealand on the map as a producer of single malt whisky. It is the largest single malt distillery in the country.

Today, the Pōkeno Whisky Company handles all processing on site at a state-of-the-art distillery with maturation warehouses, filtration and bottling facilities, and a fully functional cooperage.

Everything done there is driven by a goal to create one of the world’s great Single Malts. Batch production, long fermentation, and slow distillation are just a few of the things that help make them different. As craft distillers, they are also able to focus on quality over quantity and on doing things their way, not the easy way.

Using only pure volcanic spring water from the North Island distillery’s surrounding volcanic hills and family-farmed barley from New Zealand’s rich, fertile South Island, Pōkeno selects only the finest casks to mature their precious spirit, and the warm subtropical local climate accelerates its maturation and flavor development.

All of this allows Pōkeno to produce Single Malt whisky with exceptional body and flavor; whisky that captures the pure spirit of Aotearoa New Zealand.

"The New Zealand spirit is forged through a unique marriage of culture and climate. It's an intangible phenomenon that produces tangible greatness and enables Kiwis to fearlessly punch above their weight on a global stage. And it's this spirit that inspires us to experiment with flavour to create world-class- but distinctively different - single malts.

There is no compromise in anything we do, and I would like to thank you for joining us on this journey of discovery, not just of our whisky, but of Aotearoa New Zealand."

— Matt Johns, Founder Pōkeno