Cardrona Distillery

Cardrona Distillery sits in the Cardrona Valley, high in the Crown Range between Wanaka and Queenstown, where founder Desiree Reid set out to build a New Zealand single malt whisky that could hold its own on the world stage. After several years researching distilling in Scotland and the United States, she broke ground in 2015, and the first spirit ran from the stills that October. The valley's dramatic seasonal swings in temperature were chosen deliberately, pushing the whisky to interact more actively with the wood as it matures.

Whisky remains the flagship, but the distillery also produces a small-batch gin and vodka on site, using the same pure local water. If a New Zealand gin is more your style, our New Zealand gin range is worth a browse.