Latest / Best of Business / Matt Johns: Pōkeno Whisky co-founder on the company being chosen for world-first climate study

Transcript

Matt Johns: Pōkeno Whisky co-founder on the company being chosen for world-first climate study · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: A Kiwi distillery has been selected for a world first
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: study into how different climates shapes whiskey. The study will
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: examine whiskeys from eight continents with Waikato company Pokono Whiskey
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: selected to represent Zealandia. The Selected Whiskies forms what is
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: known as the Eight Continent Series. So Poconoa Whiskey co-founder
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Matt Johns joins me now. Good morning, Matt.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Good morning. How are you doing?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Good, thank you. Tell me, how did you get selected
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: for this study? How did the opportunity come about?
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: So Daniel, who's the owner of Caskworld, who's kind of
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: a bit of a whisky adventurer, he does some cool
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: things about whisking, is a real champion of world whisky.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Came to visit us, saw what we were doing and said, look,
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: we'd love you guys to be part of our series
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: because you kind of really represent what distilleries are trying
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: to do to produce whiskies that reflect the country's culture
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: and climate. So very cool.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: So in terms of your participation, how does it work?
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: So we work closely with Daniel to select the cask,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: which was kind of not only a reflection of our climate,
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: but something a bit special. which had real provenance. Then
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: we bottled the product. We've sent product off to be analysed.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: That scientific study is going on at the moment. But
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: the project has a multitude of layers, so both linked
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to the product and also linked to a cultural side.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: So it includes kind of artwork to be done by
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: local artists, which I can't quite talk about yet. But
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: there's a multitude of layers still to come as the
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: project is revealed.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: So is the only thing that was different from the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: whisky that you're producing normally is the cask?
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: I can't actually say what the whiskey is yet. I
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: would love to tell you that something's going to kill me.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Because it does make sense, right? That obviously all around
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: the world, people are going to be using different materials,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: have different water, have different, all sorts of different. You know,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: elements which are used within the whisky, which are going
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: to determine what makes yours the way it is, I suppose.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Completely. I mean, our climate impact is enormous. I mean,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: we go from the raw materials, you go for the barley.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: We use New Zealand barley. The growing conditions for the
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: barley in New Zealand are completely different from, for example, Scotland, Japan, etc.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: So we get a very sweet raw material compared to
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: other countries. We've got the pure spring water. Our water
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: is very rich in iron manganese. That's really going to
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: help the fruitiness of our whiskies. And the subtropical climate
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: in the North Island of New Zealand is incredible for maturation.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, in Scotland, for example, the angel share, so
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: the rate of maturation of a whiskey is about one
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: and a half percent per year. We're sitting at nine
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: and a half percent per year. So, I mean, all
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: of that is going to impact the product incredibly. And
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: it's really cool to see, actually see a scientific study,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: which is going to give us some real data, which
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: can help us interpret that, that further.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Daniel Monk, who you mentioned, who was behind this project,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: said he was very impressed that you've taken years of
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: whisky knowledge working in Scotland, you've applied it to New
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Zealand rather than trying to recreate what has been done
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and made overseas. That's obviously something that you deliberately did.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Did you realise when you started that all these particular
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: aspects that make it New Zealand would create a good whisky?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Does that make sense?
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It does, yes.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Some of them we discovered along the way. What was
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: really clear with the project from the start was that
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: we were very passionate about making a New Zealand whisky
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: which reflects our culture and our climate. We were not
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: making a Scotch whisky in New Zealand. We've got a
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: fantastic country here. We've got a fantastic natural asset. So
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: we wanted to real showcase that in the whiskies. I
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: think we knew that the water was going to be great.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: We knew the barley was going to be great. Honestly,
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: the climatic conditions for the maturation, we were not expecting that.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: And it really, really was. After the first couple of years,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: we were looking at the barrels going, why are the
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: barrels so low? Are they leaking? And it was only
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: kind of two, three years in that we realized that
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: the angel shared because the climatic conditions was going to
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: be so high. So, I mean, every day is a
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: school day. We're learning every day. I mean, we're still
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: at the start of this industry. So it's a great adventure.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Was there a reason why you picked Pocono to set
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: up a distillery? The water.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Obviously, the water is so important for a single malt whiskey.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: And we basically, at the time, the kids were at
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: school in Auckland. We didn't want to drive more than
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: an hour to the distillery. We drew a big circle
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: on the map, and we spent about six months traveling
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: around just looking for a water source. One day, we
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: drove into Pocono back in 2017. At the time, it
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: was still 600 people. There were literally two companies there.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: There was a dairy and a spring water company. We
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: knocked on the door and said, where did you get
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: your water from? It went from there.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: One of the whiskies is being aged or has been
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: aged in Antarctica, which is kind of fascinating. Are you
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: intrigued to see what kind of results can come out
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: of such an extreme setting?
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Oh, crazy. I tried to convince our Air Force to
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: take a cask over there as well, but it was
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: a no-go. It's going to be really interesting. And we've got,
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: you know, there's whiskies which are aged in India, there's
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: whiskies which are aged in Wales. Everything's going to be different.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: There's a real cool selection of what whisky distillery is there.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: So it's going to be fascinating.
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: And what will the results mean for distillers? Like how
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: beneficial will that understanding be?
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, we've been talking for many, many
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: years now that we're very proud to making whiskey, like
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I said, which are a true reflection of our environment.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: We're going to have some scientific data to back that up.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: So I think that's vitally important, not just for us,
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: but for the distillers in New Zealand as well. And indeed,
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: distillerism in other parts of the world. I mean, you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: for many, many years now, the Scotch whiskey industry and
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: the Irish whiskey industry have been leading the way. And
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: it's going to be real cool to have some internal data,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: which is going to say, hey, we're here as well.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So potentially some good exposure and growth out of this.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's some really good exposure. We're a
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: tiny part of the world industry today. I think if
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: you take the total distillation of New Zealand today, it
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: represents the size of a small Scotch whisky distillery. We're
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: out there fighting the good fight, so any exposure like
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: this is going to be really important for us.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Well, best of luck. Thank you so much for talking
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: us through that, Matt. Really nice to talk to you.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: That was Pocono Whisky co-founder Matt Johns there.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: For more from Newstalk ZB, listen live, on air or
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: online and keep our shows with you wherever you go
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: with our podcasts on iHeart Radio.