Auld Farm Distillery · Named One To Watch

Auld Named One To Watch

When you decide to build a distillery in the middle of a Southland farm, you get used to people asking questions.

Why whisky?

Why here?

Why grow your own grain?

And probably the biggest one – will it actually work?

Fair questions.

A few years ago, Auld Farm Distillery was an idea. Take the grain we already grow here on the farm, distil it right here beside the paddocks it came from, put it into cask and wait.

And wait.

And wait some more…

Whisky, as we're discovering, isn't particularly interested in anyone's timeline.

So it was pretty exciting to find out that Auld Farm Distillery has been named a finalist in two categories at the 2021 Southland Business Excellence Awards.

Auld is a finalist for the PowerNet New & Emerging Award, while Rob and Toni have also been named finalists for the Meridian Energy One to Watch Award.

One to Watch.

We quite like the sound of that.

Because there's a lot happening here that's still waiting to be seen.

Our whisky is quietly maturing in casks on the farm, we're experimenting with different grains and we're learning more about what happens when you can trace a spirit all the way back to the paddock it came from.

That's the beauty of being seed-to-sip.

We don't buy a truckload of anonymous grain and wonder where it came from.

We grew it.

We know which paddock it came from, what the Southland weather threw at it and what happened between planting and harvest.

Then we get to find out what happens when we turn it into spirit.

We're not bound by tradition. We're bound by innovation.

Being named a finalist in the New & Emerging category is lovely recognition for a business that's still finding out exactly where all of this might lead.

And for Rob and Toni, being named Ones to Watch is a pretty good excuse to stop for a moment and appreciate how far a slightly crazy idea has already come.

There is still a long way to go.

There are casks to fill, whisky to wait for and plenty more experimenting to do.

But apparently, we're ones to watch.

So watch this space.