An hour-or-so south of Auckland you’ll find Pōkeno (pronounced “poh-keh-noh”). Known for its great bacon and ice cream, and now, increasingly known for great whisky.
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 and excels at creating whiskies that aren’t trying to be something they’re not. These whiskies are uniquely and unapologetically kiwi, singing of Aotearoa in every sip…. And we had to have them.
At Dhall & Nash, wine is our bread and butter, there’s no denying that, but we see so many parallels between the art of winemaking and beverage crafting that a few years ago we decided to expand our reach into the segment. We started our foray into whisky by bringing on The Whisky Cellar by Keith Bonnington with a series of independent bottlings from Scotland.
This opened our eyes to the world of whisky, and what a wide and varied world it is. Then with bringing on Auckland account manager, Nigel Kelly (self professed “whisky wanker,”) we simply had to keep pulling on the whisky thread under his guidance, which led us to Pōkeno…
Nigel Kelly
With 35 years in the hospitality industry, Nigel is a whisk(e)y educator, philosopher, purveyor and drinker sometimes going by his moniker, ‘The Whisky Baron’ – he is a man with his ear to the ground and his hand to the bottle when it comes to this craft spirit.
Pōkeno Whisky

Pōkeno Whisky is an independent family owned business, founded by Matt & Celine Johns. The distillery sits in a humid valley, surrounded by a range of volcanic hills.
All operations are carried out at the distillery, including bottling and they are very proud to have New Zealand’s only cooperage on site at the distillery.
“As craft distillers we are able to focus on quality over quantity, doing things our way not the easy way.”
Premium Ingredients and Know-How

Pōkeno Whisky uses only the finest New Zealand Ingredients to craft their range of single malts.
They use pure spring water, rich in iron and manganese, that comes from the volcanic hills that surround their valley. It takes 100 years to make its way down to the spring beneath the distillery.
Their barley is grown by three family owned farms in the south Island of New Zealand. The terroir and climate creates extra sweetness and flavour, which they then highlight with an extra-long 90-hour fermentation period and an extra slow distillation to achieve the flavour they want.
“We set out to make sweet, fruity single malts, which are the type of whiskies that we like to drink.”
In Pōkeno, their evaporation rate is very fast, around 9%, compared to the average angel’s share of around 1-2% in Scotland, meaning young whisky from Pōkeno can pack some surprisingly mature flavours!
The Casks and Cooperage

Pōkeno is picky when it comes to their casks and it’s a big factor in setting them apart. With experimental casks from friends as well as house-made casks from unique wood types, they offer something extremely different and rare.
“We are obviously very proud to have New Zealand’s only Cooperage at the distillery, and to have started crafting barrels out of New Zealand native wood.”
They have released a whisky aged in a Totara Cask, marking the start of their native NZ wood experiments with more to come. When Nigel visited, he saw them working on something with Kauri wood… our eyes are certainly peeled.
“Totara is the indigenous tree that built Aotearoa,” they explain, “From the arrival of Māori, the timber from this tree was used to build waka, homes, carvings, weapons and containers for storing food. The wood is hard and straight grained, with very sweet and creamy notes when toasted… Mike our Cooper has handcrafted what are the world’s first ever 200 litre totara barrels for maturing whisky, and given them a light toast and a light char.”
When not making their own barrels in their cooperage, they source extremely carefully and only use the barrels once due to the accelerated maturation the climate provides.
Their first fill bourbon casks are sourced from Jack Daniels in the US, their sherry barrels are from Bodegas Miguel Martin in Spain, and their port and wine casks from only the finest wineries in Portugal and New Zealand.
The Pōkeno Team

Matt & Céline Johns
Founders

Pōkeno’s founders are Matt & Céline Johns, originally from England & France. Matt’s brother, Gez, lived in New Zealand so they’d visited over the years, but after attending Gez’s wedding in 2012 they said the quiet part out loud – they wanted to stay. Five years later, work on Pōkeno Whisky started. By 2019, they were distilling and by 2022 their first kiwi single malts were released. In the 3 years since this release, they’ve made ripples internationally.
Whisky runs in Matt’s veins, with over 25 years experience in the business back over in the UK, mostly in Scotland. He had worked with storied distilleries such as Glen Morangie and Tullibardine, so had the technical know-how, but starting Pōkeno meant that he was able to use this deep knowledge to essentially throw the rule book out the window for this passion project.
Hailing from places with such ancient practices meant things there were done in a very practiced, certain way – and sometimes written into law – but New Zealand’s new-world status offered freedom for Matt to start experimenting. The Inside Whisky podcast explained “Matt didn’t want to be inspired by the past too much, but for him it was more about building their own story.”
It was Matt’s knowledge and know-how that allowed him to know where to deviate from the norm’. In some ways, he reminds us of Sicilian winemaker extraordinaire, Frank Cornelissen, who said “If you haven’t gone over the edge, how do you know where the edge is? Now, after 20 years, I know where the edge is.” Kindred spirits, perhaps.
His knowledge also allowed him to find an incredible and somewhat out-of-left-field location for the distillery. Matt recognized the Pōkeno area had two notable characteristics that worked for whisky: the water and the climate.
“Obviously, in production of whisky the water’s incredibly important,” explained Matt to DrinksBiz, “We managed to build the distillery over a water aquifer, and it’s a type of water that’s really rich in iron and manganese, so it’s great for distilling. Secondly, the levels of humidity and atmospheric pressure here in Pōkeno are crazy, and that all acts to accelerate maturation.”
Mike Tawse
Cooper and Distiller

Mike Tawse looks every bit the part – if you envision a Scottish whisky drinker, chances are your conjuration looks pretty much like Mike.
Hailing from Scotland, Mike is New Zealand’s only cooper, working in New Zealand’s only cooperage at Pōkeno. Mike was hired when Matt started thinking about how cool it would be to experiment with different kinds of wooden barrels that really reflected their origin. The problem being, he wasn’t a cooper and there wasn’t a cooperage in New Zealand to collaborate with. There are also laws around exporting native wood from NZ, so sending materials to a cooper overseas was not on the cards. Undeterred, Matt decided to make a call…
“I just randomly rang up one of my former contacts in Scotland to ask if they knew a cooper who would like to work in New Zealand,” he told the NZ Herald.
Enter – Mike. He’d always liked the idea of working in Australia or New Zealand but without anywhere to utilise his talents, it simply didn’t eventuate. So when he heard about this rising distillery in Pōkeno floating some pretty exciting and ambitious ideas, he couldn’t believe his luck. He packed his tools – some that had been handed down from his father – and made the trek here, where he has now also trained as a distiller, so he has a part in all stages of the Pōkeno process.
Together, Mike and Matt are a force to be reckoned with, bouncing ideas off each other and making them happen. They’re experimenting and creating all sorts of things and learning as they go.
“We did trials with different types of native wood to find what types work well with the whisky,” Matt told the NZ Herald. “We tested six different native woods, but only two ticked the boxes. We found mānuka and pōhutukawa were way too powerful, for example, but tōtara worked perfectly.”
The Whiskies

The Core Range

Pōkeno Origin Single Malt
- First Fill Bourbon Casks
- An incredibly sweet and round whisky, toasted vanilla beans and sweet butterscotch give way to citrus notes, creamy toffee and hints of caramelised banana for a sweet, complex and lingering finish.
- 2023 Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards – Best World Single Malt – Gold
- 2024 World Spirits Competition – Gold
- 2024 World Whiskies Awards – Silver
- Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2024 – 92 Points

Pōkeno Discovery Single Malt
- First Fill Bourbon and Sherry Casks
- A rich and complex whisky, with beautiful notes of dark chocolate, black forest gateau, ripe cherries and sweet citrus, giving way to a rich, smooth and incredibly long finish.
- 2023 Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards – Gold
- 2024 World Whiskies Awards – Silver
- International Wine & Spirits Competition 2024 – Silver

Pōkeno Revelation Single Malt
- First Fill Bourbon and New Zealand Red Wine Barrels
- It is a sweet and smooth whisky, with beautiful notes of mango, grapefruit, strawberry bonbons, lychee and sherbet, which combine for a sweet and smooth taste of summer.
- International Wine & Spirits Competition 2024 – Gold/95 Points
- Jim Murray’s ‘The Whisky Bible’ – Liquid Gold Award/94 Points
The Exploration Series

Pōkeno Totara Cask Single Malt
- First Fill Bourbon Casks with Second Maturation in Totara Barrels
- 46% ABV
- On the nose there are notes of creamy coconut, sweet scented sap, ripe white peach and freshly cut wood. In the mouth we discover bitter lemon, stone fruit and hints ofdark chocolate for a long and sweet finish.
- International Wine & Spirits Competition – Gold/95 Points
- World Whiskies Awards – Silver

Pōkeno Winter Malt Single Malt
- First Fill Bourbon Casks
- 48% ABV
- A unique selection of malts for the mashbill give this whisky its profile. Manuka Smoked Malt, Chocolate Roasted Malt, Toffee Malt and Laureate Distillers Malt. On the nose there is sweet honeyed smoke, chocolate caramel slice, vanilla bean and toffee. In the mouth notes of bitter dark chocolate and cocoa beans, mingle beautifully with creamy fudge, for a long, sweet and smoky finish.
- San Francisco World Spirits Competition – Double Gold
- International Wine & Spirits Competition – Silver/91 Points
- Whisky Advocate, 91 Points