Islay’s smoky single malt, Ardbeg, is on a quest to find its most devoted fans. To celebrate 25 years of the Ardbeg Committee and the opening of its boutique hotel, Ardbeg House, fans can win the ultimate whisky pilgrimage to Islay.
Two winners will be announced on December 6, 2025, and will travel to Islay in May next year. The prize includes two Premium Economy flights and a three-night stay at Ardbeg House, offering a world-class whisky and hospitality experience.
The competition closes November 30, 2025. To enter, submit a photo or short video with a caption showcasing your Ardbeg devotion. Join others like Tynan Sidhu of Silver’s Motel, who celebrates the bond among Ardbeg lovers, and help crown one winner with the People’s Choice Award. Entry is exclusively through www.ardbegcommitte.com.au — hit the link for more information.
Back in July, I visited Wellington, NZ, for the very first time, to participate in the judging of the NZ Spirits Awards. There’s a lot of good things going on in New Zealand; the drinks and bars — though there are fewer of them — are great, and the quality of spirits right up there with the best in the world.
Many of the problems we face in Australia, they’re also facing New Zealand: the cost of everything is going up, the tax is too high (though cheaper than in Australia), and competition is tougher than ever. These all apply to both bars and to spirits brands.
What I loved about the NZ Spirits Awards is the way they open the competition and judging up to spirits from overseas — and more often than not, the locally made stuff is doing better than the big brands from overseas. (One notable exception I found: the mezcal from Del Maguey was exceedingly better than any local agave entered in the comp — put the Chichicapa next to an agave made from imported agave syrup, and the gap in quality is blindingly obvious.)
Below, I speak to Dave Hawk, who is a board member of Distilled Spirits Aotearoa, NZ Spirits Awards organiser, and one of New Zealand’s OG quality bartenders, about where NZ spirits are at, the challenges they face, and why they’re hugely behind the wine industry.
Following that is the next instalment of The Last Drop, in which we give a quick review of new and interesting booze to come across our desks here at Boothby.
Let’s get into it.
Q&A with... Dave Hawk, New Zealand Spirits Awards
New Zealand spirits are in a good place, if this year’s NZ Spirits Awards are any guide. Judging took place in July, and saw 24 judges assessing the merits of 550-odd spirits from both New Zealand and abroad; of the 13 trophies provided to the best gold medal examples, only three were won by international bottlings.
Here, Dave Hawk — Distilled Spirits Aotearoa board member and NZ Spirits Awards organiser — talks in more depth about the state of New Zealand’s spirits.
BOOTHBY: Why is it important to have the international spirits included and judged alongside New Zealand spirits?
So the awards started as an opportunity for New Zealand distillers to be able to be compared against the best global brands that are available in the local market. Now we see that about two thirds or even more than that of the entries are local products. The [local] industry is a lot more mature than it was seven years ago, and there might be some merit in having it standing alone as New Zealand products rather than the others. Although I think from a consumer perspective, it’s quite useful for them to be able to see the things that we’re identifying as better.
The event is a joint venture between two industry bodies. So there’s Spirits New Zealand, which is the representative body of global brands here. And there’s Distilled Spirits Aotearoa, which is the governing body for our local distilleries.
What does the standard of New Zealand spirits look like against those benchmark spirits over time?
I think that we are getting better. I think that we’ve probably reached a bit of a saturation in terms of gin. There’s only so many local botanicals that you can squeeze into a bottle and we’ve probably found every botanical that’s possible.
Where it’s interesting now is that a bunch of the guys that started out with gin have been ageing other products and so we’re starting to see good local expressions of some of that next stage. The last couple of years has been rum. Now we’re starting to see whiskies. The longer that we wait with the whiskies, the better that they seem to be becoming.
What do you think marks New Zealand spirits out in comparison to other places around the world?
That’s a hard one. The obvious answer is the unique nature of some of our native botanicals. One of the things that I find unique about what’s happening here is that our distilleries are anywhere from one man bands to medium-sized businesses to big businesses and they’re really geographically dispersed.
How far behind the NZ wine industry is the spirits industry?
Hugely, hugely behind.
Because New Zealand Wine is a massive brand around the world. Do you think New Zealand spirits can do that?
I think with the right guidance. If we allow New Zealand to get out of control, producing shit in a very crap way, then we’re going to have a bad reputation. But if we make sure everything we’re producing is of a really quality standard?
The wine industry is really sophisticated here. They lobby well, they have a lot of importance and they’re viewed differently by government. At the moment there’s very little regulation in spirits and there’s very little support. Excise continues to go up. It’s becoming more and more tough.
You folks pay less alcohol excise on spirits than we do in Australia.
Sure. But Australia has a rebate system which we’re trying to encourage. Here, excise is linked to the consumer price index. And so it goes up year on year by about 2.5%. The most recent change on the 1st of July had a $14 million (NZD) impact on our producers. On a 700ml bottle in New Zealand of gin, produces paying about $22, $23 in tax now. So it’s problematic for creating an even playing field. Some of our distilleries are struggling.
Tourism is a big thing for New Zealand, you must want to encourage people to visit small distilleries?
Sure. And so if you’re massive distillery or something, you can cop the excise because you can just make more spirit. The challenge is that the New Zealand government looks at this purely from a revenue perspective. They think, okay, we can grab another $14 million, but they’re not thinking about how many small businesses potentially go to the wall and the costs of those. They haven’t done the rest of that modelling.
The issue is that if two or three businesses go to the wall, then that money is lost anyway. And also, where are these businesses employing people? Because they’re employing in areas that aren’t main city centres. And so there’s actually some benefit in what these small businesses are doing and how that’s spread around. New Zealand as a wine industry has done well to establish itself as a known region; we’ve got a lot of work to do to for New Zealand spirits to get there.
The Last Drop
Short reviews of good things to drink that have landed on our desks.
MARIONETTE ELDERFLOWER
marionette.com.au
@marionetteliqueur
Marionette have well and truly established themselves as Australia’s best liqueur producer, and it’s probably fair to say that there is no one better than them in this particular hemisphere, based off the quality of their cassis alone. (I am unabashed fan of their cassis, an unsanctioned and unofficial ambassador). Their most recent release to cross our desks is this elderflower liqueur, and it doesn’t disappoint.
Our notes: lifted elderflower aromas from the glass, this is expressive stuff — notes of lemon, honey, florals are here too. The palate is light to medium bodied, with good balance, full of elderflower flavour with a long juicy finish lengthened by a drying green tea note and a delicious, lingering presence. Quality gear.
Islay’s smoky single malt, Ardbeg, is on a quest to find its most devoted fans. To celebrate 25 years of the Ardbeg Committee and the opening of its boutique hotel, Ardbeg House, fans can win the ultimate whisky pilgrimage to Islay.
Two winners will be announced on December 6, 2025, and will travel to Islay in May next year. The prize includes two Premium Economy flights and a three-night stay at Ardbeg House, offering a world-class whisky and hospitality experience.
The competition closes November 30, 2025. To enter, submit a photo or short video with a caption showcasing your Ardbeg devotion. Join others like Tynan Sidhu of Silver’s Motel, who celebrates the bond among Ardbeg lovers, and help crown one winner with the People’s Choice Award. Entry is exclusively through www.ardbegcommitte.com.au — hit the link for more information.
