While Scotland and Japan tend to dominate conversations around premium whisky, Waiheke Whisky is proving world-class single malt can come from a small island in the Hauraki Gulf

For more than a decade, Waiheke Whisky has been producing peated single malt whisky, refining its craft, building its reputation and steadily collecting awards, 42 to be exact, along the way. What started as an ambition shared among friends has grown into one of New Zealand’s most distinctive whisky stories. 

Set among the vineyards and olive groves that define Waiheke, the distillery feels deeply connected to the island itself. In its early days, much of the equipment was designed and built from scratch, with brewing veteran Tony Denny, former chief brewer for Lion Nathan, helping establish the distillery in 2010 and teaching the fundamentals of mashing and fermentation that still underpin production today.

Engineer Eric Watson later helped create the reflux-driven stills that define Waiheke Whisky’s character, while acclaimed winemaker Paddy Newton now oversees distillation and quality control, bringing another layer of refinement to production. Together, the team describes themselves as “incredibly skilled friends, all working toward the same goal: to make the best single malt we can, and have fun while doing it.”

At the heart of it all is founder Mark Izzard and his long-held dream of building a space to share with friends and family, that dream is now an internationally awarded reality. “New Zealand has a strong history of doing things differently, and from the start we felt a strong urge to innovate rather than imitate,” Izzard says. That philosophy runs through every part of the operation, from a one-of-a-kind geodesic copper still to the bespoke software Izzard and Watson coded themselves to run the distillery in real time.

Everything about Waiheke Whisky reflects a strong local ethos. Water comes from a natural aquifer beneath the distillery, and maturation happens entirely on the Island. Many of the casks used for ageing come from vineyards less than a kilometre from the distillery itself, something Newton says contributes to the whisky’s earthy, balanced and distinctly Waiheke flavour profile. 

At the 2025 World Whisky Awards in London, the distillery’s DYAD Peat + Port expression was named Category Winner for Small Batch Single Malt (12 Years & Under), while Waiheke Moss took out Best Overall World Whisky at the 2025 NZ Spirits Awards, a category traditionally dominated by international producers. “This recognition comes at a pivotal moment for us,” says Izzard. “With expanded production capacity now in place, we’re excited to see what the future of Waiheke Whisky holds internationally.”

Waiheke Whisky is located at 64 Onetangi Road, Waiheke Island, with distillery tours running daily. Learn more HERE