After eight years in development, Scapegrace Distilling Co officially unveiled its $30million state-of-the art facility yesterday.
The Central Otago distillery, located on a 38ha property overlooking Lake Dunstan, measures 3000sq m and comprises a head office, bottling facility, warehousing and barrel hall along with the newly completed distillery — which includes single-malt production and a white spirits portfolio of gin and vodka.
The new facilities will allow Scapegrace to produce 160,000 cases of single-malt whisky a year, and has been touted by its owners as the largest distillery in the country.
Co-founder Daniel McLaughlin said he was “pretty stoked” to have the distillery completed, and it had been quite a journey to get there.
An official opening ceremony would take place in the new year.
During development, the company made the change of running the distillery on electricity rather than fossil fuels, to reduce its carbon footprint, as well as building the structure out of timber rather than steel.
“It was kind of ‘do it once, do it right’.”
About 300 workers had been employed during the construction period and at present about 20 people were employed full-time at the distillery, which would be scaled up to nearly double in the coming years.
Distilling at the site began in about September, and the company was planning to have the distillery open for tours and tastings within the next year.
Mr McLaughlin estimated about 60% of Scapegrace’s shareholders lived in the region, and as the company grew it could be “quite a large contributor” to economic development in Central Otago and wider Otago.
Indirect economic benefit for the region would flow from operations such as freight and from the support of local manufacturers and suppliers over time.
“It’ll be quite a significant tourist attraction, I think, for the Central Otago region.
“On the world stage, we currently export to about 40 countries and every piece of our collateral promoting Scapegrace will essentially be promoting this distillery, location and setting, which is indirectly promoting Central Otago to the world, which is pretty exciting.”
The company had been founded with the intention of bringing “everything about New Zealand” and its spirits to a global audience, he said.
tim.scott@odt.co.nz
