Our Moonlight Creek Whisky programme is led by Angus Hay, an experienced Head Distiller, who commenced his distilling career at The Glenlivet Distillery in Scotland. 

The Glenlivet Distillery is one of Scotland’s oldest and largest distilleries, and has a strong reputation for excellence.  More recently, Gus was contracted to establish and run a new distillery in Canada, including all new product development.

Angus is overseeing every aspect from equipment, ingredient, and cask selection through to bottling, to ensure Moonlight Creek Single Malt Whisky will stand amongst the world’s best.

This is sourced from New Zealand’s South Island.

Casks will be laid down from the first quarter of 2022 and will be stored on site at our Reefton distillery. This is an important point as terroir, as proximity to the rainforest will all play a significant role in imparting the desired characteristics into Moonlight Creek Whisky.

Yes, this is possible for our 200L and larger private casks.  While the price you pay for your private cask will be set for a pre-determined bottling window, we are happy to store your cask for longer. 

There is an annual management fee, invoiced annually in advance for this service.  The fee includes e.g. insurance, storage and our distilling team’s time to monitor and care for your Moonlight Creek Whisky.

This fee will cover insurance, storage space, distiller’s time to manage the maturation etc. The fee will be set in 2022 and may be adjusted each year.

We would be delighted to have you visit us in Reefton and we will extend an invitation to you nearer the time of your private cask fill. We will hold invitation only filling events throughout the year. If you would prefer a private event that you can bring a small number of friends or family to, we can discuss this nearer the time.

Absolutely. Periodically your cask will be sampled, and you will be able to sample at the distillery or receive a 50ml bottle of your maturing spirit so you can appreciate the taste and changes in profile of the whisky over time.

This is a great idea and we do have a number of requests for this. As you will appreciate, any bespoke design must be aligned with the Moonlight Creek Whisky branding. We are happy to discuss this with you, however all compliance requirements and any additional costs will need to be met by the purchaser.

Unfortunately not, as we need to care for and monitor the spirit during maturation. We put as much care and expertise into caring for the spirit during maturation, as we do in the development and production of the new make spirit, therefore the atmosphere it sits in, and the locale with other similar casks, is all relevant to the overall characteristic of Moonlight Creek Single Malt Whisky. This is what makes it unique to New Zealand’s West Coast.

Yes you are welcome to keep your cask and these make intriguing talking points in boardrooms, BBQ areas and as furniture items. We will be able to provide you with freight costs at the time, if you aren’t able to pick it up.

Another option includes us purchasing the cask back from you (subject to Reefton Distilling Co. requirements at the time) and we can discuss price with you at the time of bottling.

This is one of our most frequently asked questions, and absolutely we would be pleased to do this. As a special member of our Reefton Distilling Co. family, we would be delighted to have you continue your journey with us.