S2 Ep1: Rob Auld, Auld Farm Distillery
A seed-to-sip philosophy is the approach at Auld Farm Distillery, where the Auld family harvest the grain from their Southland farm and take a fresh new approach to bottling the essence of their land, their history and their story.
Rob and Toni Auld combine the grain from their paddocks and pure water from their own spring in an onsite distillery, resulting in a stellar range of whisky, gin and other spirits for the discerning punter.
The site of Auld Farm Distillery has been growing grain since 1883. Three generations of family – all named Robert – have worked the land in this isolated corner of New Zealand, right at the bottom of the world.
Rob has always enjoyed a tipple of whisky and with a push from a Rabobank course, he created a business plan to diversify the family business and ensure opportunity for all three of the couple’s sons, in the form of an on-farm distillery.
“Grandad came to the farm May 1924, so we are coming up 100 years, he came for a trip south to find a farm, fell in love with the place and, as yet, nobody’s really seen a reason to leave. It’s a beautiful part of the world.”
The property is 200 hectares, with good soils. Three-quarters of the business is growing grain, and the remaining quarter is in grass to maintain a good rotation for soils. They grow nine different grains that feed through to the distillery, as well as commercial grains.
There are 600 breeding ewes, and fat lambs are an important part of the operation.
The seed for the idea of a distillery was sown in 2005 when Rob and Toni were on their way home from Christchurch. They stopped in Oamaru for lunch, a little whisky shop caught their eye and they were offered a look through the bond store, which they jumped at.
“The first thing that strikes you going in there is the smell of aging whisky, that was pretty cool. What was even cooler, I noticed on the ends of the casks that were ex-Wilson’s distillery from Dunedin were the years 1987, 88 and 89. They were years the farm here used to supply malt barley to Wilsons. I couldn’t help thinking that somewhere in those casks was actually grain that had come full circle and gone into a product that I loved. As a primary producer you send thousands of tonnes of product out the gate every year and never see them again.”
They asked themselves if it was possible to do that again, but shelved it as a dream for the time being. They dabbled in home brewing beer but distilling remained a mystery, a bit of a dark art, to Rob.
In 2015 he was encouraged by Rabobank to complete their Executive Development programme, and that was the catalyst. At the end of the course he had 10 months to put together a business plan that would represent a wholesale change on farm. It was well received, and they decided to give it a crack.
“We thought, can an avid whisky drinker actually become a producer? So, we immersed ourselves in the world of whisky.”
It turned out Tasmania was a mecca for whisky distilling, and they went there to train. Their stills were built in Tasmania in 2017 and shipped to New Zealand, where they were assembled on-site.
“Everything has just sort of kicked off from there. Originally it was just a 30 litre still and progressed from there…we’re going through a big upgrade at the moment.”
Their first full maturation whisky is due to come out of the barrels in 2025, and it’s a day that can’t come soon enough for Rob. “Every day is a day closer, but man alive, that will be so cool.”
In the meantime, the majority of their products are brewed from malt barley. “Our big point of difference, apart from growing that grain from a seed, we got explorative and thought could we do it with other grains, like oats?”
Not being bound by tradition, the Aulds are a new-world distillery leaning on the tradition of copper pot stills and distilling in Scotland, but able to experiment with new grains and varieties without risking alienating their core customer base. This has resulted into forays into not only oats, but wheat, maize, barley and anything they love and can grow on farm.
“We were a little disruptive, because we wanted to cut through the noise. Things like single malt oat, black barley and purple wheat. It’s a little disruptive, really interesting, and they taste amazing. We can explore and try new things.”
As Rob says, everybody needs a cask of whisky in their life.
Show notes
Website: www.aulddistillery.co.nz
Facebook: @AuldDistillery
Instagram: @aulddistillery
Listen on
