Oamaru-based at present, the company has just signed distribution deals with Woolworths in Australia, and separately with New Zealand duty-free outlet JR's, to stock its range of mainly single-malt whiskies, one of which officially becomes "25-year-old" this year.
Tasmanian-based businessman Greg Ramsay, who led an international syndicate of nine investors to buy the whisky-barrel assets from receivership in October 2010, said that aside from land costs, construction of a whisky distillery had been priced at $1.7 million.
"The focus for 2012 is production. Preferably, we'd like to go into a character building; Dunedin has so many beautiful old buildings," he said during a visit earlier this week.
Of the 450 barrels bought in 2010, about 225 were single-malt then about 18 to 24 years old, which had been branded Lammerlaw, and the other 225 were the former Wilsons brand, which were at least 12 years old.
Mr Ramsay about 20% of the original stock had been bottled, with about 360 barrels left.
"We need to think about production coming in as stocks wind down," he said.
Ideally, barley and malt ingredients would be sourced from around the South Island.
He said the deal with Woolworths in Australia, which operates four separate liquor chain stores, was likely to account for half of the remaining stock during the next four to six years.
He understood that for every $A1 ($NZ1.30) spent on off-premise liquor purchases in Australia, Woolworths had the equivalent of an A38c market share.
While Australians were paying $A89 for a bottle of Dunedin DoubleWood, in New Zealand, the DoubleWood price was $NZ79.
The single malts include brands Milford, 1987, Cask Strength 1988 and South Island Single Malt, and blends Water of Leith and Dunedin DoubleWood.
Mr Ramsay said the United Kingdom's second-largest distributor, Gordon and MacPhail, was interested in stocking its New Zealand-origin whisky, which in general had been boosted by the brand of New Zealand moving up the global rankings from seventh to fourth recently, ahead of Australia.
Retail sales and tastings have been established in a seven-day cellar-door outlet in the Loan and Mercantile in Oamaru's historic precinct, and a part-time outlet in Dunedin's railway station, timed for cruise-ship visits.
• The syndicate paid an undisclosed sum for the whisky assets of a company that had been placed in receivership in February 2010 by South Canterbury Finance, owing an estimated $3 million.
