Wilsons back better than ever

New Zealand Whisky Company general manager Michael Byars holds a bottle of Wilsons Whisky. PHOTO:...
New Zealand Whisky Company general manager Michael Byars holds a bottle of Wilsons Whisky. PHOTO: NZ WHISKY COMPANY
It's back.

Wilsons Whisky — one of Otago’s legendary brands — is returning to celebrate the man who developed it and commemorate one of the region’s best-known exports.

The very last casks of Wilsons blended whisky, distilled at Dunedin’s Willowbank distillery from the 1960s to mid-1990s, have been bottled by the New Zealand Whisky Company.

It was developed by food scientist Richard Boraman, who died late last year and, for much of its time, Wilsons was second only to Johnnie Walker in terms of sales in New Zealand, NZ Whisky Company general manager Michael Byars said.

Meenans Liquorland general manager Donna Hogg was excited about the temporary return of the brand.

"We’ve had an old Wilsons bottle up on display in the store for years. You wouldn’t believe how many of our customers see it and tell us a story of their family memories of Wilsons — from parties, wakes, around the kitchen table or connections with the distillery itself."

Cyril Yates, who worked at the distillery from 1974 to 1995, said the great thing about the latest batch of Wilsons was it was now 21 years old.

"We always made good spirits but it was released a bit young. Now it’s had more than enough time to mature into this delicious, syrupy vanilla and caramel-note, whisky which all my work pals back in the distillery days would be so proud of," he said.

Mr Yates described Mr Boraman as a pioneer who would have been thrilled to see Wilsons back on the shelves.

"He started the whole thing off, under the cover of secrecy for the Baker brothers, who became the company Cerebos Greggs.

"The Bakers wanted to diversify into the business of whisky but didn’t want anyone to know what they were doing. Dick was a young food scientist and had to learn everything from scratch because none of the Scottish distilleries would share any information," Mr Yates said.

"He got a really, really old technical book from the 1800s and designed our distillery all by himself, working with local coppersmiths and boilermakers."

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