It’s been a thrilling and busy change moving our distillery from town to our 25-acre rural piece of paradise. Local quality ingredients are the key for us, from the water to the limes, so it was a natural but not an easy transition to move into the propagation of the plants and botanicals that make our spirits so special.

Our main job during lock-down was some TLC for our Blue Agave Tequilana plants. These fascinating plants take at least seven years to be ready to become Tequila, so there is a lot of weeding and sweet talking to do along the way.

We started with re-potting a few thousand baby Blue Agave Tequilana plants and then moved on to the big job, planting hundreds of adult plants out on our hill block. They are already flourishing and seem to be loving the commanding views of beautiful Golden Bay from their vantage point.

Growing a succulent from Mexico in New Zealand has been a very interesting learning curve. Our first few attempts were spectacularly unsuccessful but now, we have thousands of plants thriving and our next batch of TeKiwi 100% Blue Agave Tequilana Spirit is only a few short years away.

These uncertain times have had a silver lining for us here at Kiwi Spirit Distillery. We have been able to spend time away from the hustle and bustle of our business’s daily needs and get back to our roots, focusing on the land and our craft. This time for creative expression has led to some very exciting new developments that we can't wait to share.