Thomson ‘Ninety Four’

Kia Ora! From our SOLD OUT highlight whisky of 2023 we are off again to the land of the long white cloud for another of NZ’s finest whiskies – This time a SINGLE CASK expression – The Thomson Whisky Cask Ninety Four – bottled EXCLUSIVELY for you!

Now you may remember that back in 2023 we released the celebrated Thomson Manuka Smoke Whisky into Australia –to say we got some positive feedback is an understatement. In fact, we got so much excellent feedback that we thought we should try another of their expressions – this one exclusive to the Club!

This time around though, we’re going to put Thomsons to test with a classic combination of un-peated, bourbon cask matured whisky. The spirit for this expression was filled in a 200L American oak single ex-bourbon (Jim Beam) cask for 5 years (put down on September 2019) before being disgorged and cut to 46.5% for bottling. Mat Thomson (Head Distiller and Owner) came across the cask when he was doing his monthly barrel survey and flagged it right away. He phoned me and said “this one’s ready. It’s delicious. It’s an early cask of ours so it’s special to share this with you all”. What else could we do but say “Giddy Up Mat”!

Mat Thomson believes that this ‘tried and true’ formula is the best way to evaluate the skill of the distiller as there’s very little to hide behind. No smoke to smooth out roughness or patch over deficiencies in the distillers’ craft, no massive fruity influences from dripping fortified casks. Accordingly, Mat steered me towards a single ex-Jim Beam cask that he felt showcases his own talents perfectly!

Interestingly, Thomson’s began life in 2009 as an independent bottling company specializing in NZ spirit (principally from the now-closed Willowbank Distillery). However, Mat Thomson was doing a little experimenting in home distillation at the same time – and in 2014 the Thomson’s took the big step and built their distillery, beginning production of their own whisky and moving out of indy bottling.

In keeping with their ethos of using what is around them, the raw ingredient in all Thomson Whiskies is 100% New Zealand grown malted barley, from the Canterbury region of the South Island. The malted barley [in this case] has been kiln dried without smoke, capturing all the rich flavours of the terroir of Canterbury and the months of sunshine typical of the environment. Canterbury holds a number of world records for the highest yield of barley grown, showing it’s a prime location. It’s a cooler, drier place than the North Island and the ground water comes directly from the Southern Alps.