Fate brought us here and I truly believe that. We were supposed to go mountain carting but the weather cancelled any plans of barreling down the hill. And unfortunately I missed the email and we drove all the way to the closed gates of the resort but just as I was checking my rear view mirror to back up, the Cardrona distillery came into view. Earlier in the week, I stopped by a Super Liquor and sampled the Falcon...loved it. So much that I bought a bottle to take back home. Again, I said that fate led us here and so with an empty parking lot, we had the distillery to ourselves and we were so impressed with how generous they were with the sampling pours. Honestly I wish I had another suitcase because I only had room for one more bottle so we settled on the finished in Pinot Noir casks bottle. The grounds were elegant and it reminded me of a Napa Valley winery. But the whiskies and liquors themselves put them on the world map for me. Cardrona was ready for us. read more

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We had some wonderful small bites at the bar with a cocktail pairing and then some tastings of their whiskey. We knew of Cardrona Distillery whiskey from a tasting we did last week in Christchurch. The whiskey is more like highland scotch rather than the bourbon and rye's I gravitate towards, but tasty and high quality nonetheless. When we discovered that the distillery was on the way from our stay in Wanaka to Arrowtown, it was a no brainer and good decision to drop by. The walk up to the distillery from the parking area was about 50 meters up a medium graded gravel path. Upon reaching the entrance you immediately see some separately enclosed eating/tasting areas with the reception area easy to find. The reception as well as the bar and eating area was beautifully decorated. The menu's are printed daily and change somewhat regularly as per one of the staff members. We had a delicious King Salmon small bite and a couple of oysters on the half shell. They had a very reasonable box lunch for our little girl ($15 NZ). After paying the bill and about to leave, another of the kind wait staff saw me eyeing a tray of whiskey, gin and aperitif's and offered a further sampling. Altogether, it was a wonderful visit and well worth the short visit. If we hadn't already been full from multiple coffees and a late breakfast before leaving Wanaka, we could have made a whole afternoon out of our visit to Cardrona Distillery read more

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