Visiting the Cardrona Distillery was a highlight in our 10 day South Island road trip. Unsurprisingly, as lovers of food and wine, this place was always on our bucket list for when we came to Central Otago. Elegantly designed with extremely friendly, fun and enthusiastic staff- we are really glad we swung by!
Situated approximately 20 minutes outside Wanaka, the drive along the Crown Range scenic route was easily my favourite drive of the road trip. I loved the snaky roads, slowly climbing higher and higher, the sheer drops at some points, and the phenomenal views at the lookouts.
You can book private tours for Cardrona Distillery. I have included some ones we think are the best in terms of value for money and time.
The distillery itself is on the Crown Range Scenic Route between Queenstown to Wanaka. Extremely easy to find as it’s pretty much the only thing you’ll see on that stretch of road. Typical New Zealand!
The Tasting
Upon arrival, we were immediately handed a glass of whiskey and jumped straight into the tasting session that had just started.
There were approximately ten of us stood around our guide in a semi-circle. It was a very informal and chatty environment. I prefer smaller groups like that as it’s much more personal. I feel like I can ask those ‘stupid’ questions if I want to.
Our guide was fun and informative. He mocked Jess for still being hungover at 3pm, so extra kudos for that. He took us all through the flavours, tasting notes, aromas, colours, processes and time frames of making the spirits that we were trying. I even ate a juniper berry, which I didn’t know you could do!
Being the nosey inquisitive people we are, we were asking questions about the other spirits not in the tasting. Our guide answered all of our questions as well as giving us a taster of those too. How very generous!
We were fascinated by the vodka that had a full sized, whole pear in the bottle! How do you think they put the pear in the glass bottle? Let us know.
We really enjoyed the gin aged in ex-bourbon barrels. It was called the Source Barrel Aged Gin. They do it in an ex-pinot noir barrel too. It was a bizarrely delicious gin that had all of the flavours of gin and whiskey. Sweet and spiced but none of that burn that both spirits can have.
The Food
The whole place is stunning.
Once we had wrapped up with the spirits, we had a look around the alcohol section where all the spirits were on display. We then made our way around to the bar area and found a table (it’s all one big room so you can see the seats from where we had our tasting).
What we didn’t realise was that the day we went to the distillery was world whiskey day! What are the chances! And we didn’t know this until we sat down where it was written on the menu.
We sat and had our lunch with views of the Cardrona hills. We knew as soon as we got there, we’d be sitting looking out the window trying the food.
The food here was divine. We ate off the grazing menu and had yet more bluff oysters, (we love oysters and do get them a lot) the Stewart Island salmon and the spring onion dip. Similar to our experience at Margo’s in Queenstown, places like this make us fall in love with food all over again.
They were pretty good about Jess’ allergies. There were some things she couldn’t have so the dip was a no go for her, but I got to eat it all so who’s the real winner?
As Jess was feeling better from her hangover after a few whiskey tasters, she ordered a beetroot negroni. I was designated driver for the day, so I got a grapefruit mocktail.
If we’re in or near Wānaka again, we are absolutely coming back here for lunch. It was everything we loved and more! Delicious ingredients with minimal amounts done to them and beautifully presented.
Bookable Tours & Experiences
This section is for if you are looking to book a tour and check out these marvellous places yourself!
We have whittled down three of the best tours that we can find, which all offer slightly different things. Despite being different, you visit the Cardrona Distillery on all of them.
These tours all include wineries that we visited while we were in Queenstown, so we know what we are talking about and how cool the experience will be for you!
We only recommend things that we would genuinely do ourselves or have done ourselves.
Tour Overview - Cheapest
You can book private tours through Cardrona Distillery themselves, where they take you behind the scenes to show you where the magic happens.
Two tours are given here:
- The Classic Tour
This tour shows the where the malt for these world-famous spirits is turned from a basic raw ingredient into a form of art. You’ll then be guided through a tutored tasting session, developing your whiskey knowledge.
- The In Depth Family Reserve Tour
This tour includes all the above but takes you for a more in-depth dive. You’ll learn about maturation, temperature, and other aspects that impact whiskey. Pretty cool! We’ll let you know when we’ve done it.
Places You Visit
This tour is the only one we have suggested that only takes place at one site, Cardrona Distillery itself.
How Long Does It Take?
The Classic Tour: 75 minutes
The In Depth Family Reserve Tour: 3+ hours
Our Opinion
As you have read, we didn’t book or pay for a tour of the facilities (sadly). We just went to visit as we were on a tight time schedule. What we have learnt from our experience though, is that we absolutely want to go back for a tour of the facilities.
Our tour guides were great and we just loitered and tasted whiskey, so I can imagine you would learn so much more going behind the scenes here.
Tour Overview - Most For Your Money
An insanely packed tour package that we have found is the Queenstown Wine and Cardrona Distillery Tour. This tour takes you to some of the best wineries in Central Otago, as well as the full behind the scenes tour of Cardrona Distillery.
This tour will pick you up from your hotel and head over the Crown Range to Cardrona.
Your first stop will be the Cardrona Distillery for a behind the scenes tour of the distillery and barrelhouse, followed by a tasting session.
Next up for you is the Cardrona Hotel. We didn’t have time to visit on our 10 day road trip, unfortunately. Established in 1863, this is one of New Zealand’s oldest hotels. Here you’ll have a walk around at this historical landmark, with the option to have lunch here.
For lunch, you have three choices:
- The Cardrona Hotel
- Gibbston Valley Winery Restaurant
- Amisfield Bistro
We have had lunch at Gibbston Valley and can absolutely recommend it here as the food was delicious! When we planned our trip, it was a coin toss between here and Amisfield Bistro. Both places looked so good. So maybe play ‘rock paper scissors’.
After lunch you’ll drive through the Gibbston Valley wine region which again, is an experience! We drove through on our way into Queenstown and the amount of wineries here is mad. The location also adds so much to it, an aspect that beats the Marlborough region in my opinion because of all of the mountains of Central Otago in the background.
Places You Visit
This tour takes you to some of the best wineries in Central Otago:
Out of the places this tour takes you to, we have been to:
- The Cardrona Distillery
- Gibbston Valley Winery
- Wet Jacket Wines
- Arrowtown
Wet Jacket Wines was our favourite without a doubt. And we thoroughly enjoyed lunch at Gibbston Valley!
If you haven’t read about our time at these places, we have written this article about our wine fuelled time in Queenstown!
How Long Does It Take?
This is a whole day tour, taking approximately 7.5 hours with pickup at 10:00. This includes travel time.
Our Opinion
Having been to many of the places that this tour takes you to, we think it is great value for money. Everything that we did during our time at Queenstown is in a nicely packaged deal for you which is great.
You’ll have the opportunity to stop in at some of the best wineries in the region. You won’t just drive through this region and not get to play in what is essentially Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for adults!
The only thing you’ll have to pay for on the day will be your lunch. Everything else is sorted by the travel company. Ideal.
Tour Overview
If gin is more your thing, this is the tour for you!
As part of our time at Cardrona, we tried some of their gins and they were divine.
Same as above, you’ll drive the Crown Range to Cardrona Distillery.
At the distillery, you will experience a guided distillery tour where you’ll learn about the distilling process, followed by the opportunity to try the gins in a private tasting session.
Next stop is The Winery in Arrowtown. We loved it here and this was our first time using the card tasting system. Here you’ll enjoy a charcuterie board with your fellow passengers.
After lunch you’ll be taken to The Gin Garden by Broken Hearts Gin. If you haven’t heard of this label of gin, definitely check them out.
Here you’ll get another private tasting session.
Places You Visit
- The Cardrona Distillery
- The Winery, Arrowtown
- The Gin Garden by Broken Hearts Gin
How Long Does It Take?
Starting at 12:30, the total tour takes six hours including driving between sites.
Our Opinion
We know that whiskey is not for everyone. I certainly prefer gin to whiskey however Jess is the other way round.
Not only have we had a gin tasting session at Cardrona but also having visited The Winery in Arrowtown, we do believe that this tour is absolutely worth while. You get to visit three really unique places all producing fascinating gins. Go for it!
To book this tour, follow this link: Queenstown Gin Tour.
All of these tours are great, especially the second and third because no one in your group has to be designated driver.
Leave a comment on this post or message us on Instagram and let us know which one you go for!
If you’d prefer to do the wineries in the same way as us with the Hop On Hop Off bus, then you can book that here. Just make sure to plan your day out yourself. You may need to call some of the more boutique wineries.
The Crown Range Scenic Route
I mentioned it above, but I loved this drive.
Jess is not the biggest fan of driving on the windy roads with huge drops. So the crown range was mine for the taking.
Having seen the beauty of Queenstown from what is almost sea level, we now were seeing it from what felt like Birds Eye view!
The road winds up through the mountains between the Queenstown area and Wānaka. It’s known as one of the most scenic drives in New Zealand and really is phenomenal.
It is approximately an hour of driving heaven. If you like that kind of stuff, of course.
Thanks for reading!
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Leave a comment on this post or message us on Instagram and let us know which one you go for!
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