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October 14, 2025 • 11 mins

Nick Mills took a tour around the new Woodward Street Distillery, and interviewed James Pask, Director and General Manager, and Mikey Ball, Head Distiller. 

He finds out what's behind the scenes at Wellington's newest hospitality innovation. The distillery and soon to be bar, bringing Melbourne vibes into the city centre. 

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
B didn't my why reason, Well, one of my why
reasons for doing this job is actually getting the opportunity
to go and see new things in Wellington and have
the opportunity to talk to people and talk about new
and exciting things in Wellington. One of these is this
Woodwood Distillery. Now I came by it by chance. I

(00:35):
got the opportunity to meet and talk to James pask and.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Mickey Mickey Ball. This is a great innovation. I'll check it.
Check this out. Listen you listen up to the interview right.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I walked up a couple of weeks ago and I
walked up Woodwood Street. I was going to the dentist
and I locked on the door and I saw this
amazing looking distillery like copper pipes and copper burns, an
incredibly done up place. And then I did a little
bit of investigating and I hear that are very very
well known New Zealand chef James Paskers was involved in it.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
He's sort of the man behind the idea of it. James.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
There's a lot of money, there's a hell of a
lot of money being spent in an environment where I,
as a businessman, would almost verge on saying it's crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:25):
Well, yes, it's high risk, but it's where we're looking
to do international as well as local. We have several
brands in the works. We have Chichi Bok Penguins Crossing Gym,
and we have a tonic brand called Branda moving Forward.
And yes, so that's that's what we're that's what we're doing.
We decided to use use a small space down in

(01:46):
the basement of a heritage building to try and bring
some life back to this area of city.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
When I first saw it, I described it as something
that re zembles Melbourne up in Alleyway, something really cool
and everyone talks about it.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Yes, I mean you look at the designer behind you
got Alistair Cox who's done the design, and you know
he's he's very good at.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
What he does, very expensively.

Speaker 4 (02:11):
It's not necessarily about expense.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
It's all I can see here is money.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
I mean, I mean we're at we're at a tough time.

Speaker 4 (02:20):
Yeah, but it's you know, it's about way for money.
And I think the design and the place speaks for itself.
It has to speak about what we're doing on the
quality we're trying to achieve here.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah, I'm gonna bring Mickey and Mickey, I mean, why,
why why you could do this and conceive you or
Tawa or one of the outskirts. Why in the middle
of Lampton, Key, would you spend this.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Sort of money. It's a pretty good question, but I
think I'm known for it.

Speaker 5 (02:45):
I think one of the one of the great parts
is obviously it's currently an area that is a bit quieter,
So there's a really cool drive to kind of re
reamplify and kind of rejuvenate something that's quite a slow space.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
So you know, like you just said, when.

Speaker 5 (02:58):
You when you walk past, it's bright, it's clean, and
it kind of brings a new aspect to the street.
So that's a really exciting part. Again, good quality equipment
means we can produce great liquid and it looks great too.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
So price difference.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Tell me the difference between a bottle of your vodka
and a bottle of vodka I buy at the bottle store.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
Well, the one thing we're really trying to do is
be as competitive as possible. So whilst we're doing a
lot of things that we would call properly. There's a
lot of corners that are cut in our current industry
in New Zealand. From a distallation point of view, we're
actually distilling everything almost from scratch or adding ingredients that
are distilled. The difference is the craft, the pieces that

(03:35):
we put together in the product to give it that texture,
that flavor. We're basically looking to build something that's luxury.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
Now back to you, James Wyre Distillery.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
I mean it's part of a bigger picture. So this
is one of one of the things that we're doing
at the moment. We've got the Barning Store and there'll
be other bits and pieces in the future.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Now, if someone who pointed a gun to my head
and said who designed this place?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
When I walk past.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
It momentarily last week, I would have said Cox, it
smells of his stuff. His style always looks the same.
He'll be very disappointed that I'm maybe it's not the
same anymore.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
I don't think so. He's He's a very good designer.
I've worked with him quite a lot over the last
few years and I love his design is the best
in the best in the country of my opinion.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
So what was the brief here? I mean we're at
the back. We're in in the sort of kitchen area.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
Let's let's go through.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
I mean, but I mean the kitchen area, it's just
thinks some money. I mean beautiful tiles, beautifully beautifully set
but you know what I mean. I mean, I mean
it's you walk past here, and I mean it's a thing.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
It's a thing of beauty. This is the This is
part of the polar marketing behind it. This room here,
the reason it's tail and it looks like it is
because the very a batique small distillery and this is
you know, we're in the middle. Ones are central and
that is the calling card.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Can I just explain to our listeners what what we are.
So it's Woodward Street, right, So if you walk past
Woodwood Street and you're looking and you see these beautiful,
beautiful copper distillery units, I mean, it's something.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Out of a movie. Would you would you? I agree
that it's out of a movie. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (05:07):
It was one of the most beautiful setups I've seen
and lucky enough to work and so it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
So how much can you produce out of a small
area like this as beautiful as it is.

Speaker 5 (05:17):
This thing can produce heaps of liquid. It's probably more
down to how many palettes of spirit finished spirit we
can keep so we can produce every run. We can
produce about four hundred liters of finished spirit. But then
that needs to be bottled in, cased and put on
a palette.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
And you'll do everything out of this venue here.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
You'll you'll bottle it and you'll you'll put it on
palette between.

Speaker 5 (05:39):
The two rooms.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah, so bottling goes and happens in there like like
you've seen the two palettes. That's pretty much our palette space.
So we have to order spirit in and send it
out at pretty much the same time.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
So you haven't given me an idea what the cost
of a twenty six day course. Still call it twenty
six one liter bottle of twenty six ounce I was
going to say that shows my age.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
We have a seven hundred mil bottle yep, and tray
at the liquor store be anywhere between sixty and sixty nine.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Dollars, right, So it is a preview product with quality ingredients.

Speaker 5 (06:09):
Yeah, it is from a New Zealand point of view,
but it's also very competitive with the current rate of
vodka on the market. Arguably there's you know, we put
a lot of extra things and focus and drive into
how we build our product, and it's probably more costly
to make, but we want to make sure that people
are drinking quality and you're.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
Simply calling it the Woodward Street Distillery. Is that what
it's called? Correct Link Company?

Speaker 4 (06:34):
And then we have subbrands and you've got Bert's Bar
next door. We can convert it to Burt's Bar very shortly.
It all goes back to the history of the building.
So Bert was the original dentist who build the building
back in the eighteen seventies of doors.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Wow, we've now gone from the distillery and the back
area kitchen too. I wouldn't want to embarrass it by
calling it a taste the room, because that's probably what
it's been designed for, James.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
But it's not a tastings.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
No, it's a it's a bar in its own on
its own two legs. It's more of a place that
can enjoy our products and obviously we showcase our products
here as well.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
I mean, it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
You are not going to find an environment like this
around Wellington in any bar, right.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
It's pretty special.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
It's obviously the home of the old Boujelat, and so
we've tried to keep that in mind when with the design.
It has that sort of wine cave esque field to it,
and we're currently looking at adding a bit more of
a cocktail program to it, so you'll have fine wine
and great cocktails.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
And the idea behind putting it next to the distillery
is so that it's here as a showcase of inu.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yes, so we've got to tasting the room on the
corner as well, which is a retail space and a
place to go and have trade tastings and boat parties.
But we're also doing You've got the bar which has
got a cocktail program which utilizes all the products of it.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
I'm going to ask you again, what sort of colors
do you have to have to spend this sort of
money in this environment, in what is traditionally a retail area.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
I think it comes back to the quality of the
building and the building owner's ambitions to have something that
lasted for the test of time, to be here in
fifty sixty seven years time, not just a six year
the short term bar.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Effectively, it is magnificent.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
It's got beautiful sound, it's got a little DJ spot,
not that you'd be here for a nightclub.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
The bar itself looks like Royalty.

Speaker 4 (08:39):
There's a beautiful bar. Actually going to add another Maju
d station to the front in about three or four
weeks time because we're going to change up and improve
the wine service, so it's a much more table focused.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
So the vision of an owner of a building yourself
and a.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Distiller gives you this whole Woodwood Street that development.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Yes, it does. Indeed, it's great to have people who
have got a vision as well and they want their
vision to be matt in terms of the building and
the streetscape around the area.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Thank you very much and thanks for showing me around.
I wish you all the best.

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I think it's amazing that someone with your experience, your
wealth and knowledge is investing their time money to building
something greatful Wellington.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
It's great to have you down there. Thank you for
coming in.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
Yeah, as I say this is that's part of the
job that I love the most is to go and
be able to see stuff that's happening in Wellington. And
it is very impressive. I couldn't sing its praises high enough.
It's beautifully built. I mean Alistair Cox is definitely, you know,
the premiere architect for this sort of environment, and he's

(09:48):
done a tremendous job on that. It's tiny, small, and
it's not open at nights. It sort of finishes at
about five o'clock. It's an afternoon thing. You go and
try their vodkas. By the way, their tonic, which doesn't
come out till December. Now, I've never drunk tonic before,
but had a drink of their tonic that they're making

(10:08):
is really really outstanding, got a little tiny limey flavor
to it.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Very worth while.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
If you're looking for something really cool in Wellington, that's
exactly what it is, and you know what it does.
It's sort of it. If I get a bit of
excitement in my voice, it is because I'm excited that
Wellingtonians are starting to invest into doing something that we
should be proud of. And people around that area don't
have to have to be that area, but go down.
It's in Woodwood Street, which is down the end of
Lampton Key. It's a very cool distillery and bar, and

(10:44):
the distillery is just worth looking at. Just go in
and just look at it. I don't know whether people
can actually walk in and look at it, but you
can see it from the window. Yeah, it's outstanding and
outstanding achievement by Wellingtonians. So congratulations to James Pask, Mickey
Ball and Johnny Thompson who owns him and his brother
owned the building. They've spent a lot of money. I'm
talking millions. I'm not talking like a little bit money.

(11:06):
I'm talking millions in a small space. They've spent the
money and we as Wellingtonians, are very lucky.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
Because of it.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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