Robert Brewer: Spirits NZ CEO on the start of New Zealand Spirits Awards 2026

The 2026 New Zealand Spirits Awards have gotten underway for another year, with judging beginning today and continuing tomorrow.

The awards are set to commemorate the very best in local and internationally available spirits within their categories.

Spirits NZ CEO Robert Brewer says a 'remarkable' number of entries have been admitted and the judges are working their way through the options.

"You've sort of got to keep innovating and keeping up with the times, so we've got a design and packaging award, emerging products - we even go and judge best cocktail bars, bar vendors." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There was a big day today for the New Zealand Distillers.

(00:02):
The Spirit's Awards for the Year for twenty twenty six
is being judged in Wellington today and tomorrow. Robert Brewer
is the New Zealand Spirits CEO and he's with us.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hi Robert here, good ay, hell are you?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm very well? Thank you. Now, how do you explain
to me that there is a record number of entries
this year?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Well, the we're just as pleased and surprise we've got
four hundred and eighty eight and that's a remarkable number
of entries given the pressure that everybody's under at the moment,
and so we've gratefully received all those entries and the
judges are now quietly working their way through them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
What are your categories? Do you've got gin, You've got whiskey,
Have you got tequila?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yep? Yeah, all the classics as you've named, And we
also have a whole lot the range of other different
awards that we've added as we've added in over the years,
because you've sort of got to keep innovating and keeping
up with the time. So we've got like a Design
and Packaging Award, merging products, we even go and judge
best cocktail bars, barpenders. We do some pairing with our

(01:06):
key sponsor's Fever Tree, so we do a Gin and
Tonic Pairing Award, etc. And they just all keep on
growing and growing every year.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Do you have to do it? I mean, have you
put your hand up and said, yeah, I'll do the
cocktail bars because I would?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
No, I keep well away because I run Spirits New
Zealand and my members are part of the entries. I've
sort of got to keep well back. Pity, but we've
got But you're not kidding, that's for sure. I went
down there today and had to look around and went,
oh my goodness, because you stand out the back. So
you imagine you've got twenty twenty four judges and they're

(01:40):
each judging flights with about six and you go out
the back and it's all done blind tasting, and out
the back of the ego beavers pouring the next flights,
and all you see in front of you are these
beautiful liquids which you can't touch.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
No, no, not until obviously they've been tested, in which case,
get right in there.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Hey.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
So we were talking about this today Kevin. Kevin the
producer he's like, he's not cool anymore. So he said
to me, oh, Gin's the thing nowadays. I said, Gin
was the thing five years ago. And then ants popped
up and said, well, maybe it's tequila, that's the thing.
I said, I think it might be a cocktail, that's
the thing. What is the thing?

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, the thing has been Gin. I mean, Gin has
been has been like and you're quite right the renaissance
and Gin happened about five or six eight years ago.
It's still very, very strong and it's the basis on
which the New Zealand industry is built. But globally, globally,
tequila is showing strong. But there's no doubt hither. You're

(02:34):
right that the thing that has underwritten and continues to
support the global spirits industry and here in New Zealand
is the cocktail. New Zealanders love cocktails. And you know,
all you've got to do is go online. All you've
got to do is go to a party or anything
like that, and people start you start mentioning cocktails, and
people start saying, when I make this, and I make that.

(02:56):
My favorite favorite is a dry gen martini. I will
tell you that classy. I can't go past it.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yeah, I can't go, but you're a classy man, Robert,
thank you for that. Appreciated and good luck with the awards.
That's Robert Brewer, New Zealand Spirits CEO. I reckon of
Martini Martinez A good good first go when you get
to the restaurant, isn't it that? Or in Negronie. I've
got a friend who slams the Groni's, Like, seriously, she
will just go one n the Groni two. She doesn't
even seem drunk after that. I'm like, I can maximum too.

(03:24):
She just goes one after the other. Anyway, I love
a Negroni too. For more from Hither Duplassy Allen Drive,
listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
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