Aquifer Plateau New Zealand Vodka, The National Distillery

The base spirit, chosen through extensive blind tastings with National Distillation Company’s tasting panel, made up of their team and some of New Zealand’s best wine makers, brewers and bartenders, is high-quality ethanol made from casein whey, a by-product of grass-fed New Zealand cows.

Traditionally ethanol is manufactured using molasses, cane sugar or grain as the raw material. NDC’s supplier is one of the few in the world where casein whey is the feedstock for ethanol production. The casein whey contains lactose (milk sugar) which is broken down into ethanol in an anaerobic process. The ethanol is manufactured by using batch fermentation. It is recovered from the fermented liquid by distillation, and the ethanol is then concentrated through a four stage distillation process, which results in a final product that is pure and clean.