Waikulu Distillery is situated on the windward facet of the island in Makawao. The setting of this place is beautiful. Sure, it’s Maui, all the things appears wonderful, however the farm is nestled on 6 acres on the facet of a hill/mountain/volcano. It’s beautiful.
Again in December, a video popped into my social media feed. It was a video about an agave distillery on the island of Maui. The video mentioned the agave spirit they had been producing and its uniqueness, attributed to the distinctive development of their Blue Weber Agave of their soil and local weather. I discovered it extremely intriguing and bookmarked it. I returned just a few days later and determined to ship an e mail. I needed to know extra. The Spirit Gods will need to have been looking for me, as a result of it simply so occurred that my spouse and I had booked our Spring Break journey a month or two prior. My spouse’s brother occurs to have a house in Maui, and we had determined to move there for Spring Break.
After conducting some web analysis, I reached out to Paul Turner, the proprietor of Waikulu Distillery. I launched myself, telling him who I used to be and what I do for Bourbon & Banter, and that I might be on Maui in April. I mentioned I hoped to come back by to see the operation, take a tour, strive a few of his merchandise, and chat with him. He replied and mentioned, “Completely.” I used to be excited to have a chance to take a look at what gave the impression to be a very distinctive distillery and it additionally gave me an journey/facet journey on our household trip. I don’t like to take a seat nonetheless when on trip.
Waikulu Distillery is situated on the windward facet of the island in Makawao. So my brother-in-law and my 16-year-old son all loaded up within the automobile and drove about 45 minutes away to take a look at Paul’s distillery. Upon arrival, we met Viv. She helps run the place and was additionally going to point out us round. The setting of this place is beautiful. Sure, it’s Maui, all the things appears wonderful, however the farm is nestled on 6 acres on the facet of a hill/mountain/volcano. It’s beautiful.
Since it isn’t produced in one of many 5 states in Mexico the place blue Weber agave spirit have to be legally made to be referred to as Tequila, that is an Agave Spirit. All the things they produce is from 100% blue Weber Agave.
Paul opened the distillery about three years in the past. However about 10 years in the past, Paul purchased just a few blue Weber Agave crops for his property as a result of he thought the crops had been powerful, rugged, and throughout fairly cool. He observed that after about six months, the crops had gotten big. Like WAY greater than they usually develop in Mexico. So Paul began doing a little analysis which ultimately led him to vary up his plans for a few of his property. As a result of the temperatures are just about within the 70s in the course of the day and dips into the 60s at evening yr spherical, mixed with the wealthy volcanic soil and the great quantity of rainfall he will get, Paul found out that his property was situated in just about the best spot to develop these crops.
This led him to buy 200 extra Blue Weber Agave crops and begin a farm.
The Numbers
- That was 10 years in the past and Paul has by no means had to purchase one other Blue Weber Agave plant. The crops constantly propagate new crops.
- The farm at the moment has roughly 3,000 crops and so they harvest about 10 crops every week.
- Every plant produces a mean of 10-12 “pups,” offshoots of maturing agave which are lower away from and transplanted to create new crops.
- Every plant is harvested by measurement, not age, and the candy spot for harvesting is between 6-7 years.
- The crops on the farm develop to roughly three to 4 occasions the dimensions of a typical blue Weber Agave plant in Mexico in solely about 25% of the time as a result of local weather and the soil.
- As a result of island’s copious rainfall, irrigation is not wanted on the farm. Actually, the farm is on a residential water plan.
- No pesticides or chemical compounds are utilized in your complete operation or manufacturing course of.
- Every plant produces between 30 to 40 bottles of distillate.
- It takes roughly 8 kilos of uncooked agave to supply 1 750ml bottle.
- The hearts of the crops cook dinner for two days within the steam oven as soon as they’re harvested.
- The oven holds between 800 and 1,000s kilos of uncooked agave.
- Waikulu Distillery produces round 12,000 bottles yearly.
The Course of
Paul has a background in fabrication so he designed and constructed just about every bit of kit used within the manufacturing course of. He constructed his personal agave crusher that makes use of a metal and rubber tahona. As a substitute of a standard stone tahona, Paul’s crusher makes use of a urethane rubber wheel. His unique tahona was constructed from the extra conventional volcanic rock, however it’s now displayed exterior of their tasting room. The crusher grinds the cooked items of agave right into a paste the place the manufacturing crew provides water and continues the method till they dilute the sugar content material to about 12%. Every batch of cooked agave takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to crush and prepare for the fermentation tank. The fermentation course of takes about six days. After that, it’s distilled on the 250 gallon nonetheless that Paul additionally made himself. They distill each batch twice.
Customized agave crusher that makes use of a metal and rubber tahona as an alternative of the standard stone tahona.
For growing old, the agave distillate is barreled at 110 proof. Paul makes use of solely medium toasted barrels sourced from Impartial Stave Firm, the world’s largest cooperage, and which is predicated in Lebanon, Missouri. They bottle their product twice a month and might do 450 to 500 bottles in three to 4 hours.
The Product
Within the tasting room, you possibly can pattern all 5 of their labels.
- Batch One Silver is an 80 proof silver (primarily what can be referred to as a blanco in Mexico).
- Ohana Reserve is their 87.2 proof super-premium, triple-distilled silver.
- Opio is an 80 proof reposado aged slightly below 6 months.
- Ohana 18 Month Reserve is an 87.2 proof anejo aged in Heinrich Barrels (Australian-made, American oak wine barrels).
- Smoke Pepa is a batch aged with three various kinds of chili peppers and is 80 proof.
- Waikulu Reserve Cask is a improbable barrel power deal with bottled at 112.4 proof.
All of those merchandise had been improbable, however the absolute standout was the 18-month Ohana Reserve. I can actually say that this bottle is each bit nearly as good if not higher than any ultra-premium tequila that I’ve ever had. Sure, that features any Fortaleza, Clase Azul, Don Julio 1942, or Dobel that I’ve ever tried. It was that good.
I introduced house two bottles of it in addition to one other bottle of their Ohana Reserve Silver. The one detrimental is you can’t get their product until you might be on Maui. Sadly because of legal guidelines, provider restrictions, and manufacturing limitations, they can not ship on to you. However you should buy immediately from their tasting room. It is advisable you make an internet reservation to go to and take a deluxe tour on Mondays and Wednesdays, or simply guide a typical tasting right here. Possibly that is the little additional push you wanted to lastly guide that journey to Maui. This place is price it.
