Dunedin whisky

The Dunedin railway station. Photo by David Lansing.

Justin and I move quickly down High Street in a cold rain. We’re on a mission. We’re looking for The Liquor Store (that’s the name of the establishment, not a descriptor). Our cabbie told us it was the only place in Dunedin we might find the 15 year old Dunedin Doublewood whisky we’re looking for.

Now you might think that it would be easy to find a Dunedin whisky in Dunedin, particularly one that has won all kinds of awards like the Doublewood, but you’d be wrong. We’ve yet to come across a single bar in town that serves it.

“How can you not carry any New Zealand whiskies?” I asked the bartender at the Nova Café where we had lunch.

“I didn’t know New Zealand made any whiskies,” she said.

Now that’s just a sad state of affairs when a bartender in Dunedin not only doesn’t carry a good Dunedin whisky but doesn’t even know there are several good New Zealand whiskies.

The cabbie couldn’t remember what street The Liquor Store was on but assured us we’d have no problem finding it. “It’s the only shop in town selling whisky and it’s right by Gingerbread George,” he said.

And what’s Gingerbread George? we asked.

“The railway station!” he said. “That’s what we call it, anyway.”

Seems the railway station is the fanciest building in Dunedin; maybe in all of New Zealand. Built in the early 20^th century in an eclectic, revived Flemish Renaissance style, the old station, once the busiest in the country, used to handle up to 100 trains a day. Sort of the Paddington of New Zealand, I reckon.

Well, we find Gingerbread George. And it really is something. Queen Victoria meets Marrakesh, I’d say. Very impressive. But now the rain is really coming down. We run in to a café and tell the waitress we’re looking for the whisky shop. Couldn’t be easier, she says. “Straight up Stuart to the Octagon, then go left on Princess Street. It’s right next to the Japanese restaurant.”

We thank her and head for the door but as we’re leaving she says, “But it’s closed, you know.”

Closed?

“Yep.”

It can’t be. We follow her directions and find the whisky shop easy enough. And just as she told us, it is indeed closed. They’re not making it easy for us to sample a little Dunedin whisky in Dunedin.