Distilleries of Asia, Oceania, Africa and Latin America

These distillery guides introduce whisky makers in Taiwan, China, South Korea, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Mexico. Start with a country or place that interests you, then use the individual profiles to distinguish the distillery, the whisky name and the people or company behind it.

Start here if you are new

Begin with Kavalan for a Taiwanese distillery whose name connects directly to its home in Yilan County. Continue with Starward for an Australian example that separates a familiar whisky name from the company trading under it, then read Abasolo to follow the relationship between a Mexican whisky and its named distillery.[1][8][14]

That sequence is an introduction, not a ranking. Each profile provides a different starting point: a place name, a company identity or a producer’s own description of its whisky.

This hub groups the profiles geographically rather than by a presumed shared flavour. It is a route into the individual articles, not a claim that neighbouring distilleries make interchangeable whisky or that one producer represents an entire country.

Asia and the Middle East

The profiles here cover two Taiwanese locations, a distillery in Sichuan, a producer in Tel Aviv-Jaffa and a South Korean business whose name has changed. Their names need different kinds of explanation: Kavalan refers to local people and an older place name, M&H abbreviates Milk and Honey, and Ki One appears in records alongside its former Three Societies identity.[1][5][6]

Choose the Taiwanese pair if you want to compare two institutions within one country. Choose The Chuan, M&H or Ki One when your starting question concerns a particular location or an unfamiliar name. None needs to be approached through a comparison with Scotch or another established tradition.

Kavalan

Read Kavalan for a distillery in Yilan County, northeast Taiwan, near Xueshan, or Snow Mountain, whose name comes from the Kavalan people and is also an older name for the county. Its profile also introduces King Car Group and founder Tien-Tsai, or T. T., Lee, who was born in Yilan.[1]

Omar and the Nantou Distillery

Use Omar and the Nantou Distillery to orient yourself around Nantou City in central Taiwan and the relationship between the whisky name and its distillery. The verified record identifies Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation, or TTL, as the owner, with Taiwan Today reporting that TTL is wholly owned by the ROC Ministry of Finance.[2]

Read this alongside Kavalan when your interest is organisational rather than sensory. The pairing gives you two distinct Taiwanese profiles to investigate without treating either company’s background as a shortcut to judging the whisky.

The Chuan

Read The Chuan to place 叠川 THE CHUAN Malt Whisky Distillery in Emeishan, Sichuan Province, China, in the setting of Emei Mountain. The profile connects that location with Pernod Ricard, the owner identified in the supplied record, rather than leaving the distillery’s identity at its English name alone.[3]

This is the relevant starting point if you have encountered The Chuan as a name but cannot yet place it geographically or corporately. Use the individual article for that orientation before drawing comparisons with the other Asian producers gathered here.

M&H Distillery (Milk & Honey)

Read M&H Distillery (Milk & Honey) to connect the abbreviated name with Milk and Honey and its address in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel. The building was previously a bakery, and M&H calls itself Israel’s first whisky distillery.[4]

That distinction matters when reading introductions to unfamiliar producers. A company’s description of its own place in whisky history is worth understanding, but attribution should remain visible rather than disappearing as the claim passes from one account to another.

Ki One and the Three Societies Distillery

Use Ki One and the Three Societies Distillery if you have encountered both names and want to understand their relationship. The producer’s account identifies the current name as KI ONE Whisky Distillery and places the change from Three Societies within a complete rebrand between November 2024 and April 2025; trade coverage locates the distillery in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.[5]

This profile is particularly useful when following references written at different times. Start with the naming chronology so that an older mention of Three Societies is not mistaken for an unrelated producer.

Australia and New Zealand

The Australian profiles include Melbourne, Sydney and three Tasmanian producers, while Cardrona provides the New Zealand starting point. Within Tasmania, the locations themselves offer a useful distinction: Sullivans Cove is now in Cambridge, Lark’s production is at Pontville, and Hellyers Road is in Burnie on the island’s North West coast.[7][9][10][11][12]

These are individual routes into the subject, not a complete directory of either country. Read the city or locality carefully, particularly where a producer’s founding place differs from the location described in its present profile.

Starward

Read Starward for the Port Melbourne producer whose company is New World Whisky Distillery Pty Ltd, trading as Starward. The profile introduces its founding in 2007 by David Vitale and provides a clear example of why the trading name and the legal company name should not automatically be treated as identical.[8]

Use this article when your question begins with the Starward name itself. It is also a useful companion to the Sydney and Tasmanian profiles if you are building a geographically varied Australian reading list rather than concentrating on one locality.

Sullivans Cove

Read Sullivans Cove to distinguish its founding on Hobart’s waterfront in 1994 from the location identified in the supplied record at Cambridge, near Hobart Airport. The profile names Robert Hosken as founder, following trade coverage, and separates the founding year from the reported December opening.[9]

This is a useful place to practise reading dates precisely. A founding date, an opening date and a present address can all belong in one profile without describing the same event or the same physical setting.

Lark

Use Lark for the Tasmanian producer founded by Bill Lark and Lyn Lark in 1992, now described in the verified record as run from Hobart with production at Pontville Distillery. The profile also identifies their earlier occupations as land surveyor and survey draftsman, respectively, rather than assuming a prior distilling background.[10]

Read Lark alongside Sullivans Cove to keep the individual businesses and their locations distinct. The shared Tasmanian setting is a reason to explore both profiles, not a reason to merge their histories.

Archie Rose

Read Archie Rose for a Sydney distillery in New South Wales whose own account places its founding by Will Edwards in Rosebery in 2014. The profile is also the place to follow the producer’s account of Edwards’s move from management consulting into developing the business.[11]

This gives the Australian selection a Sydney reference point alongside Melbourne and Tasmania. Start here if location is your main interest, then use the separate company and founder details to understand which parts of the account come from the producer.

Hellyers Road

Use Hellyers Road for the producer at Burnie on Tasmania’s North West coast, overlooking Emu Valley. Its account attributes the distillery’s founding in 1997 to a dairy cooperative of family-owned farms, while trade coverage identifies the cooperative’s trading name as Betta Milk.[12]

This profile offers a different organisational starting point from the founder-led accounts elsewhere in the group. Read it for the relationship between the cooperative and the distillery, keeping the distillery’s founding separate from the earlier history of the dairy business.

Cardrona

Read Cardrona to place the distillery in Cardrona Valley, in the Crown Range of New Zealand’s Southern Alps, between Queenstown and Wānaka. The profile also connects the founder’s name, Desiree Reid, with earlier coverage naming her Desiree Whitaker, which helps when following accounts published under different names.[7]

Choose this article as the New Zealand entry in the hub rather than treating it as an extension of the Australian group. Its valley location and founder record provide their own starting points for further reading.

Africa and Latin America

The two geographical starting points here are Wellington in South Africa’s Western Cape and Jilotepec in central Mexico. The South African profile brings Three Ships, Bain’s and the James Sedgwick Distillery together in one article; the Mexican profile connects Abasolo with Destilería y Bodega Abasolo.[13][14]

Read the article titles as guides to relationships, not as lists of interchangeable names. A combined profile can help untangle a distillery and the whisky names associated with the subject, while a producer’s chosen wording may appear differently in trade coverage.

Three Ships, Bain’s and the James Sedgwick Distillery

Read Three Ships, Bain's and the James Sedgwick Distillery when you need one starting point for the three names in the title. The distillery’s location is Wellington, in the Cape Winelands of South Africa’s Western Cape, at the foot of the Bain’s Kloof Pass.[13]

Use the combined article before trying to follow each name separately. It provides the relevant geographical anchor and a place to examine the distinctions between the names without assuming that every reference describes a separate distillery.

Abasolo

Read Abasolo to connect the whisky with Destilería y Bodega Abasolo in Jilotepec, State of México. The producer styles the whisky “Abasolo El Whisky de México”, while trade sources also use “Abasolo Ancestral Corn Whisky”, making the profile useful for recognising different descriptions of the same named subject.[14]

Start with the distillery and location if you have encountered only the whisky name. Keep the producer’s wording and the trade description attributed as you read, rather than treating either phrase as a complete explanation of a national whisky category.

Sources

The supplied verified record provides facts and source-reference numbers, but not the underlying bibliography or source URLs. The following entries identify that record precisely; they are not substitutes for the missing original sources.

1. Kavalan, A372: supplied verified record, undated. Location: source references 1 and 7; name: 9 and 1; owner: 5 and 4; founder: 6 and 1.
2. Omar and the Nantou Distillery, A373: supplied verified record, undated. Location: source references 4 and 5; TTL ownership: 4; Ministry of Finance ownership: 5.
3. The Chuan, A660: supplied verified record, undated. Name: source reference 1; location: 2 and 1; owner: 2.
4. M&H Distillery (Milk & Honey), A374: supplied verified record, undated. Name: source reference 1; location: 2; former bakery: 7; producer’s priority claim: 2 and 1.
5. Ki One and the Three Societies Distillery, A382: supplied verified record, undated. Current name: source reference 1; rebrand: 2; location: 3.
6. Kavalan and M&H naming comparison: the supplied records identified in entries 1 and 4. No additional source used.
7. Cardrona, A661: supplied verified record, undated. Location: source references 4, 7 and 1; founder’s names: 8, 1 and 6.
8. Starward, A375: supplied verified record, undated. Company: source reference 1; location: 2; founding and founder: 4 and 1.
9. Sullivans Cove, A376: supplied verified record, undated. Current location: source references 5 and 1; founding: 1 and 2; founder and opening month: 3.
10. Lark, A377: supplied verified record, undated. Locations: source references 4 and 9; founders and founding: 2 and 5; previous occupations: 5.
11. Archie Rose, A378: supplied verified record, undated. Location, founding and founder’s background: source reference 1; full-time business development: 2.
12. Hellyers Road, A379: supplied verified record, undated. Location: source reference 4; founding: 8 and 1; Betta Milk identity: 2.
13. Three Ships, Bain’s and the James Sedgwick Distillery, A380: supplied verified record, undated. Location: source references 11 and 1.
14. Abasolo, A381: supplied verified record, undated. Producer’s names: source reference 1; trade styling: 6 and 8; location: 2.

This hub was prepared as desk research from the supplied verified records, without first-hand visits or independent examination of their underlying sources.

Last checked: November 2026