Haliimaile Distillery Company
We love meeting people who do what they love, Mark Nigbur, master distiller at Haliimaile Distilling Company is one of those people. We recently had the opportunity to meet him and chat about what he’s been up to and future projects.
Ten years ago
Since arriving on Maui ten years ago he has established a micro-distillery, patented an all glass still, won awards with his Pau vodka and now counts several more spirits to his line, including a rum made specially for his doppelgänger, Sammy Hagar. His glass still is a work of art, something you’d expect to see in a design museum or a mad scientist’s lab. There are only three in the world, two in use at the distillery and one in storage. 
Pau vodka
The distillery currently produces about 500 cases of Pau vodka per month, one run through the still equals about 12 gallons of pure spirit. By this point you might be wondering, why name it Pau, the Hawaiian word for done or finished. It actually makes a lot of sense, from the fresh pineapple through the distillation process and then bottled, the product is pau, finished and ready to savour. Pau vodka is made from Maui Gold pineapple which is right across the street. Pineapple being perfect for this spirit as it is high in sugar, low in acid and self fermenting. They use only Maui water, filtered through a reverse osmosis water system to make it as pure as can be. And as Nigbur says, “you don’t want taste altering minerals in your vodka, you want it as pure as possible because that’s what makes it hangover free, for lack of a better term.” 
Aging vodka
Nigbur is also doing something that is a first in the world, aging vodka in French Limousin oak barrels. He wouldn’t divulge how long they age the vodka but we can tell you that it has a taste reminiscent of fine whiskeys. “If you look at the bottom of the bottle in the oak aged you’ll see carbon from the aging process, I keep it in there because we don’t use colour or flavour.” “It took me a month to get the TTB (alcohol and tobacco tax and trade bureau) to let me put what it is on the label,” Nigbur told us from behind the tasting bar, “because we’re the only ones doing it and they kept saying, it’s not aged vodka, there’s no such thing.” Haliimaile produces the only aged vodka in the world.
A tip of the hat to the Upcountry paniolos
A true vapour gin
They also have a few other spirits in the works, one being a true vapour gin using local lavender and 14 to 18 botanicals. True vapour means they put the botanicals in a bag, in the still as opposed to a compound gin where you use an eye dropper. “I never liked gin,” he tells us as he pours us a couple samples, “gin is a good way of fucking up good vodka.” Thankfully for us, his son is a gin enthusiast and helped him produce this smooth spirit with delicate lavender notes. 
If you’re visiting Maui and have a chance to take in the Haliimaile Distilling Company tour, don’t miss out.
Disclosure: We were guests of the Maui Visitors Bureau, all opinions are our own.
Very cool. Never heard of vodka (or any other spirit for that matter, made from pineapple but it makes sense. Usually think of rum coming from the islands.
We were in Maui in September and we almost did this tour but we ran out of time! Thanks for allowing us to finally make the tour through you!