Woodwater Whisky - Justin Mok’s Bold Alchemy of Grain, Graft and Gamble.

There are distilleries that follow tradition, and then there’s Woodwater - a label that treats whisky like a high-stakes art project where the rules are more suggestion than scripture. Each release feels less like another number in a tidy sequence and more like a sly wink - a dare to see what happens when barrels with complicated pasts collide with Mok’s instinct for mischief.

Take Release 5, the Oloroso Cask. On the surface, it’s a neat 100L Spanish sherry barrel with a whisper of Apera - familiar enough. In the glass, though, it’s a double agent: berries and caramel soften you up before cigar smoke and dark toffee step in like the twist in a good noir. Then there’s Release 8, the Bourbon Maple Cask, bottled at a chest-thumping 60% and cheekily christened the Valentine’s Cask. It’s the whisky equivalent of breakfast at IHOP served in a tuxedo jacket - indulgent layers of maple, dry oak keeping order, umami notes reminding you it’s serious business. Gold medal-winning, yes, but also just plain cheeky.

Liquid northern lights - Woodwater Whisky shimmering with every pour.

Release 9, the Chardonnay / Tokay Cask, is where Mok goes full composer. It began life as his very first barrel, rerouted through Tokay, and now reads like a diary entry spanning continents. Bright orchard fruit and leather-bound libraries, mahogany and burnt raisins, all leading to a custard finish that lingers long enough for a second glass. The IWSC Silver was polite applause for a whisky that deserves a standing ovation in a cigar lounge at midnight.

And then there’s Release 10, the B.S.R. Cask - a barrel with more past lives than Bowie: bourbon, Scotch, South Australian red wine. The result is gloriously unrepeatable - mead, orange marmalade, burnt caramel, treacle - all tangled together like a jam session that shouldn’t work but somehow does.

What ties these misadventures together isn’t just the high proof or boutique cask resumes. It’s Woodwater’s refusal to settle into a house style - its belief that whisky doesn’t need a family resemblance when it can be a series of unruly cousins, each bringing their own scandal to the reunion. If whisky is usually a story about patience, Woodwater makes it a story about possibility - messy, mischievous, and all the more thrilling for it. Which is why sitting down with Justin Mok doesn’t feel like an interview at all. It feels like opening another cask - you don’t know what you’ll find, but you know it’ll be worth the pour.

1. Woodwater lives by the mantra of Discovery - Diversity - Exploration. How do you ensure that these aren’t just lofty words, but tangible qualities people can actually taste in the glass?

Justin Mok: Great question.. the statement can be seen and noticed when tasting and enjoying each whisky release I produce. I explore multiple variables during the production process.. This can range from Barley grain types used and their differing ratios when combining them for a mash, to the type of yeast used and the varied ratios during a single or co-inoculated pitched use of it. Further to that we have varied ferment times of the wort to see differing results from various plated barley grains with their behaviour when pushed for onger or shorter time periods, to simply filling a cask with the new make spirit at some different ABV %’s, and of course the fun of exploring different casks types with weird and wonderful histories to them. Every part of this explorative process is learning and discovering different outcomes and results, creating diversity for each potential whisky produced.

2. The numbered whisky releases chart an evolving narrative. At what point does a release stop being simply the “next in line” and start carrying the weight of legacy?

Justin Mok: To date every release has showcased something uniquely different from one to the next.. Woodwater fans know that whatever comes next is going to be a different drinking experience. Every release has its own story and of course is always very limited. That narrative will continue until I run out of whisky to bottle or go out of business. Perhaps that in itself will end up being part of the legacy of Woodwater in time.

3. Woodwater’s gins and whiskies are born from both science and instinct. Can you recall a moment when instinct overruled the data - and the gamble paid off?

Justin Mok: I can actually.. Many distillers and producers work to formulas and precise percentages with spirit cuts coming off the still. Playing around with the varied grains showed differing results with flavour at different percentages. I didn’t like where it was heading for some batches and made the quick decision to only capture by taste rather than precise percentages when capturing the ‘heart’ spirit that goes into the casks. I would always aim to be working within the window of a certain percentage when cutting the heart spirit, but would find more often than not that variables in grain, temp, humidity and batch to batch would see ever-changing processes resulting in varied volumes of NMS captured from batch to batch. This partly showed me that there’s sometimes more than formulas and certain precisions required in the daily processes.

4. If Woodwater walked into a bar as a character, who would it be - the scholarly eccentric, the quiet disruptor, or the one everyone can’t quite pin down?

Justin Mok: Ha! That’s a tough one.. probably the ‘one everyone can’t pin down’ and that’s based off the fact that there’s mystery involved. That mystery carries into each release. Whilst every new whisky I produce always has the 'Woodwater DNA' as such, they all have something a little different to offer and thus you really can’t be sure of what you’re going to taste and find until to pour a glass.

5. Ageing spirits can be a test of patience. Beyond the calendar, what is the signal for you that wood, time, and spirit have finished their conversation?

Justin Mok: For me it’s when I feel the cask interaction has nothing further to contribute positively to the journey of the spirit. I love some heavy cask integration personally, but if continuing a maturation can only showcase pure cask dominance and heavy oak, then I feel that time is done for that particular journey. On the other hand, if there’s not enough interaction occurring it may be time to end that journey and begin a second maturation with that particular spirit.

6. Has there been a release that surprised you so much in its final profile that it shifted your thinking about what Woodwater should be aiming for?

Justin Mok: Not to date. Woodwater will always be about big, bold higher strength whiskies that are complex and full in flavour. At times I’ve considered working towards something a little more delicate and approachable with a lower ABV, but I feel Woodwater always shines best when bottling at a higher percentages showcasing a great whisky story in a bottle.

7. Many distilleries talk about terroir. For you, what is uniquely “Woodwater” - the land, the water, the wood - that cannot be replicated elsewhere?

Justin Mok: It would be hard to replicate Woodwater exactly, so I’d say it's the exechanging vatiables to the standard processes that are unique. There were ever-changing factors that were involved in the production of each of these whiskies before I stopped producing in 2020. Terroir is a great factor with how the air, pollens, humidity and climate all affected every mash, ferment and distillation process on a differing day. Then we’ve got the varied type of malted barley from batch to batch, to the spring and rain water used in the process, right down to the cask choices, size and their pedigree or heritage. Each batch was consistent for most main factors, but little dynamic changes all contribute to the variations and results that are being achieved.

8. Experimentation comes with risk. What is one flavour direction or production technique you’ve been tempted to try - but are holding back on, perhaps out of caution or mischief?

Justin Mok: Well, it’s a weird one, but I’m fascinated with the possibly of altering a final outcome of the whisky but seeing how spoken word and music can affect the spirit on a molecular level. I remember reading a book as a young adult called ‘The Miracle of Water’ by Masaru Emoto. Watching how crystals formed in frozen water and the varying results seen under microscopes when had positive or negative words spoken to the water. This applied with music also, being heavy metal styles to holy church hymns to classical music. It showed amazing effects with crystals forming amazingly beautiful shapes, or being fragmented and deformed. Being of a musical background myself, I would love to try applying this to my whisky both whilst maturing in cask and also when degorged to settle, and see how or if the results vary to improve the quality of the spirit further. Perhaps I'd just stick to ‘angelic’ types of music with a positive feel only… (I would hate to find that I ruined a whisky with this experiment after it’s been patiently mattering for many years).

9. For someone new to Woodwater, which release would you pour first - not necessarily because it is the boldest or rarest, but because it best reveals the heart of the distillery’s philosophy?

Justin Mok: Release 1 (although no longer available) will always be a standout release to showcase this. It was actually a dual bottle release, one a rich tawny port matured cask which was dark, earthy, fruity, rich, and viscous, whilst the other was a Chardonnay cask maturation which was bright and buttery with smokey characters that intertwined from an unusual process where ‘2nd hand peat’ entered the flavour profiles. They offered points of difference in flavour, grain, and cask types giving you a glimpse into the forthcoming types of whiskies that were going to be on offer from me.

If I were to choose something with the current available releases, perhaps the new 12th release, being matured in a Spanish PX BRANDY cask. It’s a darker sherry bomb type of whisky, with big flavours of dates, raisins and dried fruits as well as some nutty tones and is slightly smoky from a small percentage of peated grain being used also. It's deep in flavour and texture, and chewy and viscous. It’s a great award-winning example of a big whisky from Woodwater.

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Words and questions by AW.

Answers by Justin Mok.

Photos courtesy of Woodwater.