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Although the beginning of the eleventh century technically saw the end of the Dark Ages - it was nonetheless a dark time for beer, and most notably for hops.

If you’ve ever had an honest chat with a brewer over a beer or two about the financial feasibility of running a brewery, you’ve probably heard the line - don’t get into brewing if you want to make money.

For the first time in 15 years Felton Road has made a new single vineyard Pinot Noir and it was launched this year in uncannily good timing to mark the 25th anniversary of this iconic Central Otago wine producer. The new wine is called MacMuir after the name of the vineyard, which is situated  right next door to the famous Calvert Vineyard.  This year I was lucky enough to be one of a handful of wine writers  invited to Central Otago to taste a bunch of beautiful, interesting and very different styles of young and old Felton Road wines. It was a snapshot in time and a great way to watch the journey of evolution in the wines that have been pouring out of this now 100% biodynamically certified winery.  Here are the wines that made the biggest impression on my tastebuds over three interesting days. The new release Felton Road Pinot Noirs  2021 Felton Road MacMuir Pinot Noir RRP $96.99 Now we’re talking. This is the first vintage of MacMuir Pinot Noir, a single site wine from Bannockburn and from younger vines (nine year old vines in 2021) and grown on a loamy soil vineyard where the Abel clone of Pinot Noir occupies 25 per cent of the vineyard. This makes for a highly structured, super juicy, fragrant Pinot Noir with a real X factor;. Great silky mouthfeel and enormous depth of flavour with dark plums and a hint of spice, very long finish; beautiful lingering depth and length. Felton Road was one of the first five wineries in Bannockburn and is now fully certified organic and biodynamic with Bio-Gro and Demeter. It hot, arid corner of Central Otago and the place that led to an explosion in Pinot Noir production in the region. Buy here 2021 Felton Road Calvert Pinot Noir Smoother, firmer tannins with more textural qualities of body and grip on the finish, making it interesting in taste and texture. Red fruit, dark fruit, a hint of spice and a silky mouthfeel. Juicy, lingering. Often bottled later than the other wines. Buy here 2021 Felton Road Cornish Point Pinot Noir More again, darker fruit flavours although the colour is similar. Has firmer tannins and a grippier finish; more structure than the Calvert and less immediate with more future promise. Good balance. Bigger and weightier. Buy here    Available directly from winery only  19/20 2021 Felton Road Block 3 Pinot Noir Fabulous acidity again; supported by firm tannins and more overt oak than the other wines, giving it broader shoulders and perhaps needing a bit more time to integrate and reveal its softer side. Highly impressive wine. Enormous length. A keeper.    Limit of one per customer of Block 5 18.5/20 2021 Felton Road Block 5 Pinot Noir Smooth, richly fruity, the biggest in fruit weight and has lovely support from firm tannins, cedary flavours with noticeably more tannic power and fresher acidity. A big wine. Needs time. 

If you ever found yourself stranded on the proverbial desert island with an offer of one style of drink to keep you sated for the rest of your days, what would it be?I’m guessing you’d choose beer - after all, this is a blog about beer on a site owned by one of NZ’s finest purveyors of beer (he he).As good as sipping a cold ale under a coconut tree with the sun beating down and the waves lapping hypnotically at the shore sounds - I’d still be a touch conflicted if I am honest; the thought of never tasting whisky again just sounds quite tough in my opinion.But, as luck would have it, today we have a beer that might even keep me happy.Rook & Leer is a whisky barrel aged stout from the Dutch brewery De Molen. The name translates to Smoke & Leather and is a play on smoked beers, a style that fell out of favour with the onset of the industrial era and the adoption of the hot air kiln to dry barley.Prior to the kiln, malted barley would sometimes be dried over an open flame where it would come into contact with smoke, imparting smoky flavours to the resulting beer.Of course this process of essentially smoking malt is still alive and well in the whisky industry and especially so for some of the distilleries on the Isle of Islay such as Bowmore, whose casks were used to age this stout.The Islay distilleries commonly use peat as a source of fuel. This is a weird and wonderful thing formed from layers of grass, heather and moss that are compressed over thousands of years. It imparts an array of medicinal, iodine and savoury notes into the barley (which are actually not that dissimilar to flavours caused by Brettanomyces now I think about it) and which make their way into the final whisky.Peating barley in this way is now often done by large commercial maltsters, but Bowmore is one of the few to do it themselves. The process still involves kilning - but the kiln has a mesh surface that allows for the malt and smoke to intermingle and get to know each other.The smoky and medicinal flavours from peat are pretty polarising in the drinks biz (just like Brettanomyces too, now I think about it) but, personally, I love a lick of peat when I am in the right mood.As luck would have it - I’m in the mood right now - so let’s crack it open!It pours a dark inky red-brown with a red rim. The nose is super intriguing and dark, with molasses and burnt demerara sugar notes over a platter of sweet and sour pork ribs that have been doused in soy sauce. The palate is crazeeeeeeeee (as if the nose wasn’t!) and is super bright and a lot less heavy than I expected from the dark and devious nose. There’s flavours of sour red cherries that have been flambeed in whisky and then drenched in lemon juice and oodles of bitter hop notes. The tickle of peat in the finale combines nicely with the bitter element lifting the experience further towards those high notes.This is one of those beers that, although it might not be to everyone’s taste, I feel like everyone should try.So there we go; an intriguing, challenging and, yet, rather drinkable beer-whisky hybrid of sorts that brings peat into the fray more successfully than the few other peaty brews I have tried.All I need now is a desert island…

From the windswept coastal vineyards of Te Awanga to the iron rich earth and alluvial stones of Bridge Pa and Gimblett Gravels, you’ve got to love the regional diversity on display in Hawke’s Bay. But how do you convey this to consumers in a straightforward and comprehensive fashion? Elephant Hill has hit on a clever solution, and winemaker Hugh Crichton was at Regional wines just the other week, taking us on an elemental journey by the glass to demonstrate.This iconic winery has vineyard holdings in the aforementioned three main regions, and from now on will be marking the proportions of grapes from these three sites on the back of the bottle. To do this they have hit on the monikers Sea, Stone and Earth, which correspond to grapes from Te Awanga, Gimblett Gravels and Bridge Pa.Even if you’re not familiar with these subregions - the new labelling conveys the essence of what is influencing the vines with real transparency (something that has often eluded the wine industry in general one could say).Giving the customer a heads up of what he or she is investing in is so important when it comes to wine. Think of Riesling and Chardonnay, for example, where levels of sweetness and oak can be so palate polarising, so any advancement in communicating what is actually in the bottle is certainly welcome in my opinion.And the regional variation isn’t just communicated well by the new labels, but by the wines themselves.From the Sea and Salome Chardonnays with their bright coastally cooled acidity, to the Stone Merlot and Syrah which offer lifted, intense and aromatic qualities. And, of course, the two big red icon wines in the form of Airavata and Hieronymus. The first a blend of Syrahs from the Earth and Stone sites and showing with density and structure, the latter a powerful yet succulent Bordeaux blend, almost exclusively from the Stone vineyard.These are well crafted wines with a story to tell about where and by whom they have been made, and at a price point that still offers real value, especially when compared to many of their European peers. We have some of the latest releases which show the new elemental labelling, plus back vintages of Icon wines. Why not grab a few for now and for cellaring, and let them take you on a journey through Hawke’s Bay's diverse subregions one day…See our Elephant Hill wines here including the 2015 Airavata and 2017 Hieronymus...

Today we take a look at another mighty brew from the Delaware outfit that has made quite the reputation for big beers, Dogfish Head. Their list includes such gems as the 120 Minute IPA, which is continually hopped for over two hours and sports an abv in the late teens, and Fort, a Belgian style ale which clocks in as the world’s strongest fruit beer. Simply put, these guys don’t muck about.Our beer today is a further twist on Fort, which is made with tones of pureed raspberries and was first released in 2005. At around 17% abv this is an unashamedly big brew, but the brewers at Dogfish Head weren’t happy stopping there and wanted to take it to the next level. They did this by adding three more fruits (blackberry, boysenberry and elderberry) and a big wallop of Munich malt - which provides a firm backbone of deep flavours and pushes the abv a touch higher, balancing nicely with the tart fruit flavours.Let’s take it for a test drive…Pours an absolutely gorgeous tawny colour with a bright mahogany rim. The nose continues the Port theme but there’s both tawny and ruby notes in there with oxidised dark stewed fruits mingling with bright berry aromas. I would have sworn some cherries had made their way in there - but it must be the darker berry fruit fusing with the malt. Danggg - why did I wait so long to put it in my mouth! Holy smoke this is a truly remarkable taste experience. The fruit is most certainly there but it’s just so well integrated. I imagine this will only get better the longer you leave it!When done right, these big beers can provide some of the most exciting drinking experiences possible.Funnily enough though, I don’t typically go in for massive abv when searching for beers. On the other hand, I do drink a fair amount of fortified wine - which beers like this are on par with. Of course, this similarity opens up the opportunity for food matching and cellaring but, once again, these aren’t directions I often go in with beer.The notions of putting aside to age, and matching with food really do raise the bar for any drinks product. Beer is without doubt worthy of this, but we often associate it more with general consumption and quaffing, despite its massive and arguably unparalleled current popularity. It would be great to see this change and the serious side to beer being embraced further..So my resolution for next year will be to start cellaring beers and consuming them with food, why don’t you join me? At the end of the day - I’m sure this will be more achievable than exercising more or cutting back on the calories ;)

The lush rolling hills of Pajottenland, southwest of Brussels in Flanders, is a picture perfect setting befitting any classic landscape oil painting of the 1800s. Chequered patches of farmland work their way across this fertile site - but it’s not just the earth here that is rich with life, the air is too.Thousands of Brettanomyces Bruxellensis and Brettanomyces Lambicus yeast spores tumble merrily on the local air currents, and, for the lucky ones, the coolship (or cooling tank) of a local brewer such as Lindemans is their eventual port of call.Here the wild yeast joins the wort that has cooled to the right temperature after a boil involving hops that are a year old, and, overnight, the miracle that is spontaneous or wild fermentation is set in motion.This spontaneous fermentation, without human intervention, is key to the Lambic style - but it’s just one part of a long process.The next day the wort is pumped into fermenters which can take the form of large oak casks known as foudre or stainless steel tanks containing wood chips. Here, successive fermentations over the space of seven or so months gradually trigger the development of the congeners that make up the style. But, we’re not done yet.Maturation lasting at least six months and sometimes up to several years results in the creation of younger and older Lambics. For a gueuze, like today’s beer, these young and old components are then blended together in the house style. Traditionally, the younger Lambic portion of the blend would also provide enough residual yeast to trigger a final fermentation in bottle - like in Lindemans Old Gueuze Cuvée René. However, the gueuze we are tasting today uses the modern method which involves saturating the beer with C02 after pasteurisation and an addition of sugar - typically resulting in the slightly sweeter take on what is, of course, a sour style.Let’s see how all of this plays out in the glass…It pours amber with a white head that quickly dissipates. The nose is exactly what you would expect with notes of apple, citrus and red berries - tart and cider-like with briny fino hints thrown into the mix. The theme continues on the palate which is woken up nicely by a zing of acidity and that tart green apple cider quality - but as predicted from the modern bottling technique - there’s some extra sugar to balance things out. Wonderfully refreshing and heaps of complexity for the palate to grapple with.It’s a lovely drop and the brewing intricacy that has resulted in its fruition really seems to lend itself to the eventual complexity in the glass.It’s just such a clever little drop. You know you’re drinking beer but with every sip simultaneously reminiscent of cider, wine, champagne and even sherry … you’ll find even the most jaded palate is pleasantly bamboozled.

I love delicate beers. The fruity esters and subtle malt profile of the humble ale can be a real thing of beauty. That said… sometimes I just want a real slap in the chops from a fist full of hops.Dogfish Head has been pumping out beer since the mid 90s and has developed a following for its experimental, maverick approach and a collection of strong beers. Today we have one such brew.The 120 Minute IPA is not for the faint hearted, clocking in at over 16% abv. It’s not cheap either, but then it gets a lot of love in the brewery and sees more than its fair share of hops in a long, hands-on brew which sees it continuously hopped with high-alpha American hops throughout the boil.High alpha hops are the ones responsible for bittering (measured in IBUs or International Bittering Units). The alpha acids in these hops need to be isomerized through boiling to release the bitterness - so the longer the boil and the more the hops - the higher the IBU (to a certain extent).Dogfish Head founder and brewer Sam Calagione hit on the idea of continuous hopping whilst watching a cooking show where the chef slowly and continuously peppered a stew. He tracked down a vibrating kid’s football toy that he found in a thrift store and rigged it up to offload a continual stream of hop pellets. Hence was born Sir Hops A lot - the continuous hopper.The clever thing about continuous hopping is that the hops making it into the boil early will add more bitterness, whilst those added later in the boil will add more flavour and aroma. That’s hop complexity right there!So how does this “holy grail for hop heads” taste? Let’s find out…It pours an electric orange-ochre colour that is certainly enticing. The nose is like orange treacle and dried fruits - there’s the odd volatile nail polish note too (but in a good way) and some tropical hints for good measure. It certainly isn’t a one dimensional hop bomb and it’s not particularly dank and piney either, just super fruity. The palate continues in the same vein - with the 120 IBUs swallowed up by big orange fruits, syrups and treacles - only to emerge triumphant and cleansing at the finish.Dangerously drinkable!A super interesting drop with heaps of complexity and - I’d imagine - much more to offer given a few years in the cellar. The sweetness isn’t what you’d necessarily expect - but at 16% abv there’s heaps of residual sugar left behind from what must be a hefty malt bill.This isn’t an everyday beer by any stretch of the imagination and you’d be better off sharing it with more than one person IMO - even at 355mls. It might not be a cheap drop - but if you can stretch to grabbing a few to put aside, you’re guaranteed plenty of enjoyment tasting it with friends and watching it evolve over the years. At the end of the day - that’s something it’s hard to put a price on…