This week we release a very special collaboration with the Yeastie Boys. Last year we took advantage of  Stu from Yeastie Boys being in the country to brew a special old ale utilising both the old British brewing technique of long boiling to gain strength and colour and a strain of wild yeast cultured from a 1977 bottle of Bass Jubilee Ale. We made use of Stu?s jet lag and boiled right through the night turning the wort from pale gold to dark brown via kettle caramelization. The beer was then fermented with our English yeast strain before heading into 500L oak puncheons to referment with the wild yeast for 6 months. The result is malty, fruity, and firmly bitter, with a leathery tangy note from the wild yeast. The beer was brewed to honour the life of my father who passed away last year. While it tastes good now it is designed to be laid down and we have put a 2060 best before date on it.

10% ABV.

White haven Pinot Gris is a versatile dry style with flavours of fresh nashi pears and crisp red apples, a medium body and textural finish. It's a great wine for everyday drinking with or without food, a lovely aperitif style to enjoy at lunch and early evening.

Whitehaven Wines began life in 1994 as a romantic business for a couple of corporate escapees, Sue and Greg White, who had given up life in the rat race of Auckland for another kind of life aboard their yacht. When sailing around the country, they took shelter in the Marlborough Sounds from Pacific storms and fell in love with the region. An easy thing to do when harbouring in the spectacularly pristine waters of the Sounds. They decided to settle there on terra firma once more and try their hands at wine production, hiring a winemaker and beginning a business which has now been around for 26 years. Greg has sadly passed away now, leaving a legacy as well as his wife and daughter, Sam, to run the winery.

Their winemaker is Peter Jackson.

The Crater Rim Waipara Valley Chardonnay is a youthful, estate-grown wine, hand-picked and fermented and lees-aged for 11 months in French oak barriques (partly new). This wine is a bright, light yellow-green, with a fragrant, citrusy bouquet. The palate is mouth-filling, with good intensity of grapefruit-like flavours, slightly buttery and toasty.

Colour and appearance: red amber, very dense fine white head. Fragrance: spicy, citrus, grapefruit, a hint of caramel in the nose. 

Flavour: full-bodied, intense and a touch of caramel. Together with the spicy, citrus-like bitterness, they give this beer a complex and very pleasant fresh, full and bitter aftertaste. 

History: specialty beer created to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Delirium Tremens

7% ABV. - Belgian Strong Golden Ale

Best Before: 2028/10/14

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The Main Divide is the name of the majestic Southern Alps, which form the back bone of the South Island, and it is also the name of a range of great value wines which consistently over deliver on depth of flavour and complexity for the price. 

This Pinot Noir is made 100% from North Canterbury grapes, 25% of which were whole bunch fermented with natural yeasts. The wine was given a week long, post ferment maceration in French oak, approximately 20% new.

It's a weighty, earthy style with lively dark and red fruit flavours. It delivers big time for the money.

Burgundy Chardonnay barrels were used for the maturation of this Speyside whisky. The result is a fresh, clean Speyside with noticeable Chardonnay notes of butter, citrus and vanilla. This is an excellent value whisky.

This great white is made from one of Italy’s oldest known white grape varieties – and undoubtedly one of its best, Verdicchio. This grape originates either in the Marché region on central Italy’s east coast or it comes from the Veneto region in the north. It’s found in both regions but goes under different names in each (as Verdicchio or as Trebbiano). Those details aside, Verdicchio makes wines with intense lemon flavours, a medium to full body and lingering finish, due to its relatively high acidity. The best Verdicchio can age well for up to a decade.

Garofoli’s Podium shows another side to Italian wine; it’s a complex dry white for drinking now and can also undoubtedly age well. Try it. 

Rachel Hall (Distiller) - The Lighthouse "Hawthorn Edition" is a hand-crafted gin made from a special blend of 9 botanicals and distilled twice in our small copper pot still.  The ingredients are blended with pure wharekauhau spring water to produce an intense yet silky smooth character that lifts its flavours to bold new heights.  

This Gin is inspired by Wellington's renowned "Hawthorn Lounge".  A place where cocktail enthusiasts can embark recreating classics and effortlessly imagining new and inspiring creations.  The Hawthorne edition makes a truly exceptional Tom Collins, Dry Martini or Gin and Tonic.

Churton Estate's Natural State Pied de Cuve is made by second generation winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver, who use grapes from the Loin Vineyard, which is family owned and farmed using biodynamic principles. This Sauvignon Blanc was whole bunch pressed into old oak puncheons and fermented with wild yeasts which were cultured from the vineyard. It was aged for a year on yeast lees and bottled without fining or filtration, so it is vegan friendly. A small addition of SO2 was added at bottling to retain freshness. 

Churton Estate founder and winemaker Sam Weaver cut his teeth on the classic wines of the world while working in fine wine retail in the United Kingdom. He and his wife Mandy Weaver then moved to New Zealand and set about creating one of this country's most focussed small wineries; a brand that does live up to the dream of creating 100% estate grown grapes, 100% certified organic production and 100% bottled on site, nearly all of the wines without fining or filtration. All the grapes are hand picked and natural yeasts ferment the vast majority of wines they make. These qualitative decisions impact every step of their winemaking in a positive fashion, providing exceptional quality grapes which in turn express themselves in outstanding wines.

The Natural State wines are the brainchild of second generation family winemakers, Ben and Jack Weaver.

One of the biggest selling whiskies in the world - 13.6 bottles were sold per minute in 2013. It's taste profile is based on 50 single malts – mostly from Miltonduff and Glenburgie – and four grain whiskies, The blend delivers sweet vanilla and cocoa notes in its youth and among its no-age-statement expressions, building layers of honey, toffee and spice as the age develops.

After visiting Cobram Estate during olive harvest, Four Pillars realised olive oil could be a brilliant botanical alongside olive leaf. The aroma, flavour and texture of fresh olive is stunning, and they did a year of trials before finalising the recipe for this gin.

The botanicals include a big base of juniper with a savoury overlay of coriander seed, rosemary, olive leaf, olive oil, bay leaf, lemon myrtle, macadamia, orris root, and fresh lemon and grapefruit. Fresh ingredients were vapour infused while the others macerated in the pot. 

They have used olive leaf and oil from the Picual, Hojiblanca and Coratina varieties. This gin is savoury, textural and bright. Perfect for any Martini - Gibson, dirty, or dry with a twist. For a longer drink try it in a Spanish-inspired gintonic, with rosemary and lemon.

Island Gin's award winning gin, nicknamed "Shark Alley" strength. At 57% it is not for the faint hearted.

Crafted in a copper still, off grid, 5 hours by barge off the coast of New Zealand.

Their unique bottles are designed to reflect a Kina shell and are all made in New Zealand using using a sustainable glass production.