Marlborough is best known and loved for Sauvignon Blanc but here's a next level wine from one of the most experienced winemakers in the region, Kevin Judd; the first winemaker at Cloudy Bay and then founder of his own brand, Greywacke.

This wine is incredibly consistent in style from one year to the next. Dry, full bodied with powerful intensity of flavour and a long finish. It benefits from winemaking experience, which includes lees aging time and a portion of barrel ferment to add softness and complexity.

Charles Wiffen and his family are well known for producing well priced (affordable), well liked (very good quality) wines in a range of styles, all from Marlborough grapes.

While Merlot is the second most planted red in Marlborough, it lags a long way behind the popular Pinot Noir, but wines such as this show another, softer side to the red wine story in this country's biggest wine region. Good drinking now and very good value for money.

South America is known for many things, including dark and spicy Argentinian Malbecs, such as this one by winemaker Ernesto Catena. He is the man responsible for this tasty  Malbec from Mendoza; the heart of the country's wine industry and a region equally renowned for its spectacular beauty at the foot of the Andes Mountains.

An opulent blend of the finest spirits aged for 8 to 15 years. Where Eclipse is floral and fruity, Extra Old blends significantly older barrels of mainly double pot distillates that have rounded these crisper notes into a subtler balance. It exudes the finesse that only time can bring and offers a true taste of paradise from the rum that invented rum.

Chris and Elliot spent the good part of 18 months searching for the perfect oak aged Caribbean rum. Many taste tests were conducted with friends and family before finally settling on their first cask.

They then started tinkering with spicing the rum right here in New Zealand, blending the rich history of the Caribbean with the adventurous spirit of New Zealand. 

The subtle caramel sweetness of the rum with a vanilla back bone allowed the beautiful spices to come through, highlighting local citrus, nutmeg and clove.

The infusion became more refined and complex, through out lock down. And by the end they were happy with the result. Let the bottling begin!

Refined rum, spiced by rascals, inspired by Russell.

Panhead - XPA means Extra Pale, a product of Quickchange's lighter malt base. That delicate colour though is undercut by a glorious hit of alpha oils from Mosaic, Galaxy and Citra hops. Sometimes you don't want your mouth flayed raw and your liver worked to a standstill. Sometimes a few luscious notes of mango, guava, lychee and pineapple can be just the thing.

4.6% ABV.

Dog Point Vineyards has the largest amount of certified organic vineyard land in New Zealand, thanks to its visionary founders, Ivan Sutherland and James Healy, who grow grapes for themselves and sell to a number of other winemakers in this country. 

The Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc is one of Marlborough's best, thanks to high quality grapes, post ferment lees aging and the result is a dry, medium bodied white from one of the world's biggest Sauvignon regions. This is an iconic wine from an exceptionally dedicated winemaking team.

This is a very deeply coloured and flavoursome wine as you would expect from a Malbec based wine. It displays rich plummy, jammy Gimblett Gravels fruit notes on the nose with complementary notes of tobacco and dried herbs. On the palate it is a medley of compex fruit flavours supported by a generous mouthfeel and age worthy tannins. A full bodied and complex wine, and an ideal accompaniment to red meat dishes.

A big red with a big following thanks to its dense dark and impressive ripe black plummy flavours intermingled with spice in a deliciously full bodied, complex red wine from Waiheke Island's biggest wine producer. 

The grapes in this wine come from six vineyards on the island. They are called  Asylum, Big North, Garden Cove, Mad Mans, Niko Face and North 3; all small sites planted on extremely steep hillsides on a remote and beautiful corner of Waiheke Island. Each little vineyard was originally planted as an experiment to see how well grapes would fare here. The results speak for themselves; Man O' War Dreadnought Syrah is a commanding and powerful red from one of the warmest climates in New Zealand. It was fermented in French oak, 32% new and 68% seasoned and is named after the first in a line of early 20th Century battleships which was named Dreadnought. 

Classic by name and by nature. This is a full bodied, mouth filling, medium dry Riesling that is brimming with flavour, such as ripe orange, peach and mandarin. Its juicy acidity adds tension to the wine, providing a structured and beautiful aromatic white with flavours of ripe stonefruit supported by notes of freshness that lend it a long, succulent finish that tastes dry following the rich mid palate. The palate is vibrant, intense and focused with orange, nectarine and cream flavours and a good line of juicy acidity.

At Dalwhinnie, clear worts and long ferments create a starting point form which one might expect a light floral whisky. However, the stills are run in such a way as to minimise the conversation between malt and copper, and when this is combined with the use of worm tubs to condense, the result is a heavy and somewhat sulphurous malt. After fifteen years in cask though, this is combined into the whisky, and the thick honeyed and almost sticky quality that Dalwhinnie is so famous for, shines through.

Nose: Aromatic, toffee, fruit salad, lush nectarine, custard. Floral, apple blossom, honeysuckle. Apple peels, pear, touch of smoke.

Palate: Malty. Walnuts steeped in manuka honey with vanilla sponge. Gentle smoke weaves its way through the cereal with a touch of spice.

Finish: Long, malty, walnut, almond.

Elephant Hill Chardonnay is made with grapes grown on the coast at Te Awanga, south of Napier where the cool sea breezes add zesty acidity to the grapes. This provides excellent balance to the creamy nuances of Chardonnay, which is one of Hawke's Bay's most popular grape varieties.

This wine is dry, creamy and full bodied. A stunner from our country's second biggest wine region. 

Cocktail aficionados prize the St-Germain elderflower liqueur for its unique delicacy and subtlety and how it contributes a most refreshing piquancy to a well-designed aperitif. There is no other liqueur like it, being made from freshly hand-picked elderflower blossoms, from the foothills in the Alps, picked over the course of three or four days when the plant is in bloom. It is a truly artisan product, as less than 50 pickers are employed, who must quickly deliver the harvest to local market for delivery to the St-Germain distillery. Now, you would not see Polish men wandering the hills gathering wild potatoes for a special vodka, would you?. The freshness of the blossoms is the essence and this is captured in the maceration and distilling process. Over a century of refining the liqueur has resulted in a most delightful ?melange curieux?. (20% alc); RC Sept 08

Malfy Gin CON ARANCIA is distilled by the Vergnano family in Italy - the birthplace of Gin - using the peel of Sicilian Blood Oranges, Italian Juniper and four other botanicals with their traditional Vacuum Still.  Blood Oranges are prized variety in Sicily - and harvested in November - their rich red colour develops from the cool Mediterranean nights.