Staff picks for Xmas

Reid+Reid - Reid + Reid Reverend Dawson?s Gin is named after one of New Zealand?s leading prohibitionist who also happens to be the great, great grandfather of Stewart and Chris Reid.

Reverend John Dawson was the Gerneral Secretary of the N.Z. Alliance from 1909  - 1925. During this period Dawson became widely known because of his assiduous parliamentary lobbying and campaigning in favour of total prohibition.

This gin is distilled using the ?one shot? method to produce a classic dry gin focusing on juniper and citrus flavours.

Tasting Notes: Piney juniper with zesty citrus characters. Fresh and bright on the palate with a textural and aromatic finish.

Cloudy Bay Chardonnay is a savoury and complex wine with bright aromatics and a powerful palate. Notes of citrus rind and stone fruit take the lead in this wine, backed up by nuttiness, excellent minerality and a hint of spice.

3 Fonteinen Oude Kriek is a traditional kriek lambic released annually in several batches by the brewery. It is produced by macerating cherries, including the pits, in young lambic. After bottling, it is stored in a warm room for at least four months to help with secondary fermentation in the bottle.

5.6% ABV.

Aroma: Rich and sweet with fruitcake and vanilla aromas. Sherry influences intertwine with zesty citrus notes.

Taste: Spicy with cinnamon, stewed plum and orange marmalade combining with a smooth milk chocolate finish.

This Gewurztraminer offers a next level experience both for lovers of the powerfully scented Gewurz' grape and for wine fans in general because the wines of Domaine Marcel Deiss have a justified cult following.

Domaine Marcel Deiss is located in Bergheim, a small village nestling in the heart of the wine region of Alsace, equal distance from the northern and southern boundaries of the region. The current winemaker is Jean-Michel Deiss, who was born into a long-established family of wine growers, living at Bergheim since 1744.

Today he manages the domaine, which consists of 26 hectares (52 acres) of hillside vineyards spread over nine communes and approximately 20 kilometres.

All Deiss wines are certified organic, made from grapes grown biodynamically and they break new ground in style and quality. Many are field blends, made in homage to historical growing methods where many different grape varieties grew together alongside each other, were picked together and fermented together. 

A special delicate expression of Pinot Noir made in the vineyard from start to finish; the grapes are fermented entirely in the vineyard in which they were grown. It's been a happy and extremely successful experiment at Greystone Winery, which is one of North Canterbury's wine stars situated on the slopes of limestone rich hills in Omihi. All of the grapes that go into Greystone wines are 100% certified organic with BioGro NZ and all are estate grown. No additional fruit is purchased to supplement production, which is one of many incremental steps that go into Greystone's high quality wines.

This wine grew from an experiment that first took place in 2012 where wild yeasts were captured in the vineyard and used to ferment a Pinot Noir in the vineyard. It sounds only natural but is in fact highly unusual because grapes tend to be taken to the winery for fermentation. In this case, the winery ferment vessels came to the grapes.

The result is a slower than usual fermentation, due to cooler temperatures, especially at night time. 

This delicate Pinot shines a new light on this noble grape, which tastes silky, vibrant, fresh and delicate with a lingering finish and interesting flavour notes. 

It?s a wine for the cellar ? or a special occasion in your finest glassware now or soon. 

* This wine was one of only two in New Zealand to make it onto the 2020 Top 100 Wine Discoveries by North American wine critic Robert Parker.

Certified organic with BioGro NZ.

About Greystone

The Greystone wine story began in 2000 when the Thomas Family bought an old sheep farm on the Omihi hills in the Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. The rolling limestone hills lured this family in and their goal was a single minded one: to make great wines from the limestone rich soils here. Fast forward 20 years and Greystone is one of the great (and, some might say, yet to be fully discovered) wineries in this outstanding wine region. Not least due to the work of winemaker Dom Maxwell and general manager Nick Gill, who began working together in 2005 and has grown along with the brand and quality. 

East Coast anthem IPA - A big ol' hop poppa of a beer, packing an intense mango, tropical fruit hit from US big guns, Simcoe and Mosaic. It's just bigger and juicier than its bitter West Coast counterpart, like sippin' hazy hop nectar from a can. It's all good.

Explicit Haze Warning: If cloudy beer offends you please drink from the can or close your eyes.

6.2% ABV

Amisfield Winery is based in Pisa while its beautiful cellar door shop and restaurant overlook Lake Hayes, just outside of Queenstown.

This winery makes a more diverse range of whites than most in Central Otago and the Pinot Gris is a light bodied, refreshing expression of this white grape from a cool climate. Spice, fresh fruit and a long finish all make this an extremely good quality Pinot Gris.

One of Central Otago's best kept secrets - great whites made from Chardonnay, a grape that thrives in the deep south as this beauty shows. It's full bodied, dry and made from certified organic grapes grown at the Morrison Vineyard at Pisa; one of the most highly regarded sub regions for grape growing in Central Otago. 

Grapes were pressed straight to barrel for fermentation with native vineyard yeasts, entirely in older French oak with no new oak at all. The wine was then matured in the same barrels for a year. 

The result is a beautiful dry, richly textured, smooth and creamy Chardonnay balanced by great southern acidity which gives Central Otago a distinctive edge when producing the world's most popular white wine. 

The home and winery of Mount Edward is situated in Gibbston, 25 kilometres from Queenstown.  Vineyards are there, in Bannockburn and at PIsa. 

The 2019 Zen is the best vintage yet produced of this outstanding full bodied, nutty, creamy, new world take on one of the great classic wines of the world. 

Tony Bish is Hawke's Bay best known, most dedicated Chardonnay specialist and Zen is his top wine. He has forged a name for himself as Hawke's Bay's king of Chardonnay and he named Zen after a challenging year because he felt zen when making it. The grapes all come from the highly rated Skeetfield Vineyard in the Bay and the wine was aged in a Taransaud oak ovum, a large egg shaped fermentation vessel, which was made specially for Tony, to create a full bodied, elegant, smooth Chardonnay in an environment that optimises lees contact during winemaking. 

Here's a Pinot Gris that tastes noticeably drier than many and is all about fresh pure, white fruit flavours of pear and peach. The refreshing acidity comes from the cooler climate grapes contained in the wine, which is made from a blend of grapes grown in three sub regions of Marlborough. The cool climate Awatere Valley has 73% with the remaining 17% from the Waihopai Valley and 10% from Kekerengu on the southern coast.

Grapes were fermented at cool temperatures to preserve fruit freshness and dry flavours. 

Residual sugar is 3.8 grams, making it dry in style - and also in flavour. 

The story of Astrolabe

Diversity, history and family ownership are among the reasons to try the outstanding range of wines from Astrolabe, which was founded in 1996 in Marlborough by winemaker Simon Waghorn and his partner in life and wine, Jane. 

Simon has forged a reputation for being one of New Zealand's most respected producers of aromatic white wines after winning an almost embarrassingly long string of awards for his Sauvignon Blancs. He has also forged a name for adventurously diverse winemaking - he produces dry flinty whites from the most southern vineyard in Marlborough at Kekerengu on the coast about an hour's drive south of Blenheim. He is the only winemaker to produce wines from here. 

He is also one of the few in this country to make Albarino, Chenin Blanc and a consistently outstanding range of wines from the organically certified hillside sloping site that is the Wrekin Vineyard in Marlborough. 

The winery remains family owned and is now run by two generations, including Simon and Jane as well as their adult daughters. 

Forget clarity, there's nothing clean cut about this beer. This is a Pale Ale amplified and distorted in a wall of haze and hop feedback. Galaxy, Nelson and Mosaic riffs drift in a warm fuzz of juicy malt and tropical fruit noise. Plug it in, dial it up, crack the can. It's fuzzy ugly and you love it. Originally brewed in collaboration with Sydney's rock god pizza tossers Frankies.

 5.8%

RODENBACH Grand Cru is a aged Belgian red ale, consisting of one-third young beer and two-thirds oak-matured beer for two years. The result is a complex beer with a great deal of wood and esters, vinous and with a very long aftertaste, just like a vintage wine. 

Its taste is complex and rounded, intense and refreshing. It is characterised by an acidic, appley fruitiness combined with caramel, wild honey and oak with a touch of vanilla, cherry and liquorice. The aroma consists of touches of caramel and oak, as well as green apples mixed with honey and chocolate. The slightly sour, fruity aftertaste is long and nicely balanced, just like a Grand Cru wine.

Michael Jackson rightly called this beer a "World Classic" and "the Burgundy of Belgium".

6% ABV

Best Before: 2027/02/21

Southward Distilling Co. - There is a place where adventure starts.  This wild place is the inspiration for our distillery.  Made up of garden grown, wild and traditional botanicals. We are a modern take on distilling inspired by the wild beauty of New Zealand.

Bold, balanced, and full of flavour, our Mountain Gin is made for adventuring. Confident enough to stand on its own, but cooperative enough to work with any tonic you could throw at it, this gin makes a great addition to the team.

Highly recommended for nights around the campfire, and sharing with friends – especially those who don’t think they’re big on gin (spoiler alert; they will be).

Notes: Juniper, juicy citrus, rosemary and lavender.

Made in Wellington, New Zealand.