Tourism

NZ travel: Marlborough’s best non-wine drinking destinations

September 21, 2022

In the space that was Giesen’s Cellar Door, Boom Town Brewing’s beer garden enjoys a sprawling lawn, perfect for lounging about. Photo / Supplied

PRINT HEAD: Beyond the vines
PRINT BLURB: writes Anna King Shahab

Sure, the grapes grow good in Marlborough, but also growing is a lively scene of brewing and distilling, and places in which to sample those tipples.

Botanical art

In the Vines Village precinct, around 12km out of Blenheim central in the heart of wine country, three upcycled shipping containers are home to Elemental Distillers, makers of Roots Marlborough Dry Gin among other things. Every batch is distilled in the small 200-litre copper pot named “Fanni Chanel”, the heart of the operation.

The signature dry gin is bold and juniper-forward, and features just six core botanicals – there’s nowhere to hide; the quality of those botanicals and the way they’re treated is key. Apart from the juniper, which is wild-harvested in highland Macedonia, the rest of the botanicals are sourced in Aotearoa, as locally as possible. Gorse flower from Marlborough, Motueka hops (an unusual ingredient – it adds a citrusy brightness), Hawke’s Bay coriander seed, Canterbury kawakawa berries, and grapefruit from sunny Gisborne. Distillery manager Alex van Saarloos was on hand when I visited, passing me jars and containers of botanicals in various states of dehydration, their heady aromas filling the small room.

Elemental Distillery in Marlborough. Photo / Supplied

Tours of the distillery with a tasting component, are available on weekdays via booking. Distiller Ben Leggett tells me there are exciting plans for 2023 to open both a dedicated tasting room at the distillery as well as a gin garden in the Vines Village carpark area, which will be a welcome place to call at on a cycling tour.

The distillery puts on a number of events around key moments in the gathering of botanicals – keep an eye out for the call out on social media. “We do our ‘Foraging in 4x4s’ in September”, says Leggett. “Thirty volunteers head up into the local pine plantations in a convoy of 14 four-wheel drives from a local club.” Their mission: collect gorse flowers in peak bloom.

The view from the top deck at Elemental Distillers in Marlborough. Photo / Supplied

A local chef joins the party, cooking up delicious kai to feed the troops, and they also bring a mini pot up “To do a live distillation with the flowers”, says Leggett. And in a biannual call-out, many hands are needed to peel the delivery of 600kg of grapefruit from a single orchard in Gisborne – from pick to peel within 36 hours, freshness is key. The distillery gets the chef in on food, there’s gin for all, and a band to boot.

At the moment the best place to get a taste of the Elemental magic is at The Gin Room, also in Vines Village. The shelves are lined with boutique NZ gins, and you can order a tasting flight of the different varieties of Roots gins (this was my breakfast when I visited, and I wasn’t mad about it) as well ordering a gin and tonic, gin cocktail, or a craft beer to enjoy in the courtyard or out the back on the lawn overlooking vines.

Another local gin graces the shelves there – Riot & Rose gin which is based in Marlborough and distiller over the hill in Nelson. Jane Walkenhorst has stepped outside the box in releasing not one but two signature gins: The Riot – “bold, traditional, and mellow” and The Rose – “elegant, floral, and delicate”. Take your pick, or pick both.
Elemental Distillers and The Gin Room, The Vines Village, 193 Rapaura Rd.
elementaldistillers.com; theginroom.co.nz

Tasting Roots gin at the Gin Room in Marlborough. Photo / Supplied

Right as grain

Blenheim is fondly known by many locals as Boom Town – a piece of trivia I only discovered upon arriving at Boom Town Brewery’s beer garden and chatting to co-owner Clive McFarlane over a few tap beers as the sun began to set on a fine Friday evening.

In the space that was Giesen’s Cellar Door, the beer garden enjoys a sprawling lawn, perfect for lounging about with friends and family and soaking up the region’s famously long sunshine hours.

The founders of Marlborough’s Boom Town Brewery wanted to create beer that would sit happily between the very crafty and the more commercial. Photo / Supplied

The brewery’s founders wanted to create beer that would sit happily between the very crafty and the more commercial. The range of beers includes APA, IPA, pilsner, lager, and pale ale. The latter, the Baby Boom Pale Ale (cleverly packaged with a baby blue label), is my pick for the day, an easy-drinking, refreshing brew that’s the perfect foil after a long day’s wine tasting. Delicious eats from The Taco Shack operating onsite complement the beer perfectly and make this a place worthy of setting up for a good, long time.
26 Rapaura Rd, Renwick, Blenheim. boomtown.nz

At the craftier end of the spectrum, Blenheim brewery Renaissance have been in the game for an impressively long 17 years. The best place to get a taste of this is in the backyard of the brewery, home to Dodson Street Beer Garden, where you’ll be welcomed by 14 Renaissance and 10 rotating guest brews on tap, as well as a menu showcasing hearty German and Italian fare alongside Kiwi favourites.
1 Dodson St, Mayfield, Blenheim. renaissancebrewing.co.nz