Honey liqueur, pure gold
Gisborne brewer talks gold at Fieldays
When Gisborne brewer Dennis Greeks started brewing honey wine and liqueur for his boss in 1999, he may have hit a goldmine.
The wine, labelled 1st Night, is made with manuka honey and is used as a base with brandy to create their delicious honey liqueur, First Knight, which contains flecks of pure gold.
“They’re 24 carat, food grade. We import it from overseas,” Greeks said.
After starting out as a cider maker, Greeks bought the brand from his boss in 2005 and went into partnership with friend Barry Foster, starting Alchemy Beverages.
“We’ve made a couple of changes to the honey wine recipe and just carried on with the liqueur really,” Greeks said.
This is the fourth year the partners have secured a stall at the Fieldays, selling around 35 cases on average over the four-day event.
With prices Greeks said he gets a nice mix of regular and new customers over the course of the Fieldays.
New customer Elizabeth Honey said she was suitably impressed with the product and would definitely be taking some home with her.
“It’s really amazing, it surprised me how good it was. I wasn’t expecting such a superior product,” she said.
“We’ve just had research done by Dr Peter Molan from the University of Waikato and he’s found that it’s full of antioxidants, which means there should be less of a hangover,” Greeks said.
With prices starting from $12 it would be rude not to take some home with you, but if you do miss them at the Fieldays you can purchase direct from their website alchemybeverages.com
