Situated on the peaceful shores of Lake Horowhenua, just outside of Levin, Celtic Organic Winery quietly continues to create boutique wines for a special audience.

Here we make our deliciously different wines using completely traditional methods, which is where the name for the company originates; at Celtic Wines, we use Celtic methods. It wasn’t that far back in time when everything was organic and sustainable and there was sensitivity to the natural order. The alchemists turned water and fruit into wine and there was magic in the air especially after drinking the resulting brews.
We have captured some of this mystic and bought it back to life.

This means that we manufacture our wine without technology, using the most basic of machinery (a hundred year old cork press, hand label, gravity bottle and rack our wines several times to clear them without finings. To produce a bottle of Black Doris, for example, we source the plums from organic farms and then tread them to pulp. Once this process is completed the fermentation begins, we then drain off the juice and create the base for the wine according to our Celtic forebears. The wine is then put to rest for a season or two in barrels so that it can develop in flavour and depth. Our batches are matured in 200 litres lots. This means that each brew, affected by small variables such as temperature, acidity, fruit sugar etc, has a slight difference in taste, making each batch individual indeed.

Absolutely no preservatives, sulphates or chemicals of any kind are introduced to the wine, and this is another area in which we differ from your average ‘bottle of plonk’. It is important to be aware of what you put into your body, and we do not wish to be responsible for yet another source of needlessly introduced chemicals. We try our best to work in harmony with nature, the seasons, and all the life forces that naturally occur.

The History of Celtic Wines
Celtic organic winery began when our apple orchard produced a batch of apples that were perfect for cider, and a 9000 ltr tanker broke down near by. The synchronistic timing of these individual aspects broached a connection which turned out to be very fortuative. The initial batch of scrumpy left a little to be desired by way of sophistication, but proved popular with festival goers at the 1999 Sweetwaters festival in Auckland. We had made the batch according to an old Celtic recipe, which is, of course, 100% organic, and this aspect of the cider production process interested many of the slightly sozzled festival fanatics.

Bouyed up by this success, we decided to continue with the organic approach, but branch out to the production of fruit wines. The tanker was returned to its natural environment – the road, and we began experimenting with barrels and 200 litre batches of wine in our tranquil winery in the Horowhenua.

After ten years of experience, we are now confident that our pioneering methods of organic production have become established in the minds of our customers. We offer a diverse range of top quality products to cater for palates dry and sweet.

VINTAGE WINE
After ten years of experience, we have now amassed amongst our beautiful boutique wines a selection of the very best, which has been held back in order to develop its flavour further over time.

Our vintage selection is an elite assortment of aged wines, with a variety of flavour which is sure to appeal to the connoisseur

WHY CHOOSE FRUIT WINES?
Fruit wines are still a niche market in the wine making business, despite there being much variety and quality available. Traditionally fruit wines are perceived as sweet and have gained a rather negative perception amongst some wine drinkers, as they are associated with amateur wine production. At Celtic Organic Wines we have worked hard over the years at developing a fuller body, bouquet and an all round quality, which can not only squabash the tired archaic beliefs about fruit wines, but also competatively rival a grape wine. The speciality wines produced at Celtic are exciting because of their diverse range of mouth watering and familiar flavours; Ginger, Feijoa, Black Doris and Omega plums, Braeburn apples, and locally sourced honeys. Each of our wines has a distinctive and full flavour, accompanied by a delicate bouquet and a positively voluptuous body which anybody can appreciate.

Besides originality and variety, there are also notable health benefits to using fruits. Grapes contain histamines, which can create an allergic reaction for some consumers. Ginger has long been renowned for its healthy attributes, some of which can only be released through brewing, aiding digestion, calming motion sickness, preventing colds, improving circulation, it is even suggested as an aphrodisiac! The spicy warmth it imbues through consumption not only provides a delectable drinking experience, but also helps to ease flu symptoms and headaches. Coupled with the organic principals which define our winemaking processes, you could argue that our Green Ginger Wine is the healthiest wine on the planet!

TOUR GROUPS WELCOME. Ph 06 3684465

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