Have you ever heard of Ginger Wine? Neither had we.

Using the same concept that makes Ginger Ale and Ginger Beer so popular (i.e., ginger is damn good), some New Zealand vintners make Ginger Wine as a unique varietal for wine lovers.

One of those is the Celtic Winery in Levin, NZ, and Elysia and I just spent the last four nights staying at the Celtic, tasting all sorts of strange and organic wines, ciders, and beer through the WWOOFing program.

Beyond the very popular Green Ginger Wine, the winemaker Malcolm also makes Plum Port, Black Plum Wine (which is different than the popular prison concoction Pruno), a dry and a sweet Feijoa Wine, an old-style mead (not nearly as sweet as you’re thinking), a fizzy Malbec-Merlot blend (like a darker rosé), a delicious little drink called Whiskey Mac that blends Irish whiskey and ginger, a Lime Cider, an Ale and a Lager. There was also something called “Merlin’s Brew,” but Malcolm didn’t offer that one up to taste.

In case you’re wondering, Ginger Wine is seriously good. You should ask your local liquor store if they carry any.

The work was a bit hit and miss. One of our tasks while we worked for our stay at the Celtic was helping with a wine tasting for 35 retirees one morning. That was actually sort of a fun task, walking around with plates of biscuits and cheese to help the visitors clean their palate before downing another unique blend. The winemaking part of the job was pretty cool, and it’s too bad that our stay wasn’t more focused on that.

Most of the time our job was kilometers from glamorous; in fact, Elysia said she felt like an unpaid servant while we were there, and she has a pretty decent point. For one, “please” and “thank you” may not have been uttered by our hosts during our time there. (I can’t honestly remember because I was too busy zoning out during our mindless labor.) To put it plainly, we moved junk from one side of the property to another — for hours and hours and hours.

You see, Malcolm is what Americans would call a hoarder. Over the last 30 years, Malcolm has collected an unbelievable amount of junk, and because he is so sternly committed to self-sufficiency, recycling and all that, he never throws anything away. Well, his property started to look like a junkyard, and his wife Deb wanted it all sorted.

Bring in the WWOOFers — aka free labor.

Yep. For the last few days, Elysia and I worked at a vineyard and a junkyard simultaneously.

It wasn’t all bad. After work we had the winery to ourselves, so we would “sample” the wines a few (dozen) times after dinner. The winery is also just about 8km from Hokio Beach, and we watched the most incredible sunset there by ourselves. Honestly, there wasn’t a soul for miles in either direction. Pretty surreal. Also, it was sort of fun seeing Elysia roll up her sleeves and do some dirty manual labor. I was blown away at what a tough little worker she turned out to be! Seriously, Elysia showed she looks just as good in a blue collar as as she does in a white one.

And other than the part where we felt like servants, Malcolm, Deb and their dog Jack were very good company. Malcolm is sort of an old hippie who runs an annual eco-fest concert called the Organic River Festival that brings 12,000+ like-minded to the area. He was a bit of an eccentric who like to fights with the local council about a whole host of topics. Deb is a Grade 7 teacher who seemed much more “normal” than her partner, and she runs the local horticulture program and her school.

So our first WWOOFing experienced was a mixed bag, but we were able to give our wallets a much needed break and learn about our new favorite drink Ginger Wine. With a bottle or two in tow, we are now off to Wellington, where we will stay a few days before taking the Cook Strait Ferry to the South Island!

^CJ