A wildly new wine experience has arrived in Ōtautahi.
Discover a wine from the most pure ingredients sourced in our city, where it is brewed and bottled. Be among the first to experience this scrumptious wine, made using natural processes treasured by our ancestors for millennia.
Available only at Seekers Mākete, at the Arts Centre, Saturday 10am - 4pm.
Can’t make it? Email sam@undisturbed.nz for orders.
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Each batch of Undisturbed we make is genuinely unique. It’s the bees choosing which flowers to take the precious nectar from as they pollinate that give each batch its unique quality. We take great care to honour this natural process as we prepare the wine only adding water, rhubarb, yeast for fermentation - and time.
Batch # 1 - The OG. Made with honey from the Ōtautahi Beekeepers Collective hives in the former red-zone. Infused with backyard-grown rhubarb. At 9% abv, it is a light, smooth, low sugar wine that’s perfect chilled or over ice on a summer evening.
Batch # 2 - Rhubarb Crumble. Sweet and tangy in balance with a rhubarb pink complexion, it’s like drinking rhubarb crumble. Made from Ōtautahi Beekeepers’ honey, 13% abv.
Batch # 3 - Forest Wine. Gifted to us by native trees, this is as natural and sustainable a wine as can be imagined. Made with honeydew from the depths of South Island’s native bush. Each bottle of forest wine boosts demand for honeybees to protect our native forests from invasive wasps. 9% abv, low sugar.
Updated 8 Nov 2024
“I love how drinkable and smooth it is. The soft sweetness is infinitely nicer than the acidic, headache-inducing sweetness of some white wines.
Felt like the perfect summer bevvy!
The fact it tasted like actual honey, rather than artificial sugar in RTDs was also amazing.”
Nancy Bond, Christchurch
Our Story
Living long and well is important to us. With a little one on the way and thinking the future, we began searching for a healthier, eco-friendly wine. A beekeeping friend introduced us to honey wine, sparking the exploration of local honeys and botanicals that are both good for the body and sustainably produced .
Finding the right honey was crucial. Fortunately, the Ōtautahi Beekeepers Co-op provides the ideal source. They have hives across the city, particularly in the red zone, where their bees actively contribute to its regeneration.
After numerous trials, rhubarb - that tangy, digestion friendly herb commonly found in South Island backyards - emerged as the perfect balance to the sweetness of honey.
The result is a smooth, delicate wine with no added chemicals that embodies a commitment to sustainability, wellness, and a harmonious drinking experience that leaves the earth and the conscience undisturbed.
From our family to yours.
Sam, Ameesha, and little Marcus - Undisturbed
Undisturbed honey wine is great for...
You!
- New experiences are good for the soul.
- Honey wine it is gluten-free and contains the vitamins and antioxidants of the honey used to create it.
- Our wine is exceptionally low in sugar and carbohydrates. It contains no added chemicals or sulphites, as nature intends.
- Avoid hangovers (we kid you not). Alcohol made from raw honey is a high quality alcohol. Raw honey contains micronutrients that feed your body what it needs to process alcohol, namely electrolytes, antioxidants, and fructose that smooth out your body’s alcohol processing (source).
Our City
Approximately 9 million bottles of grape wine are consumed in Christchurch each year. If just 1% of those were local honey wine the demand for local hives would dramatically increase, improving:
- Food security. Bees are essential for pollinating the city’s vegetable gardens and orchards.
- Biodiversity: Bees play a vital role in maintaining Christchurch’s biodiversity.
- Lower Water Consumption: no irrigation or additional water required in beekeeping. Other alcoholic beverages that are grain, vine or cane based require thousands of litres of water for irrigation even before the raw material is processed and bottled.
Planet Earth
Reduced Carbon Footprint: The honey we use comes from hives in the same city that we make, bottle and sell it. Sourcing locally reduces transportation emissions to near zero.
Land Utilisation: Other alcohol inputs such as hops and grapes require land for cropping. Our local Christchurch honey, by contrast, requires just enough land for the hives - then the bees add value to all the surrounding land through their pollination.
Save the bees: Honey bees will tap about 5.7mill flowers to make 1kg honey. Bees love to be busy and the world needs them more than ever.
A little about honey wine and mead
Mead is a broader category that encompasses various styles and sweetness levels. Honey wine is a subset of mead, referring to meads that are typically refined and may have characteristics similar to grape wine. The terms are often used interchangeably. Undisturbed honey wine is made in a nano-batch meadery in Riccarton.