Elderberry wines

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 7

Elderberry wines

In 1969, Anthony Barker gave up sheep farming and devoted himself to production of elderberry wines with which he had been- experimenting for some time. He established the venture now known as Upton Cellars, well. known throughout South Canterbvury and a popllar stopping offplace for tour buses, in all, about 20,000 callers visit Upton Cellars each year. Although they are as welcome as the flowers in May, the proportion of New Zealanders is not as great as Anthony Barker would like .to see. By far the greatest number are from overseas and, after all, make one stop — and a business is not built on one-stop customers. Progress, howefer, is still being made. The first year’s production was 1500 gallons of dry and medium table wine, supplemented bv a small proportion of cooking wine. In 1972, a fortified range was Introduced and current production is around 8000 gallons a year, not large in comparison with grape wine producers, but fair enough for the type of wine produced at Upton Cellars. Mr Barker is careful to

make the point that his wines are not intended to be competitive with, but are supplementary to those of teh grape wine producers. “How can I,” he asks, “compete with an industry which has been 5000 years ■in... the making? I would not try. I leave it- to those whose business it is to produce table wines " Mr Barker will present a new wine. Cream Negus, in addition to his standard Ginger Negus. They are aperitif type Wines, after the Itabna style, and suitable for serving straigh: or with a mix, such as tonic water or any mix preferred by the user. He will also present his Mistelle. range, a liqueur type wine. Alexis Lichine defines Mistelle as “a fortified wine made by adding spirit to fruit juice befre it ferments. The excess of alcohol prevents fermentation and all the natural sugar is retained in the juice.” This bears out .Mr Barker’s claim that all of his •vines are true to label. If the label says that the wine is Elderberry .Blackberry or Raspberry, then it is just that — a pure fruit product with no additives apart from the alcohol.