2025 Mānuka Special Reserve: A Mānuka Mead Worth Celebrating
Our 2025 Mānuka Special Reserve is here. It’s a limited seasonal mead made in Christchurch, New Zealand, crafted entirely from pure New Zealand Mānuka honey and fermented with the patience this rare honey deserves. If you’ve been searching for NZ mead with a true sense of place, this is the bottle that captures it.
This year’s release shows a deep, earthy richness that only Mānuka honey can give. Its smooth, big bodied mead fermented to 16.4% abv. It’s honey wine in its purest form: no added flavours, no shortcuts, just the native flora of Aotearoa guiding the final character.
Manuka Special Reserve next to a waterfall close to its source Manuka forests.
Why This Mānuka Mead Is Special
We ferment Mānuka slowly to protect its natural flavour compounds. The honey ferments 16.4% ABV, finishing semi-dry with a rounded sweetness that highlights the unique tannins and phenolics in Mānuka honey. These give the mead an almost coffee-like edge, a gentle grip, and a long, lingering finish.
Every bottle reflects Christchurch’s growing mead scene and our goal to show how New Zealand mead can stand alongside premium wines and craft spirits.
A Limited Release From New Zealand’s Native Forests
This is a small-batch seasonal release. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. This release was fermented, aged, and bottled here in Christchurch by hand, following the approach we’ve refined over years of working with native honeys.
For people looking for authentic Mānuka mead, Christchurch mead, or New Zealand honey wine, this is the expression that shows what NZ flora can do when left undisturbed.
How to Enjoy It
Serve lightly chilled. Pair with soft cheeses, dark chocolate, roasted nuts, or simply enjoy a glass on its own as you would a premium wine. It opens up beautifully in the glass as the forest character reveals itself.
A Step Forward for Aotearoa Mead
The Mānuka Special Reserve is part of our wider vision to build a recognised category of Aotearoa Mead, rooted in native flora and the landscapes they come from. Each bottle is part of that story.
If you’d like to try it, we recommend ordering soon. Bottles are strictly limited.
How does the Special Reserve compare to our Mānuka Mead?
The key difference is in the honey itself. Our Mānuka Special Reserve is fully monofloral, made only from single-origin Mānuka honey, while our standard Mānuka Mead uses a multifloral blend. The Special Reserve ferments more slowly and reaches a higher ABV, which draws out deeper earthy notes, natural tannins, and a long, layered finish. The blended Mānuka Mead is lighter, softer, and slightly fruity with a feijoa-like lift. Both are delicious expressions of New Zealand Mānuka honey, each showing a surprisingly different side of the same native flora.
