Merry Christmas from us all at Atlas!

We hope you have a fantastic Christmas Day and would like to thank you all for your custom over the last year. We look forward to seeing you over the festive period. Have a good one!

Merry Christmas from us all at Atlas!

Wynyard Terrain Park Re-Named after Atlas!

Between our Pints for Wynyard Campaign and this year's Season of Shred party we've managed to raise a substantial $12,154.5 for QMTBC. The money will go towards maintaining the Wynyard track and also improving the Fernhill Loop.

We can also announce that QMTBC recently decided to re-name the Wynyard Freeride Terrain Park after Atlas! It's now the Atlas Wynyard Freeride Terrain Park in honour of our fundraising efforts over the past couple of years. We're all pretty chuffed but can honestly say we were, and are, more than happy to pitch in an contribute however we can. Mountain biking has been for long time a prominent past time in the Queenstown community and it feels like it's exploded in the past couple of years. We are just genuinely happy to support a cause that we feel can benefit the whole community. 

We'll be keeping you updated with how the fundraising money is being spent and our grateful thanks again to everyone who supported this year's Pints for Wynyard and Season of Shred party. 

Now let's get out there and shred!

Gorgeous Gibbston Valley Guest Wines on the Menu... along with Egg Nog?

Check out the tasting notes for the gorgeous Gibbston Valley guest wines have on the menu at Atlas, just for Christmas period.

First up, the Gold River Methode Traditionelle Brut, because what's more celebratory than bubbles? The Gold River Brut is a light, straw gold colour with a fine and delicate mousse. Taste-wise there are creamy toasty notes on the nose with some subtle brioche, straw and barrel aromatics. A full creamy palate follows with its savoury breadth complementing a hint of flintiness. The finish is long, dry and generous. Delicious.

Next our guest Rose is the Gibbston Valley 2014. Gibbston Valley have a vineyard designated specifically for Rose production. By picking specifically from this one site, certain aromatic and fresh fruit flavours are harnessed. The wine is 100% Pinot Noir and is full of berry characteristics. It is also dry and and refreshing and has a slightly lower alcohol content. The Rose is also very food friendly and can be enjoyed with a variety of different cuisines. We think it'll make for perfect lake-side drinking. 

Gibbston Valley Gold Valley Brut | Bottle $55

Gibbston Valley Rose 2014  | Glass $9.5 Bottle $40

Along with these two fantastic guest wines we may just have another guest drink on the menu. That most festive drink of all. . . Yes that's right, Egg Nog! Stay tuned and we'll keep you updated on the Egg Nog status. 

As always, please enjoy responsibly

Cider and Super Powers - A chat with Zeffer Cider's Sam

Zeffer's Sam Townsend

With summer here it's hard not to think of cider. We've been pouring Zeffer cider at Atlas for a wee while now so we thought it was the perfect time to have a Q&A with them. Here's what Zeffer's Cidermaker-in-Chief, Sam Townsend, had to say when we caught up for a chat.


Hi Sam, how are you? What are you up to today?

Hi, currently taking a break from kegging a fresh batch of red apple cider on a hot arvo, Zeffer is based up on the Hibiscus coast in the sunny north of the North Island. My partner Hannah and I live 30 minutes north of here with our two children Maddie and Lottie.


So you decided to turn your wine-making skills to cider back in 2009. What was it about making cider that inspired you in particular?

Hannah and I were backpacking through Europe and trying a lot of unique ciders, we saw how popular the drink was over there and figured there was a clear opportunity to make a premium New Zealand cider with our abundance of great fruit. We wanted Zeffer to be unique, so we decided to make it all from freshly crushed fruit and not add any sugar or artificial flavourings. We started with our crisp apple (which is pouring at Atlas) which is my take on a classic New Zealand style of cider. Crisp, refreshing and clean flavours without too much sweetness. Letting the true apple flavours come through.


What’s a busy day like for you at the cidery? Also can you tell us a bit about the brewing process?

The busiest days for us are in winter when the apples are coming into season, this winter alone we crushed over over 200 tonne of apples. Our German crushing machine can crush up to 10 tonne a day with one person working hard operating it. Summer is pretty mad as well with a lot of kegging, keg cleaning and bottling!

From the apples arriving we turn them into cider in about 6 weeks, we chose a long, slow method of cold fermentation so the cider retains a full flavour. It’s then ideal to condition it over a few weeks until it’s ready to hit the kegs or bottles.

We’ve been known to get along to a few orchards to help with harvest but most of our fruit comes from Nelson and the Hawke's Bay. We are pretty specific with the varieties we choose and have spent a lot time refining our blend to ensure we get the balance we are after for all 6 of our ciders.


What was the inspiration behind your company name?

Zephyr is a sailing term meaning a light breeze. We started Zeffer on my family farm in Matakana which always has a light sea breeze sweeping in. So we decided to change the spelling to make it our own and called it a light breeze in a bottle.


Slack Ma Girdle and Hopped up Pippin sound like interesting ciders. What was the inspiration behind these? Also what does “Slack Ma Girdle” mean?

Slack Ma Girdle is one of the cider apples used to make it (along with 51 others). It was one of the many quirky names of old English styles of cider apples we used for Slack Ma Girdle, when we saw it we thought it would be a great name for our most complex cider. Slack is a big, bold, traditional style and can take Kiwi’s a bit of getting used to. We view it as our marquee cider and our take on a true English West Country style of cider.

We believe in being true to style but we also want to be creative with our ciders. It’s a product that is relatively new to most New Zealanders so it’s our mission to introduce people to new and exciting styles (without all the sugar and just using great New Zealand ingredients).

The inspiration for Hopped Up Pippin came from some great ciders in the United States. Apples and Hops always grow well in similar climates and so we combined a few of our favourite Nelson apple varieties with some of our favourite Nelson hops and turn it into Hopped up Pippin. We are pretty happy with how it turned out.


Are there any other special ciders on the horizon that you’ll be adding to the Zeffer range?

We have just released Zesty Citrus cider! This one uses some of our favourite green apple varieties which we soak for one month with fresh lemon and lime zest from Hawkes Bay. The result is a crisp, refreshing cider with a big citrus hit on the nose and a good citrus finish. It’s a great cider to match with seafood and one of the favourites going down at the cidery at the moment. Great for a hot, Central Otago summer's day.


We serve Zeffer Crisp Apple Cider at Atlas; looking at our menu, what would you food match it with? 

I think the best match would be the whole baked sole, the crisp apple has a great acid balance and cuts through seafood really well. In saying that the steak is always the meal of choice when the Zeffer team is in town.


If you were coming to Atlas for dinner this evening, who would be your ideal dinner companions? 

Dave Grohl, Kelly Slater, Lebron James and my beautiful partner Hannah.


When you’re not sipping on cider… Pilsner, Pale Ale, Porter or IPA? 

Pilsner. We work closely with a lot of great breweries (Tuatara, Liberty, 8-wired, Deep Creek) and so great beer is never far away. As we are moving in to summer it’s hard to go past a Pilsner other than a cider, of course!


What super power would you like to have?

The ability to fly.


If you were stuck on a dessert island and you can take three things what would they be?

My fishing kayak, unlimited supply of Zeffer, unlimited supply of biltong


Describe your ideal day in the North.

Out on a launch near Kawau Island with mates and family catching great snapper, frying up scallops and having a few Zeffers!


How do you have your Atlas steak cooked?

This is an easy one, medium rare. Hannah and I were at Atlas a few years ago (first year of Zeffer) and were told about the Atlas steak so went along and ordered it. It was outstanding. We said at the time it would be an awesome place to get Zeffer on tap and a few years later, we are!

A New Ginger Beer is Here!

Yummo check out this spicy little number that's now on the drinks menu at Atlas. We're stocking an alcoholic ginger beer from Dunedin's McDuff Brewery.

If you haven't heard fo McDuff's before their brewery HQ is located in the heart of Dunedin’s campus precinct at 695 Great King Street, Dunedin. They've been brewing there since the early days of boutique brewing in the 1980’s.

The ginger beer is traditional in style with a nice warm finish to the mouth.

It's 4% and $8 a bottle. Also nice poured over ice or with a squeeze of lemon.

Rose Back on the Menu for Summer

We have the Lindeman's Early Harvest Rose back on the menu at Atlas. We featured it last summer and have it back for a little while as a guest wine. It's crisp and refreshing with raspberries and cherry flavours, and would be a great match with salads and also Asian-inspired flavours.

Amy is also busy seeing if she can source some Rose from France. She had the rather envious task of sampling a few as she journeyed through the French Riviera during August of this year. So watch this space as we may be able to get a drop of the French stuff in at Atlas. If not we're pretty spoilt as far as wine goes in NZ so we'll have some of tasty Roses on the menu throughout the Summer for you to try.