Bottle, '7 Cellars New Zealand Brandy'

This bottle of Seven Cellars Brandy represents the experimental trial work into the development of a premium brandy industry in New Zealand in the 1960s.

In the early 1960s, a group of New Zealand winemakers applied to the government seeking permission to conduct trails to see whether the industry could successfully produce quality brandy from New Zealand grown grapes.  Licences were granted to four winemaking companies, including Seven Cellars. Seven Cellars is a consortium of the original founding shareholders who created this brandy: Selaks Wines, Nobilo Wines, Babich Wines, Delegats Wines, Lincoln, Totara Vineyard and Golden Sunset.

The grapes were sourced from the wineries in the greater Auckland region. The winemakers took care to select grapes grown in soils with high clay content which is a key component to making premium quality brandy, such as those from the great Cognac region in France. The skills of New Zealand’s winemaking experts helped create the brandies, including Mate Selak, Nicoka Nobilo, Josip Babich, Nikola Delegat, and Petar Fredatovich.

The initial fermentations were conducted in the cellars of Babich Wines in Henderson. Distillation, in a specially constructed traditional column still, was conducted under the supervision of the late Nick Delegat and Mate Selak. After maturation, the brandies were extracted under the supervision of Customs and samples were sent to France for evaluation.  The response from France was extremely positive.

However, although there was potential for making world-class brandy in New Zealand, the economies of scale meant that it wasn’t possible to establish a brandy industry at that time.  This was also before the rise and success of New Zealand’s wine industry.

The stocks of brandy trials were kept, and many of them were absorbed into sherries and ports.  However, Seven Cellars kept their stock and bottled it in 2002 on its 40^th anniversary.  A few bronze bases were made (by bronze caster Richard Wills) to display the bottles. The design of the labelling was by Geoff Rowe.