It’s summer - a perfect time for a picnic in an orchard and some sparkling cider to wash it down. Or even better - a whole range of ciders to taste and choose from!

On Saturday 22 February, the Molewood Orchard Cider and Fruit Wine Festival will be a celebration of award-winning cider and fruit wine producers from the lower North Island.

The festival will take place in the beautiful Molewood Meadows. There will be a range of ciders to choose from, served on site by Teepee Cider, Remutaka Cider, Elemental Cider and Fruit Cru, plus fruit wines from Catalyst Wines.

There will also be food trucks by Dao Thai and Balter Bar, plus hamburgers by renowned chef Dale Keith, and all of this accompanied by some fantastic music; blues, country and jazz by local musicians Bob Cooper-Grundy and Kate Marshall, plus keyboard & vocals duo Beth and Gen.

When: Saturday 22 February, 12-5pm

Where: Molewood Orchard, 17 Mole St Greytown

Tickets: $25 plus fees from Eventfinda: BUY TICKETS NOW.

Under 18s can attend the festival without purchasing a ticket but must be accompanied by an adult ticketholder.

Access

Access to the orchard is at 17 Mole St Greytown, or else from our “secret” door in the shelterbelt at the end of Farley Ave (this area has plenty of parking and is closest to the centre of Greytown).

Learn more about the cider and wine makers

Teepee Cider is a micro artisan cider maker. Our product of  seasonal ciders and perry ( pear cider) comes from wild fermented of our our organic cider apples and perry pears. We make our cider method traditional ( or Method Albion) as we prefer to call it given that English cider makers invented sparkling cider - the first fizzy drink! We keep everything possible as traditional as possible, as Lord Scudamore would have made his cider in 1630. So let’s drink to history. Wassail! 

Remutaka Cidery is located at our orchard in South Featherston.  Our ciders are made from heritage and traditional cider apples grown and handpicked in the South Wairarapa.  We pick, press, ferment and bottle at the orchard to create a range of delicious ciders hand crafted from exceptional, locally grown apples.  Our ciders are made in time with the seasons, apples are picked and pressed in autumn, fermented over the winter and ready to drink the following summer.  Like a good wine, they are an expression of both the apple and place.  

Elemental Ciders are dry, dry, dry.  We make it using traditional methods, with nothing added but the fruit we grow in sunny Otaki, and the mighty Horowhenua. Our simple philosophy of working with the sun, soil, wind and water defines everything about Elemental Cider, from the way the fruit is grown to the way the cider is made and bottled!

Jesse and Cosmo started Fruit Cru in 2021 in a storage unit in Newtown, Wellington. Keen to create something fresh and unique they set to work with all the organic fruit they could get their hands on. Apples, quinces, feijoas & kiwifruit. They co-fermented three small tanks and threw a party. It went off. Now they've built a small winery in the heart of Te Aro to create expressive bottles of sparkling fruit wine. Organic and foraged fruit, wild ferments and no added sulphur.

Catalyst Fruit Wines is a boutique fruit winery based in Eketāhuna.  SandRa Timmins is the winemaker and everything; she has been making wine since 2018 and trading since 2023.  Just about all the fruits in the wines are grown on their families organic property or others around the Tararua district.  Catalyst Fruit Wines is sold online, at local markets and through Cult Wines based in Raglan.