Wānaka in a jar
Tineke-Maree Sutton is bottling up the best of Central Otago with her Taste of the Alps preserves, bringing flavour to your everyday dishes.
Words Sheryl Haitana
The beauty of having a world-travelled chef creating home-made preserves is the knowledge of the different ways it can pair with produce to create exceptional flavour combinations. Adding a bit of Pinot Noir Quince Jelly to a piece of chocolate brownie for example, cuts through the fattiness of the brownie, and adds another dimension; or using it in a glaze for pork ribs on the barbecue creates an extra sticky and sweet flavour.
It’s more than just a condiment to accompany cheese – although of course it goes amazingly well with cheese too, laughs Tineke-Maree Sutton, the chef behind Taste of the Alps. The Vineyard Pinot Noir Quince Jelly was the first product Tineke-Maree created while she was head chef at a vineyard in Cromwell.
While her original recipe used apples, she quickly changed it to quince and started her label Taste of the Alps, entered it in the Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards in 2018, and was a finalist. She sources the quince from two old, huge trees, and mixes them with grapes from Mt Barker and Aitken’s Folly Vineyard in Wānaka. ‘I go and pick all the quince and get the grapes and it’s a two-day bottling process. It’s Wānaka in a jar.’
Tineke-Maree travelled and worked as a chef around the world, from Australia to the French Alps, to working on Super Yachts in the Caribbean so is used to working with exceptional produce.
An avid snowboarder, she was drawn to the mountains, and it was no different when she and her husband moved back to New Zealand. They flew back, bought a car and drove south. They ended up in the beautiful town of Wānaka, with a view of Mount Gold – the inspiration for the design on the Taste of the Alps labels.
‘Mount Gold reminds me of the French Alps; all the mountains around here are stunning, but Mount Gold is more jagged. I would be pushing a pram around Wānaka and looking at Mount Gold and that inspired what I wanted to focus on – celebrating Central Otago produce. Alpine inspired – that’s our jam.’
Tineke-Maree, who makes all her products from the commercial kitchen in her home, often invites friends around for a ‘girls’ night’ to help process the fruit.
When she had her first child 13 years ago, Tineke-Maree decided she didn’t want to return to hospitality hours, hence her business was crafted. Bottling up the best of Central Otago in a jar takes dedication, time, love and passion for preserving all the delicious produce the region has to offer.
The Central Otago fruit, from the Sundrop cherries to the Clutha Gold apricots and Black Doris plums, is a real treasure that she’s turned into products such as The Beekeeper, Apricot Kasundi, which is a pickle made with honey instead of sugar, sourced from fellow local Jessica Curtis from Branch Creek Honey, Cardrona. The pickle won a bronze medal at the 2023 Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards.
All of Tineke-Maree’s products are made without additives or stabilisers and are natural ingredients, bottled into glass jars. When the fruit comes into season in abundance, Tineke-Maree, who makes all her products from the commercial kitchen in her home, often invites friends around for a ‘girls’ night’ to help process the fruit.
‘We are all chatting and laughing and we smash it out, they take all the pips out of the Black Doris Plums and the apricots. Otherwise, it’s a big job on my own – I sit there and listen to music, I get a tonne at a time so it’s a lot of fruit.’
Working out of home has meant she can be there for her family. ‘I wanted to be around my family, they came first. The kids have been with me the whole way.’
She has two boys, now 13 and 10,
who both help her pick all the fruit for bottling and enjoy eating quite a bit of
the produce!
New doors are opening with the business, with Taste of the Alps being used in My Food Bag recipes and Wonky Box orders this year. Taste of the Alps is also one of the products in The Local Larder at the Wānaka A&P Show on 7–8 March. The Local Larder is a new hub at the event, where foodies can explore gourmet offerings from local producers. Held at Pembroke Park in Wānaka, it is a return to where Tineke-Maree started off selling her products at the local farmers’ market.
‘I haven’t had a stall at the A&P show in the past as I’ve usually been catering that weekend, so I’m looking forward to being there, and I also get to judge the preserves entries. It is such a fantastic event, everyone in Wānaka goes and people come from all over. I can’t wait.’
