Vineyard Tours

Walk the rows with the person who grows the fruit

About Vineyard Tours

A vineyard tour on a working wine property is a different thing from a cellar door tasting. You walk the blocks with the grower, look at the vines, the soil and the trellising, and hear why this row is picked a fortnight before that one. New Zealand's wine regions — Marlborough, Hawke's Bay, Central Otago, Nelson, Wairarapa and Waipara among them — grow markedly different styles because of markedly different ground and climate, and standing in the vineyard is the quickest way to understand why. Many vineyard accommodation providers are small family operations where the person showing you round made the wine.

What to Expect

Expect to be outside and on your feet for most of it. A typical tour covers the blocks, the varieties planted and why, the season's weather and what it is doing to the fruit, and often the winery buildings. What you see depends heavily on the month: bud-burst and flowering in spring, veraison and netting in summer, harvest and pressing in autumn, pruning in winter. Tours usually finish with a tasting of the wines made from the fruit you have just walked past, which is the part that makes the vineyard worth walking.

What to Bring

Sun hat and sunscreen — vineyard rows are fully exposed

Closed shoes; ground is uneven and often stony

Water

A designated driver if you plan to taste

Safety Guidelines

Harvest season brings tractors, bins and machinery through the rows — stay with your guide
Do not pick fruit without asking
Netting and irrigation lines are trip hazards
If you are tasting, arrange a driver before you start, not after

Frequently Asked Questions

How is this different from a cellar door tasting?

A cellar door tasting happens at a counter. A vineyard tour takes you into the blocks with the grower, and the tasting at the end makes far more sense for having done it.

What is the best time of year?

Autumn, for harvest, is the most active and the most interesting. Spring flowering and summer veraison are quieter but pleasant. Winter is pruning — genuinely interesting, but bare.