Delicious lunch and wonderful wine tasting We had lunch at…read moreRock Ferry after a lovely wine tasting. The food was delicious - our open steak sandwich and our tarakihi was cooked perfectly and presented beautifully. It was quite reasonably priced too.....

We arrived too late in the afternoon to eat but Hayden gave us a tasting session - we enjoyed it…read moresince we were the only ones there. We toured NZ in the winter and avoided all the crowds. He served us 5 different wines and we bought two bottles. The tasting room is quite new and well designed.

We came for a seven dollar winetasting we were given water and a list of wine to try. The mussels…read moreand platters for lunch looked awesome but they had a sign that they open for lunch at 2:30. There's a chocolate factory 5 mins away And the Eden art gallery was right across the parking lot. Gavin identified wines to meet our preferences & gave us an informative tasting. The wines were delicious, setting beautiful & the food looked luscious. He said that we could get his wines in Auckland.

Beautiful setting for dining in the vineyards and delicious food! My favorite was the Cloudy Bay…read moreclams, and the Marlborough platter was also good but so many of the prepared dishes looked good I wish we would have indexed on that. You have to book in advance as they were fully booked. Service was a little spotty as we had to flag down our waitress to put in orders and she didn't give a ton of explanations of the wine, but a beautiful environment.

Lovely winery in the heart of Marlborough. Excellent wines and perfect food from their Number 11…read morerestaurant. Very nice staff. Dine inside or out by the vines

Am touring for a trade group of wine distributors. Came by for a tasting -- admittedly without a…read morereservation -- and was promptly seated outside. Wairau was at maybe 1/3 capacity. Waited at our table for 20 minutes without service while staff faffed about. Walked inside to inquire about table service and the bar tender said he wasn't sure if our server might come by. He didn't offer to inquire further or help in any way, so we left. Lacking in service. Wairau lost out on a couple cases today. No need to return when there are several excellent wineries within 500 meters.

Our fifth winery (out of six) was at Giesen Wines Cellar Door. This was our other favourite winery…read moreof the day. There's a restaurant inside with a very small menu: a vintage platter, cheese platter, kid platter and two desserts. As for the wine tastings, it's $5.00 NZD/person and you get 6 tastes. The best part is you can choose ANY of the options. All the expensive ones please! It's standing room only but has a smart layout. Service was fantastic as our server was friendly, knowledgeable and approachable. Very down to earth and knew when to leave us alone. - The fuder sauvignon bland - Matthews Lane - pretty decent but not worth the $45.00 NZD price tag. - The brothers riesling - this one was very, very sweet. - The brothers gewürtztraminer - almost heading into the territory of a riesling for sweetness. Full bodied. - Classic cuvee - you taste the Chardonnay at the end. - Single vineyard clayvin syrah - good mouth feel. You can taste the lingering savoury finish. - The brothers late harvest sauvignon blanc - a dessert wine for sure. Super good with tones of pineapple and honey to finish. It's sweet but would be perfect in small doses. We almost got a bottle of this. Definitely worth checking out Giesen.

Free tasting! Our vintner was very knowledgeable and lovely to talk with. She was able to…read moreaccommodate a tasting of entirely reds. They have a nice garden patio for lunch, but only had a meat platter, a cheese plate and mussels on the menu.

We went here while visiting some of the wineries in the area. We were based out of Blenheim, and…read morethis winery was about as far from there as you could get, but I wanted to come to this one because I remember seeing one of their wines at the store and thought they had a cool name for their business. We went there and sampled some of their wines. I got to try 5 different ones; they charge for this but not much. As we talked to them, we learned how they got their name. There is some secret defense facility that I guess supports spying somewhere nearby. They had fun with it though and used it to set their business apart. Their wines had messages in morse code on their labels, and they had a huge poster from a James Bond movie on the wall. The setting was nice. It's not on the main road, so it was very quiet and peaceful. In the end, we bought a bottle of the merlot/malbec, which was very good and is only available there. You can buy a case, which they will ship for free, but for them a case is 12 bottles. Too bad - if it had been 6, we would have done it. Bottom line, this place was great. If James Bond drank wine, this it what he'd drink. I couldn't have asked for more. I would definitely go here again.

Our second (of six) wineries we visited. Spy Valley was on our list as it had a fun spy theme going…read moreon. We dropped in around 2:00pm and the place was packed because of a huge bus tour. Luckily, they were packing up for the next spot. There's an outdoor backyard area with picnic tables to sit and do tastings at. Service was okay but not very informative. Our server didn't tell us much about the wines. At least the wine tastings are complimentary here. We ended up trying four. - Sauvignon blanc - nice balance, a little sweeter than the norm. - Pinot gris - a typical gris. - Gewurtztraminer - the bottles are cool as each one has a different morse code on it. This one translated to "spice". Decent but nowhere near as good as the one we had back at Wither Hills. - Syrah - this one had black peppery tones. Spy Glass was pretty average in our books. Not really worth the detour.

Giovanni was a fabulous lead for our wine tasting-- trained Italian sommelier-- AWESOME!!!read more

Very Disappointing…read more Looked forward to this cellar door as we have always enjoyed the wines. However the wine tasting was so disappointing, staff disinterested, no enthusiasm for what they were selling, no explanation of the wines they were pouring, just poured each one from the list and put it down in front of us. And on top of that we had to pay for the pleasure!! Toilets filthy which maybe sums up the place! Much better wineries down the road!

Our fourth winery (out of six) was at Wairau River Wines. This was our least favourite…read more Oddly, this place only had standing room for tasting. There's a restaurant inside that I read has good food but it's pricey. Starters and mains (hello soufflé). Only open for lunch from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. Our server, an older lady, was terrible. She was caught up with some other party coming in and ignored us. We waited it out but should have just left. Not very informative or helpful and she was stingy with her pours. The wine tastings are complimentary but there's only four options. A small, sad list. - Sauvignon blanc 2017 - a little bit drier than the norm but not bad. - Pinot gris 2017 - a little more spice and punch to this pinot gris. - Gewürtztraminer 2017 - decent but nowhere near the quality that we had at Wither Hills. - Rosé 2017 - good with an off dry finish. Do yourself a favour and avoid WRW. So many other wineries to choose from, don't waste time here.

A wonderful place to spend the afternoon on the Marloborough region of New Zealand.The Maori (I…read morethink) lady behind the tasting counter was super lovely as can be, and so were ladies in the dining area. I had the smashing Green Mussel Chowder with smashing Pinot Noir I purchased and it was fantastic! Cannot go on more because running out of Kiwi superlatives. Just go there for lunch if you happen to.be in the hood

Hubby and I came here for a late lunch and wine tasting after several people recommended it. When…read morewe arrived, there was no one at the hostess station to greet us, or inquire of our visit. There was a large group of seniors, all taking up the seats in front of the windows, and the beautiful view. I had to seek someone out, who seemed rather clueless as to whether they were serving lunch or not, even though it was at least an hour before the time stated on the sign when they they stop serving. Finally, a young woman came up and told me they had run out of food because of the bus group. Now it seems to me that if you are set up to accommodate large groups, you have enough food on hand to NOT run out. That just seems like very poor management. We decided to leave at this point and didn't even bother to taste the wines. I will not buy any more of their wines when I return home either.

Nothing could have been better! The service, the view, the food and the tasting. We arrived at…read morelunch time and they must have had an eye out as the shuttle rolled right up as we got out of the car. Moments later we were seated in the dinning room over looking the mountains, vineyard and with the mountains of the North Island in the far distance. We had a marvelous lunch whilst our server gave us a wine map and noted places that we might enjoy seeing while we were in the area. After lunch we had a splendid tasting and took home some real gems. It was one of the best wine experiences we ahem ever had. We took the falcon trail down and learned about the birds and who they are helpful to the vintners and the vines.

We stopped by for lunch and a little wine! Great outdoor…read moreseating. Wonderful menu for lunch and DESSERT!!! We also enjoyed several of their wines. Service was excellent and helpful. I highly recommend.

Awesome Really…read morechatty friendly staff and very knowledgeable with great wines. There is an excellent restaurant which we had to give a miss and a little gift shop area.