Our second winery was at the Te Māina and Richmond Plains estate. Interesting that both are served…read moretogether under one roof! First time seeing that. We dropped in on a Saturday morning (around 11:00am) and were greeted by an enthusiastic, fantastic server (Jo). She's actually the first person to formally introduce herself. Very personable. Wine tastings are $2.00 NZD each and there was 8 types available (4 from Te Mānia and 4 from Richmond Plains). We tried half of the options. As always, fee is waived when you buy a bottle. They also sell Hogarth Craft chocolates ($12.00 NZD). We actually sampled these at the Nelson Farmers Market; pretty tasty if you like dark chocolates. - Blanc de noir 2017 - this is their award winning wine. Pretty unique as it's made with red pinot noir grapes but in a white wine style. We liked this best and bought a bottle ($22.99 NZD). - Blue moon sauvignon blanc 2016 - this one was interesting as the green capsicum was very prominent. - Pinot noir rose 2017 - pretty refreshing with a dry minerality. - Ice riesling 2017 - quite reasonable for a bottle. Light but closer to a riesling. We really enjoyed this spot. Two in one!

We'd mistakenly booked the wrong day, but they were accommodating…read more It's a beautiful site. I thought the restaurant is a little pricey. The beef tartare was bland. The fish was excellent. The cheese board was $$$. Wine amazing. Not much of a gift shop, which was a little disappointing.

Owned by Louis Vuitton. Beautiful beautiful grounds, a lovely restaurant and wine tasting room. We…read morestarted by sharing their fresh shucked oysters and a charcuterie platter. Everything was delicious, service was knowledgeable & impeccable. I enjoyed my Sauvignon Blanc tasting sample & my husband a Riesling. Our oysters were icy cold & perfect. The charcuterie hit the spot! A wonder stop, lunch & wine experience. We left with wine.

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.

Easily the best place we stayed in New Zealand and incredibly affordable for what you're getting…read more $105 for the standard room with a lovely shared bathroom or $185 for a suite with a private bath. We don't typically opt for a shared bathroom, but this one was exceptionally clean and standalone, with indoor and outdoor shower options, plus an outdoor bath. If you're part of a group or a family with kids, they also have a large, modern house for rent for about $500. If you choose one of the huts, here are some of the exceptional amenities you can look forward to: - A giant outdoor bath to rest in and look up at the stars (there's even a little chalkboard for "reservations") - A beautifully designed kitchen fully equipped with high quality essentials for cooking and food prep. - A very generous selection of free offerings, including fresh sourdough bread, local rabbit island coffee (the best!) local honey and peanut butter, homemade jam, milk or cream for your coffee, and more. - An even broader selection of treats for purchase, like homemade berry or mint chip ice cream, Nelson wine and beer, canned goods, and more. - A comfortable and clean lounge where you can plan your route with local maps and magazines. The design and decoration of the whole place is truly stunning. - Falling asleep (and relaxing in the bath) to the sound of New Zealand sheep in the surrounding fields - Jane and John (the hosts) are friendly, generous locals who will go out of their way to help you find yours. The Applyby House and Rabbit Island House have our highest recommendation. We happened upon them after we missed the last ferry from Rabbit Island on the Great Taste Trail and it was the best mistake we've ever made. So happy we found this gorgeous, rejuvenating, friendly oasis. We'll absolutely be back...with friends.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

On the way out from Mopueka, we decided to hit up two wineries. The first stop was at Seifried…read moreEstate. We dropped in on a Saturday morning (around 10:15am). First customers! Hilarious that you can buy a used oak barrel ($100.00 NZD/whole or $60.00/half). Wine tastings are $6.00 NZD/person and you get to sample 5 wines. Fee is waved if you buy a bottle. We got a few extras and ended up sampling 7 wines! - Aotea by Seifried sauvignon blanc - all the sauvignon blancs are solid in this area. This one was no different. - Seifried riesling - we ended up getting a bottle ($17.00 NZD). A drier, less sweet style that we really enjoyed. - Seifried pinot gros - Seifried grüner veltliner - quite close to a gewurtztraminer. We liked this one too. - Seifried zweigelt - we got a hint of strawberry. Decent. - Seifried syrah - this was pretty different. Hints of plums, prunes and black pepper. Would be a really good for a meat marinade. - Seifried winemakers collection "sweet Agnes' riesling" - this is their most popular and best seller. It's quite pleasant. Not too sweet; you could easily drink a whole glass. Good first winery. Bottles are quite reasonably priced.