Wanaka Wine Tour - The best wine tour to do in Wanaka, Central Otago, New Zealand
Wanaka Wine Tours
Wanaka is the northernmost wine sub-region of Central Otago, on New Zealand’s South Island. It sits higher, cooler and a little wetter than the warmer basin floor around Cromwell, and that shows in the glass: elegant Pinot Noir, crisp Riesling and fresh, mineral whites, often poured with Lake Wanaka and the Southern Alps right in front of you. We’ll cover the town itself in a separate episode. This one is all about the wine, and it’s the first in our series on the South Island wine regions.
Wanaka Wine Tours runs small group tours with pick up and drop off from your accommodation. Options range from a two hour, two vineyard taste through to a full day visiting six. Our guide Jess kept the information coming between stops, stored any wine we bought in the van, and never once rushed us, which is rarer on a wine tour than you’d think.
Maude Wines: Lake Views and a Host Who Tastes With You
Maude Wines’ cellar door is a few minutes from town, next to the golf course, looking straight over Lake Wanaka to the snow-capped Southern Alps. The Maude family grows fruit across several Central Otago sites, including their original Mt Maude vineyard. Tastings start with bubbles made the traditional way, then move through Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, rosé and Sauvignon Blanc. Our host Lewis explained schist soils, the big day to night temperature swings and why ageing on lees gives that brioche note, with no wine snobbery at all. He also tasted along with us, a first in all the cellar doors we’ve visited. We’d never heard of Maude before this trip, and it stood up against every winery we went to. Our pick: the rosé and the Pinot Noir.
The Stoaker Room: Lunch Cooked in a Wine Barrel
The Stoaker Room is Wild Earth’s restaurant, and everything is cooked inside retired French oak Pinot Noir barrels, steamed, smoked and grilled at once (hence “Stoaker”, from steam and smoker). Groups get their food on a plank from an old barrel, with a small bottle of each matching wine lined up in the order you drink it. Our platters had venison and grilled vegetables, roast duck with baked potatoes and fried shallots, and salmon wings with teriyaki sauce and slaw, paired with the Wild Earth Pinot Noir 2023, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir Rosé 2024. Lyle went for the Pinot Noir. I’m firmly in the rosé camp now: it makes a great lunch wine. If you fall for the cooking, you can buy your own Stoaker for around NZ$2,500.
Aitken’s Folly: Small Family Vineyard, Big Personality
Aitken’s Folly is a tiny family vineyard on Riverbank Road, on the edge of Wanaka. Fiona Aitken and Ian Percy left oil industry careers in the UK and planted their three hectares in 2009. A former colleague called it a folly, and the name stuck. They focus on small batch Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, poured in a relaxed tasting room hung with local art, with views over the vines to the mountains. Ian often hosts himself, and his humour is as dry as the Chardonnay. If you can’t decide what to buy, try the mystery pack: three bottles for $80, mixed at random. Ours turned up the 2018 Library Release Pinot Noir (about $60 on its own), a Blanc de Noir and a Chardonnay, so it’s well worth a punt.
Nanny Goat Vineyard: Pick Your Own Tasting in Queensberry
Nanny Goat is about 15 to 20 minutes from Wanaka, in Queensberry, between Wanaka and Cromwell. The drive is a highlight in itself. The cellar door is modern, with a big outdoor deck looking out to the Pisa Range, and it does tasting flights, wine by the glass and a seasonal grazing menu. Our group picked five wines together: the Queensberry Chardonnay, Crossbreed orange wine, Basket Case Pinot Noir, Super Nanny Pinot Noir and Bendigo Syrah. The orange wine wasn’t our style, but the rest were excellent, and the Syrah makes a nice change in a region where Pinot rules. If you’re based in Australia, ask about their wine club and Melbourne warehouse.
Our Day with Wanaka Wine Tours
What we loved most was how relaxed it was. Nobody was rushing us on and off a bus. Jess just appeared when it was time to move on, kept the stories and information coming in between, and stored any wine we bought in the back of the van until drop-off. She also gave us a list of restaurants, wine bars and food trucks, and we went to every one. Each winery was completely different, and by the end of the day the whole van was laughing like old friends. Lyle still says Maude was the standout, and every time we've had it since it's been excellent. For me, the mystery box was the highlight. If you want to take some of these wines home, the New Zealand Wine Collective lets you mix bottles from different wineries into one box and ship it to Australia. Ours even arrived wrapped in merino wool sleeves.