New Zealand Wines

A classic example of the uniqueness of New Zealand wines is the 2012 Reserve Chardonnay from the Seresin Estate in Marlborough. Unusually for a Chardonnay, the 2012 Reserve lets orchard fruits take second place to a complex, highly-structured bouquet, with finely-balanced oak notes dominant. Acid in the mouth, with a salty minerality, it’s a long way from a ‘standard’ Chardonnay – in more than one sense.

Armit Wines offers a large and growing range of red and white wines from the best wineries in New Zealand, explore our full New Zealand wine list today.

New Zealand wine regions

New Zealand offers an enormous range of wine-producing regions because of the varied climate. Parts of North Island have a subtropical climate, while the southern tip of North Island is cooler and home to the Wairarapa wine-growing region. Here, there’s an emphasis on quality and several small, boutique vineyards produce truly excellent wines, discernible in the cedar nose and intense cherry and oak flavours of Borthwick Vineyards’ 2016 Paper Road Pinot Noir.

On South Island’s southernmost tip, where the climate is more like that of Europe, the Otago vineyards produce similar wines to Burgundy, Northern Rhone and Oregon’s Willamette Valley. This is the place to enjoy the spice and dark fruits of the 2011 Bendigo Pinot from Valli.

Producers of New Zealand wine

Your voyage of discovery to Astrolabe, in New Zealand’s Marlborough region, fits owners Simon and Jane Waghorn to a tee: their winery is named after a 19th century explorer’s ship. But their range of Wairau and Ataware Valley Sauvignon Blancs, Pinots Gris and Noirs, and Chenin Blancs, are characteristically modern New Zealand wines.

A few miles inland from Hawke’s Bay, meanwhile, Stonecroft is recognised for some of the best Syrah the New World has to offer. A family owned Domaine, it’s the first winery to be built in the area.

Another first is Canterbury’s Bell Hill, in the previously unplanted Weka Pass area with its pure limestone and chalk soils. Since winter 2007 Bell Hill has been entirely biodynamic and pesticide free.

Explore our range of award winning New Zealand wines today.