The Auswine Forum

Hi guys
I'm heading to Queenstown next week for a wedding and I've managed to put aside a day to get up to the wineries around Cromwell. I've put Mt Difficulty, Felton Rd & Carrick on the visit list but I can easily fit in 2 more and wondered if there were any DO NOT MISS places I haven't covered.

Also any suggestions for somewhere nice for lunch would be helpful (I was thinking the cafe at Carrick)

Thanks Andi

agree with your picks, they would be my top 3

after that, perigrene and gibbston valley are closer to queenstown near each other

peregrine is a nice place. gibbston is more touristy butr some good wines. try the expressionist series if available

I would also try Akarua, on the same road as the others you have earmarked. Not a great CD but usually high quality wines. They won the Air NZ top gong for their Pinot a couple of years back, which at the time I thought wouldn't have looked out of place in a Barossa shiraz line-up, it was a big wine!

My pick would be the Bannockburn Hotel for lunch. Ridiculously good value, just a km up the hill from Mt Diffuculty.

Quartz Reef is in that neck of the woods. Would be next on my list after the three you've named.

Thanks for the reccomendations, I look forward to putting some of them to good use.

The great thing about the wineries around Cromwell/Bannockburn is that they're all pretty close. If you're in Felton Rd then I'd pop into Olssens as well as it's just at the end of the road and both the Jackson Barry and Slapjack Creek pinots are very good wines.

Bald Earth is just along from Carrick and Akarua but isn't always open - well worth a visit if it is.

In Cromwell is the Central Otago Wine Company, which is mainly open on weekdays, but makes all the wines for Berridge, Kawarau Estate, Dry Gully, Mt Rosa, Mount Maude, Nevis Bluff, Pisa Moorings, Sleeping Dogs, Three Miners, Two Paddocks and Clay Cliffs.

And a another good thing to do is visit The Big Picture where you can taste wines by Amisfield, Wild Earth, Two Paddocks, Rockburn, Dromsara, Pisa Moorings and Kawarau Estate, plus eat at the cafe.

The best winery for food IMO is Amisfield, by Lake Hayes just out of Queenstown.

If you want to venture a little further, there is Blackridge Estate just outside Alexandra. The wines are interesting as well as the owner.