East Coast 'Matakana' Wine Tasting Day Tour from Auckland

East Coast 'Matakana' Wine Tasting Day Tour from Auckland

You'll get to experience some unique wines at three boutique, family run, wineries in one of New Zealand's smallest wine making regions.

Unusually for NZ, due to the local climate, the area is slightly biased towards producing red wines, but also has some great whites...

This tour also includes, at no additional cost, 4 side trips. You can visit a cheese maker, a honey centre, a chocolate maker... all tastings are included, see giant ancient (almost 1000 year old) ‘Kauri’ trees, a pottery, wharf & beach, we visit at least 4 of these during the day.

An open menu, main course, lunch at a vineyard restaurant is also included.

You'll be collected from your city area accommodation at around 9.30am. Your ‘East Coast’ Tour takes you North (approx’ 50 minutes) out of the city over Auckland’s Harbour Bridge, along the Pacific coast through small seaside towns and farming communities. You get some great views of Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour, the Hauraki Gulf and Pacific Ocean, native forest, farmland, small beaches, bays and rivers along the way.
As well as visiting 3 boutique wineries this tour includes, at no extra cost, 4 side trips; a cheese maker, a honey centre, a chocolate maker... all tastings are included, giant ancient ‘Kauri’ trees, a beautiful pottery, wharf & beach, we visit at least 4 of these deciding on the day depending on what you’re most interested in.

Lunch is open menu, main course, with vegetarian & gluten free options, enjoyed in a beautiful vineyard restaurant overlooking the vines, small lake and sculptures (included).

On our tours we prefer not to always visit the same wineries, after all we don't all like the same wine! So we do our best to use our nearly 20 years of experience to select the wineries that are available on the day to best suit your tastes and interests.

Vineyards in the Matakana wine country are producing superb wines from grapes grown exclusively on their own estates and are slightly biased towards producing red wines, but also have some great and unusual whites.

You could experience the only winery in NZ growing & making exclusively 'Italian' reds Sangiovese & Dolcetto and using the ancient terracotta Amphora winemaking method. A Matakana winery was awarded Best NZ Merlot, beating all the favourites from Hawkes Bay! There are some wonderful Cab’ Sav’/Merlot/Malbec/Cab’ Franc blends to try as well as Syrah (Shiraz), Montepulciano, Tannat and one locally grown Pinot Noir.

Pinot Gris and Chardonnay are two local white specialities along with Viognier and sometimes the unusual Flora and some excellent dry Rose's too. Sparkling wine and 'Port' are sometimes available. Chat to the winemakers and find out some of their secrets.

We return you to your accommodation at around 5.00pm...