Marble Point Vineyard, Winery, Waiau River, Hanmer Springs, New Zealand

Current Releases

2008 Pinot Noir - Plump ripe berry fruits leap from the glass with complex savoury notes lingering. Read more..>

2008 Chardonnay - SOLD OUT  2009 due for release Aug/10.  Read more..>

2009 Riesling; Classic- Low alcohol, 8.5% sweet limes and lemons with intense floral. Read more..>

2009 Riesling; Dry-  Due for release June/10.  Read more..>
 

Marble Point Winery

Marble Point Winery is a small boutique vineyard located 13km south of the Hanmer Springs township on SH7 (Lewis Pass). Situated on old alluvial terraces of the Waiau River, which once formed part of Marble Point Station.

Marble Point is the name given to a small marble hill, part of one of the many fault lines that run through this area out to the Kaikoura coast that have formed the Southern Alps of the New Zealand. Marble Point Quarry is still operating today, the low grade pink to almost white marble is used in commercial flooring systems and stone bench tops. Marble Point Station is a small 6000 acre high country run that was once part of a large Station that included both Montrose and Lochiel.

The site was once a transit point on what was a Maori trading route to the Westland and Kaikoura Coasts and an early European stock route from both Nelson and Marlborough to the Canterbury Plains. This is the first vineyard to be planted in this exciting new wine region and is among New Zealand’s highest altitude vineyards. (297m) We are surrounded by high country runs.

(First owned by William Rutherford in1875. The Rutherford’s owned many stations in the North Canterbury region, including Mendip, Montrose, Sherwood, Dalethorpe, High Peak, Springbank, Mount Nessing, Opawa, Kekerangu, Leslie Hills, Molesworth and Tarndale. By 1964 there were 318 descendants from the original Rutherfords that came to the Amuri area in 1859. A famous quote from Duncan Macfarlane when asked about the increasing rabbit problem in the area was “it’s not the rabbits that are worrying me, it’s the Rutherford’s.” The Rutherford’s still farm a few of the bigger stations in the area, including Montrose and Leslie Hills Stations. )

The Vineyard

Owners Sheryl Dennis and Richard Campbell met in Hanmer Springs in 2000. We were looking for a new direction and started to investigate the possibility of a vineyard in the Hanmer Area. We were very lucky that Kerry Hitchcock had semi retired to Hanmer Springs, Kerry has been involved with the wine industry all his life, starting as a wine maker for Cook’s and finishing as marketer for Montana. Kerry now works as a consultant for the industry and travels all over the world.

The vineyard was planted in 2004. 4 varieties of grapes were planted

• Pinot Noir 2 Ha.
• Chardonnay 1 Ha.
• Riesling 1 Ha.
• Sauvignon Blanc 1.2 Ha.

We opted to stay with the tried and true grapes varieties as advised by Kerry. We might increase the vineyard by 2-3 Ha. If the need arises. But plan to remain a small boutique wine tourism vineyard. We plan to eventually make our own wine on site and have a café overlooking the river. With our outlook there is potential for several tourist activities to operate from our site.

All viticulture work is carried out by us and fulltime employee Jason Hill. We wanted to learn about viticulture and the best way is to do the work yourself. We promote sustainable winegrowing.

Winemaking

At present our grapes once picked are transported to Waipara. The National and International award winning team at Waipara Springs Wines make our wine.

Tasting Room

Opened 1st August , 2009. We have turned part of our first shed into a temporary tasting room. At present we operate an Off License, we are open 7 days from 10am to 5pm.