TASTING ROOM
‘The Taster’ our cellar door tasting room, overlooking the vines, opened Labour Weekend 2008. We have seating inside and outside for a maximum of forty guests, (twenty-five inside).
We are open for Wine Tasting, Sales and Platters from Labour Weekend to Easter Sunday, Weekends and Public Holidays, from 11am – 3pm.
Summer holidays we are open Wednesday to Sunday from December 27th thru to early – mid January
Functions and tour groups are by appointment. We are also available for hire as a venue, either using external caterers or with a platter style menu.
We currently have available two vintages of Syrah grown on our property, a 2007, and 2008 vintage. The 2009 vintage is in oak barrels in the winery. Our Syrah is aged in oak barrels for approx. twelve months before bottling. We use a mix of new and aged French and American oak barrels. We also offer a chardonnay which is made for us from grapes grown on the western end of the island. For further information refer to
wine and vineyard.
With our wine tastings we offer the following selection of platters:
Bread and Dips
(Waiheke Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Olives, Basil Genoese Pesto, Feta & Spinach Dip and Breads)
Smoked Meats and Terrine Platter
(Selection of Smoked Meats, Terrine and Roasted Fruit Chutney served with Breads)
Cheese Platter
(Selection of Four New Zealand specialty Cheeses served with Bread, Fruit Paste, Marinated Figs and Apricot Mustard Fruits Preserve)
Each tasting platter is designed for two people for lunch and the produce are selected to showcase New Zealand and wherever possible local Waiheke produce. We choose handcrafted, naturally produced produce. As well we offer organic fair trade coffee and organic fruit juices.
The Taster is also run as a gallery, the current exhibition is:
"Follow the Sun"
Auckland artist Tanya Gilbert has been painting on layered perspex for the last six years.
These Paintings have been studies in the process of painting. they explore the nature, action and reaction of paint. The transparency of the perspex allows the viewer to glimpse elements which would usually only be seen by the artist.
Previous exhibitions at the Taster:
Puriri Moths and Water lilies.
Auckland artist Janette McKibbin has been painting moths for a number of years and loves the subtly of their colour and markings. The puriri moth (Anetus virescens) is one of the most colourful of the New Zealand native moths and is the largest, having a wingspan of up to 15 centimetres.
The caterpillar stage can last five years. When the adult moth finally emerges, on warm humid evenings from September to November, it lives for only a couple of nights, long enough to breed and it does not feed as its mouth parts do not work.
Janette sees the Puriri series as capturing a fleeting life and preserving it – much as moths pinned and catalogued in a museum.
Janette has a great love for botanical art and the water lilies are from a series of paintings created to reflect the murky depths and tangled stems under the water contrasting with the beauty of the flowers above.
A puriri moth's wing
lies light in my hand -
my breath can lift it
light as this torn wing
we lie on love's breath
- Jan Kemp