The best winery in Queenstown. Personally I thought the winery scene in Waiheke was much better because you have water views. Wine tour was cheap... around $17NZD. Tour included cave + vineyard with 4 tasting glasses. Flights after were $12NZD. Taxi from town was $109NZD. Overall it was a great rainy day activity and daily cheap minus the transport out there.
One of the most delicious wineries I ve ever eaten at. Flavours are so on point and work really well with each dish. Staff here are really nice and friendly and always willing to share exciting experiences and recommendations.
Impeccable food and service, would highly recommend this beautiful little restaurant. The cheese tasting in the cheesery was exceptional. We ordered the steak and it was absolutely delicious. Can t wait to come back
Visited as part of a wine tour, were shown around the cave and had a nice selection of wines to try (as well as some small samples of cheese). Guide was very knowledgeable about the wine and found the tour interesting. Pinot noir was so good. Setting in the valley is gorgeous
I really wish I could give this place a better review. Perhaps I had expectations (not even high ones just some) the location and scenery is gorgeous but the service made the experience utterly miserable. Between the bar and the restaurant it was amateur hour via unprofessionalism and incompetence. Truly a disappointing experience don't waste your time here. there are plenty of better places in the Gibbston valley that aren't pillaging tourists and visitors.
Had a cellar door platter for 2 with a bottle of Riesling. All up $75. Pretty good value for what we got. Friendly knowledgeable staff. Also shared a sampling of their Pinot Noirs on way out. All from different vineyards, obvious variations, but well made wines.
Yalanda was such an incredible host and server. My partner and I had the perfect experience
Visited the winery restaurant, which was great. Very friendly staff, great wines and excellent food. Highly recommended.
Great winery with great wines. I love their pinot noirs. If you are running short on time, just go for their $5 wine tasting, sit by the fire place and enjoy the atmosphere.
Baton! It is highly recommended to have a meal in the restaurant after wine tasting.
The best meal I have had on Queenstonw. A varied menu with products of extreme quality. The wines are delicious and the service is excellent. A special thanks to Shanay who served us perfectly.
Great view. Great staff. Have one of the most friendly staff i met since I am in New Zealand. We ordered fish and pasta. Both were great. Even for a person who seldom eat pasta, I must say it taste nice.
Missed our flight because I got too into lunch.
Worth it tho. Shout out to Bronson (? - I think that was your name but after the free wine the winemaker gave us for showing special attention to her dog I honestly can t be sure.). Service was perfect, meal was perfect, wine was perfect, courtyard had dogs so that was also perfect. Fully intended to tip but forgot in our flustered rush to get to the airport, so leaving this review instead. Didn t matter tho, we still missed our flight. I blame omega rental returns because I could never blame such a bang on establishment as this one.
we didn't book online but headed to the information centre to get ourselves a 2pm winery & wine cave tour. While booking, we heard mixed reviews but went ahead anyway.
I have to say the only upsetting part of the entire tour is us going off season. It would've been fabulous to be able to see active vines but they were sleeping in the winter. On the other hand, our guide Coco was amazing! She was passionate about what she's talking and clearly knowledgeable as well (at least for us casual wine drinkers).
Very enjoyable visit we had, highly recommend :)
Big winery in Central Otago which offers wide range of wines, starting from Resling, Pilot Gris up to Pinot Noir. Wine tasting costs $5 for 3 bottles up to $15 for more bottles. Friendly staffs. The wine quality is good, however nothing spectacular in term of taste. The Riesling is almost one of the weakest, taste more like German sour Riesling wine rather than beautiful New Zealand flowery Riesling with full characters and body. Bottle wine prices are relatively expensive and not worth for the money in comparison to other wineries such as Black Ridge with its exclusive wine tastes. The winery has a restaurant and the food is very good. Worth to try out, except beware of 15% surcharge for national holiday.
Good food, good wines, wine tour for NZ$ 18,50 include tasting of wine ! Amazing place
October 2014
if you like wine, best ideia do go and see how they are stored and made
The wines and restaurant are actually pretty good but they prioritise their wine and cave tours too much, it's a bit of a tourist trap. Most other wineries talk to you about the wine during the tasting, they just serve you the drinks and hand you a card with descriptive blurbs. The cave is cool but charging people $18 to see where you store your wine is pretty silly. This is free at most other wineries
Great wines and food. Another winery to put on the must do list
Lovely setting, atmosphere and great service. Enjoyed the food but no Heineken.
Service, food and wine were above and beyond. Possibly the best confit duck I've ever enjoyed, and our amazing waitress (Bindi) made us feel welcome and valued, and gave us some fantastic advice for the rest of our holiday in the region. Can't recommend Gibbston Valley enough!
The wines were a let down after seeing so much advertisement for Gibbston Valley. We tasted 6 different and didn t particularly fall in love with any. Also weird that they don t allow you to eat the cheese both next door (from their cheesery) with the wine you re tasting.
Winery tour, wine tasting and variety of cheese samples were a good experience. Both white and red wines tasted pretty good.
Nice cave tour with wine tasting, great explanations by Emily! Good service and staff very friendly! The cheese store has a nice atmosphere to have a lunch.
Stopped for a visit and enjoyed tasting their pinot noir. Lovely property with cheese tasting next door. The cheese tasting and descriptions were very on point. The girl did a great job. The winery was ok as well but I expected a better experience since the service was subpar. Took a while to get someone's attention for a tasting when standing at the bar area. Many staff around but no one even gives a hello or tells you they'll be with you soon. Overall the wines were tasty and the cheesery was great.
Amazing food! Emma was amazing and kept the food and wine coming. Great service and atmosphere. Will definitely be back. Recommend the scotch fillet and the wild rabbit lasagna
To take the wine storage cave tour 20 fire inside the cave haejum tasted wine 4 cups. The winery tour was once a day at 12:00 noon. Cave tours are available four times a day, chijyeo selling cheese Lido. A tour that makes traveling to Queenstown more fun~
What a stella afternoon with Paddy, the worlds best wine cave tour guide.
The selection was supremely crafted, the food delectable and the scenery gorgeous. Particularly loved our guides attention to detail and extensive knowledge of wine making. 11/10 for this unique afternoon in Otago, New Zealand
Great location along with all of the wineries in this stretch. Outstanding wines and the entire facility is very well done. Started in the winery for a taste, then headed to the cheesery to try cheeses and chutneys. Then over to the cave tour tasting (must do!) and back to the cheesery for lunch. Highly recommend!
Had a lovely long lunch in the courtyard/garden with very attentive friendly service. Food & wine was all first class. Wines are very expensive by the bottle so check with your bank manager beforehand.
A little underwhelming if I were to put it bluntly. From the onset the place looks extremely commercialized with all the neat information around payment methods, and shipping needs. I was caught a little off guard when the service came across as quite unfriendly when I was standing at the counter for a good 15-30s and there was no awareness to address my needs. Perhaps this is a place for tourists and tour groups but we (a couple) are not looking for a standardized method of treatment or anything that cuts from the same cloth. That aside, cheese was alright and we bought some back. Also a shout out to Emily our guide whom I thought was honest and very knowledgeable throughout the wine tour.
Absolutely loved it. We did a wine tasting and ordered a cheese platter and fries. Adrian served us. He was awesome! He gave us time to sit and enjoy ourselves but checked on us regularly to make sure we were OK. Adrian shared his knowledge about the wine and cheese, which we really appreciated. The food (those FRIES) was absolutely DELICIOUS, and we loved the cozy relaxed feel of the place. Thank you for looking after us Adrian, we had an awesome time. 10/10 recommend!
There's a lot going on at this place - wine tastings, winery tours, cheese shop, restaurant, gift shop, bike hire etc..and it is absolutely overrun with tour groups who seem to get priority.
Staff did their best to cope with the crush, and when we were finally seen to, they were friendly and knowledgable, but that was only after we were twice passed on to another staff member, as each person serving us apologised and told us they'd just been asked to look after a tour group.
Wines are good, but pricey, and the wine tasting fee is easily the most expensive I've seen anywhere.
Maybe early in the morning or late in the afternoon you might get a better experience, but for us the crowd, the noise and the hefty fees undermined the experience and reminded us to stick with the smaller family wineries, and avoid those on the tour bus schedules.
Really great experience in July 2020. We had a wine tour with Alex really charismatic, experienced and engaging! Alot of fun, able to ask questions and happily gave us recommendations for the cheese tasting and further tasting based on our preferences. Highly recommend going!! Thanks Alex
If you're going to do a winery tour, this would be the one to go to. The wine cave is amazingly unique and a very fun place to do some wine tasting. Goes without saying that the wine is lovely and the harvest platter was well worth the money paid for it. Tour was insightful and very interesting. However, I would suggest going during the summer, to see the grapes in full.
Yolanda was an exceptional host for the winery/cave tour. Couldn t recommend enough.
Great wine. No doubt. Unfortunately the staff at the cheesery were poorly managed and organised. We thought 50 minutes to order a three cheese platter with wine for just the two of us would be sufficient before catching the bus. After politely asking how much longer it would be, staff were rude and grumpy.
This winery was by far the worst experience of my trip to New Zealand. We spent the day tasting wonderful wines at wonderful wineries and our last stop was Gibbston. The manager, Jamie, did the short tour and called out guest for not paying attention enough to his discriptions and was extremely rude and made everyone uncomfortable. There were a group of young women who were well behaved that he pointed out and embarrassed in front of everyone. It made the entire crowd uncomfortable. Not only did Jamie demonstrate absolutely appalling behavior, the wine itself was not good and the atmosphere was awkward and definitely geared towards older people who actually wanted to learn about the background of the wine not just enjoy their time trying delicious wines and laughing with friends. This was an awful experience and I will not be returning.
The staff were all amazing, the food was even better. The wine pairing was spot on, and the wine tour and tasting resulted in a new favourite drop... The Gibbston Valley Late Harvest Pinot Gris 2017 GV Collection!
The tour is very short and going there just to do it I think it doesn't pay. If you take the lunch package it looks spectacular. Excellent dishes with perfectly matching wines. If you want to have all the menu options (and pay a little more) do not close the package and pay for lunch + wines separately. The lunch package restricts the dishes to 3 options on the menu.
The perfect place to stop off for a break while on a bike ride round the region! Great wine tasting selection, the cheese board and Bindy's service was exactly what we were after, really made the experience 5 star! Kia kaha.
We had lunch at this place and had a very bad experience. Our group started lunch at 2pm but the restaurant put our food there before we arrived. A portion of our food was eaten by another group and our group did not had enough food to eat. We complained but manager did not take any action. Very bad attitude to treat their customers.
The meal matched with wines was excellent. The wine cellar has a good range.
lovely place to eat and drink! We had the course meal with wine pairing which was a great choice to try wines you would not normally pick. The service was great! Would definitely go again next time we are here.
Nice place, a bit crowded. Had their Pinot tasting, not very impressed but then Pinot isn't among my favorite grapes.
Good environment, many varieties of wine, good drink
Awesome Winery tour, have delicious meal and on the way to Wanaka via highway 6
A great winery with cheese shop door. Good food also
Thank you Bindi from the Gibbston Valley Winery Tasting Room! Bindi was so friendly and helped me pick wines for my upcoming wedding and pre/post celebrations. She made the process effortless and fun!
Great experience and affordable ..... friendly staff and very knowledgeable ..... Thank you Emily for making our tour special..... we enjoyed every moment and will be back for more .....
Stayed here and had a great experience, food was amazing as was the wine (of course). Great accom and service was fantastic. Highly recommend the wine tasting experience.
Quite the treat. Nice place and facilities, but don't expect a free tasting here. Which I thought was odd.
Beautiful rooms and facilities , staff very friendly,professional and accomodating.
We stopped by Gibbston for your and wine tasting, but couldn't get a waitress to talk to for a 10 min. Finally got to talk a waitress about the tour, she said she was not there to serve client for tour at all and pushed us to others.
The sophisticated lodge is wonderful. Relaxing time flows from the lodge's living room to the vineyard. The winery tour was a fun conversation, too. In addition, it was a fulfilling one hour to enjoy the taste comparison by 5 kinds of tasting.
We had a wonderful tour guide Yolanda! For two people that aren t even wine drinkers I was so interested to hear about the different processes and precision of wine making. We got to try 6 different wines, and each tester was a generous amount which was awesome! Yolanda was so kind, open, and honestly made the experience wonderful because she was so funny and personable. It felt like she wanted us to have a great time, she even spent an extra 30 minutes doing the tour with us to answer questions and let us take our time trying out the wine. Such a fun afternoon.
Also, we rented bikes from the winery which rounded off the afternoon so well as the Kawarau bungy jumping bridge was only a 45-min return trip!! Highly recommend this.
Also, the cheese platters at the restaurant are delicious!!
Great staff beautiful place. Food is over done sometimes less is more blue cod wrecked by too much salsa clams weren't open. The mussel was good though.
Worth stopping if you are driving past and if you have time which I did not it would be worth taking the tour as you would get to the entire winery. The wine tasting is a must even for someone who does not normally drink wine I found it a fun experience.
Very patience master of wine introducing their selection of wine available. Must visit their winery caves - worth every penny! They have outdoor seating and cheese shop too..
Went for the lunch because of my mothers 60th birthday. They gave us a complimentary champagne glass and the staff were super friendly and professional.
The food were excellent as well compliment on the chef.
We had a great experience and thus far my favourite reataurant in Queenstown!!
Wines are so good, we order them and get them shipped back to Australia
Absolutely outstanding accommodation. Beautifully appointed villas with all the luxarys and the staff/service was exceptional. The villas were warm and toasty (infact sometimes a little too warm overnight, even with the heating off and -4 outside!). We had 3 nights here and wish we could have stayed longer. The breakfast each morning was delicious, with a range continental and cooked options. The barista coffee was great. The pre dinner wine tastings were very informative, we especially enjoyed it when Chris the winemaker joined us around the fireplace. 5 stars from us, and hopefully one day we can come back!
Quite expensive for what it's worth. Had more fun in other wineries in the region... Would skip this if come here again. It has the largest cave cellar down south .. but really not that special for me
Great food and wine and fantastic service thanks to Bindy for making our birthday celebration so cool
In A Nutshell:
-Gibbston Valley Winery was just okay.
-I thought each wine tasted average.
-The property is a decent size, felt crowded at times.
Overall, I would recommend trying other wineries.
Visited here with family Thursday. Great service and food.
I got the gibston wine sampler as it was trash. If you're going to do wine tasting I'd recommend going to the cheese tasting hut as they give you free cheese tastings and also provide a package with wine, beer, and cheese tasting.
My wife really enjoyed the Pinot, in fact now she is a member. The restaurant served delightful lunch as expected from a fine dining experience. The crowds of bused in tour groups ruined the atmosphere in the tasting room though.
Great service. Minimalist menu which i like because I'm an indecisive person and the less options I have to choose from the less time I'll take to actually choose.
Nice people, great wine matches with the food. The right size servings. It was all so tasty. I had rabbit lasagne and the main was a chicken breast (so tender and juicy) with chorizo and beans. Not my normal dish I'd choose so was pleasantly surprised.
I'd definitely be back on my next visit to Queenstown
We had an informative wine tasting followed by a beautiful lunch here while cycling on the Queenstown trails. We chose the set menu and had the free range chicken and the fish dish for mains. These both had amazing source's that I can't describe - you will have to try them. The rabbit lasagna starter was mouthwatering....
This would have been a 5 star review apart from the request for a tip on the bill. NZ is not a tipping culture, instead employees are paid and treated properly by their employers. Please let's not seen our culture eroded by unsavory foriegn practices.
As the name implies, a winery along the valley. Access is on a narrow dirt road, so drive carefully. The tasting zone with the restaurant can accommodate about 15 people. It is possible to take a tasting and take a long time, and paid tasting is substantial.
27th June 2020: Went on a Wine Tour of this establishment. Well worth it. The young man leading the tour was most courteous and professional and accomodating.
Having done numerous winery tours up through Marlborough I thought the tour was a little bit short but am not sure what else could have been added. More about the wine making process maybe.
I'd be more than happy to recommend the tour for anybody visiting this way.
gibbstonvalley.com