Matching food with Central Otago wines

Wine is meant to be enjoyed with food, and it’s no different when you’re on a wine-tasting tour.

The Central Otago wine region, including Wanaka and Queenstown, is one of the best wine regions in New Zealand. And it produces some amazing food to be matched with the region’s award-winning pinot noir, pinot gris, chardonnay and rosé.

Think deliciously smoked wild Central Otago hare and parsnip puree paired with pinot gris, perfectly cooked venison and beetroot chutney with pinot noir or tender smoked salmon with rosé. Not to mention freshly-baked breads and locally-made cheeses.

When you’re on a wine-tasting tour, it’s important to eat along the way. At Wanaka Wine Tours, we place great emphasis on the concept of food-and-wine matching, which is why all our tours include a stop at wineries that serve gourmet food with excellent wine.

We stop at Wild Earth Restaurant and Cellar Door, near Queenstown. Wild Earth is a truly unique experience, with all food prepared in custom-built wine barrel cookers. Each cooker is crafted from Wild Earth’s retired French Oak pinot noir barrels and enables the chefs to steam and smoke the food.

We drive you there in our brand new, spacious Ford Transit Tourneo six-seat van, or our late-model eight-seat Toyota Hiace Grand Cabin, and let you relax and soak up the surrounds – including historic gold mining ruins high above the Kawarau River – while your food and wine is served.

We also stop at Carrick Vineyard in Bannockburn, where you’ll receive a gourmet platter which normally consists of local cheeses, vine-smoked salmon, pork rillettes, salami, prosciutto, green-lipped mussels and carrot and coriander fritters – served with their award-winning wine, of course.

At Wanaka Wine Tours, we pick you up from your Wanaka accommodation and, depending on which tour you choose, we travel to a selection of amazing Wanaka, Central Otago and Queenstown wineries.

Our tours include a half-day boutique wine tour, where we visit four local wineries for tastings (plus the food matching at either Wild Earth or Carrick), and a Classic wine tour with lunch.

Many of the wineries that we visit are children-friendly, and we have a range of carseats available, so the whole family can have fun on a Wanaka Wine Tours excursion.

If you’re keen to hear more about the Central Otago wine region, get in touch. We’d love to show you around our part of the world.