Dine indoors in the restaurant's Tiffen Room (pictured) which offers a rustic dining experience or enjoy your meal served alfresco in the picturesque garden. Enjoy free outdoor entertainment ever weekend over summer, weather permitting.

Restaurant hours
From 11.30am daily. Bookings advised. Phone (06) 845 9140


The Winery

Founded in 1897, the Church Road Winery was already more than 90 years old when it was purchased in 1988 and completely renovated, turning it into a modern boutique winery that applies hands-on winemaking techniques to the very best of the Hawke's Bay harvest.

Winemaking
Ask our senior winemaker, Tony Prichard, what makes Church Road stand apart and he swiftly answers: "We embrace Old World winemaking philosophies with one arm and technological winemaking advancements with the other."

The winery's commitment to centuries-old winemaking techniques is genuine, not cosmetic. Giant French oak 'cuves' (meaning wine vats) are used to ferment the winery's acclaimed Bordeaux-style red wines, before they begin ageing in the French oak barriques which line the winery's cellars. "Nevertheless," says Tony, from underneath the trademark baseball cap belying his intense, driven approach to winemaking, "we've placed a lot of emphasis on a whole new range of technological and scientific procedures. I know that doesn't sound romantic but it's the reality."

When Tony first started making wine about 20 years ago, the most sophisticated machinery at his disposal was a pH meter.

Today, he can remove a tear-drop-sized sample of wine from one of the cuves or barrels and, much as a laboratory runs a battery of tests on a thumb-prick of blood, subject that tiny sample to capillary electrophoresis testing to produce a raft of precise analyses.

"So, for example, we still taste our red wines daily, but during on-skins fermentation we're measuring colour levels, tannins and so forth in order to make informed decisions about those tastings.

"Technology is moving ahead all the time and it's very important to remain at the cutting-edge of that," says this technophile.

It's easy to see why. "There are so many variables involved in winemaking," explains Tony. "In the old days, winemakers would inevitably come up against obstacles, but would usually pass a problem by unless an obvious solution presented itself. That's not how we do things here. Rather, we look very hard at an issue, commit some resources to it and invariably find the answer."

Tony and the winemaking team's in-depth knowledge of French winemaking techniques, gleaned from a decade-long knowledge-sharing relationship with Bordeaux producer Cordier, has enabled Church Road to fast-track its traditional winemaking expertise. "In the early years of the partnership we were on a steep learning curve, soaking up all Cordier could throw at us. In more recent times, the progress has been more incremental, but no less important," he says.