Monte Christo Winery is offering educational winery tours giving visitors the opportunity to understand the process involved in winemaking.
Monte Christo Winery was reopened in 2023 by Dunedin-born Dr Stanley Paris and his son, Nicholas Paris.
‘‘Established in 1864, Monte Christo Winery was once a thriving vineyard. However, it fell into a period of inactivity in the 1880s and it wasn’t until almost 140 years later, when we rediscovered it, that we saw the opportunity to revive it,’’ Dr Paris said.
‘‘It was always my dream to build an educational winery. The experience begins as we take people behind the scenes to demonstrate the process of winemaking from grape to bottle, before finishing with a guided wine tasting. To my knowledge, there are very few winery tours like this anywhere in New Zealand.’’
Monte Christo Winery managing director, Master of Wine and Advanced Sommelier Nicholas Paris said the new interactive experience would have wide appeal from wine drinkers to students wanting to learn more about career opportunities.
‘‘We show our guests the entire process of winemaking — they see where our sustainably and organically farmed grapes are first brought to the winery, before being weighed, placed in the hopper and fed into the de-stemmer. Inside the winery they are shown fermentation tanks, our wine press and other important equipment,’’ he said.
A tour of the underground barrel cellar was an opportunity to learn about the ageing, barrel selection and blending processes that shaped each wine, with barrel samples offered when available.
That was followed by learning about the final stages of winemaking, including fining, filtration and bottling which all happen on-site as part of the winery’s commitment to reducing emissions and improving quality control.
Monte Christo’s eight vineyards spanned 22 hectares across three sub-regions — the Alexandra Basin, Bannockburn, and Pisa — and harvest typically took place between late March and early April when the grapes reached optimal ripeness.
‘‘We take a minimal intervention approach to our winemaking, with a deep respect for both our heritage and the expressions of our Central Otago landscape,’’ Mr Paris said.
From next month guests would also have the option to experience Monte Christo Winery’s Aroma Room — a one-of-a-kind immersive experience — where they would learn about the key aromas found in Central Otago’s main grape varieties, followed by an interactive game of ‘‘guess the aroma’’.
‘‘I think we all secretly want to be winemakers, and this is an opportunity to learn more about what that entails,’’ Mr Paris said.
