Te Mata Estate Winery — Attraction in North Island

Spent a weekend in Hawkes Bay a few months ago and did a number of cellar door wine tastings. The region is beautiful, wine was great, service was great, people were really friendly every where we went - except for TeMata Estate which stood out for the wrong reasons. The staff were offhand and unfriendly, we had to ask for a tasting otherwise would have been ignored. Worst cellar door experience over that weekend in Hawkes Bay. To top it off, earlier we had bought half a dozen bottles of 1994 Colleraine Cabernet Merlot. A number of the bottles had cork failures and the wine had gone off. We do not have cork failures with ANY other wines in our cellar and therefore spoke to the lady at the wine tasting about this. The lady was very disinterested, her only suggestion was to tell us that next time we open one and find it is corked we should ship it back to Hawkes Bay - how do you ship an opened bottle of wine?? Very disappointed overall - will never be buying TeMata Estate wines again or visiting the...

Visited on Saturday, 7 October at around 3.15 pm. Absolutely appaling customer service. The only horrid experience we had visiting all the vineyards around the area. When we walked in, the lady behind the counter looked at us and did not even Hello. We meandered about looking at the wine selections and went back to the front desk for some wine tasting and was completely ignored again. There were other guests about and each had a wine glass in their hand... honestly, award winning wines but below sub par customer service. Will warn all we know about this place. Spent ten minutes here and will never set...

Te Mata was the first winery we visited on our three week trip around New Zealand. The first of 20. And it was, by far, one of the most personal and informative. We had the pleasure of a personal tasting with Zara Buck, a member of the family, who grew up on the vineyard. The wine is excellent, and we especially enjoyed the stories about the names given to some of the varieties. Even the Highland coos have a story. We highly recommend making an appointment for a tasting. But, at the very least, stop at the...