Amisfield Winery
Amisfield was founded by John Darby in 1988, who spent many childhood years holidaying in Central Otago’s high country. Located below the picturesque Pisa mountain range, the vineyards were formerly a merino sheep farm known as Amisfield Station.
Today Amisfield winery is one of the largest single estate vineyards in Central Otago with 92 hectares under vine with production of between 20,000 - 30,000 cases annually.
Amisfield is in the process of converting their entire vineyard estate to being certified organic. Amisfield’s wines illustrate their grape growing and winemaking philosophy by having expressive characteristics of their Pisa vineyard site with minimal winemaking input. They believe their wines have concentrated fruit flavours with consistent complexity thanks to the range of soils found throughout the vineyard.
60% of production is pinot noir, with sauvignon blanc, pinot gris and riesling making up the remainder. Additionally, they produce vintage and non-vintage sparkling wines and even an orange wine.
15 minutes drive from central Queenstown is where the Amisfield cellar door is located. The highly regarded bistro restaurant has à la carte and “trust the chef” menus that focus on seasonal ingredients to compliment their wines.