Queenstown and Central Otago region wines

Central Otago is New Zealand's highest and the world's most southerly wine region. Wines with altitude is the slogan of one winemaker. It is also New Zealand's only true continental climate with greater extremes of daily and seasonal temperatures than are found in any of the country's maritime regions.

Soil structures also vary dramatically from those of other regions with heavy deposits of mica and schists in silt loams.

A new, but aggressively expanding wine area, Central Otago is now New Zealand's seventh largest wine region. Pinot Noir is the dominant grape variety, a status that seems certain to be maintained if demand and accolades are any measure. Chardonnay ranks second with Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling a distant third and fourth.

The wines of Central Otago have a purity, intensity and vibrancy that seems totally appropriate to anyone who has visited the region and breathed the pure mountain air.