Winemakers go for growth

Prime Minister Helen Clark (centre) is shown over Villa Maria's new winery and vineyards by George and Gail Fistonich. Picture / Martin Sykes

A volcanic crater at Mangere is the unlikely site of a major new winery that opened for business at the weekend.

Hundreds of guests, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, attended the official launch of Villa Maria Estates' new headquarters and winery in the Waitomokia volcanic crater, a few kilometres from Auckland International Airport.

Planning for the new winery began in 2000 after the 40ha site was bought by George Fistonich, founder and managing director of Villa Maria Estate, the country's third-largest wine company.

The land had previously been used for kiwifruit packhouses, flower growing and horticulture.

Now half of the sheltered site has been planted in grapes. The rest houses large warehousing, packaging and administration facilities, a bottling plant and a cellar-door wine sales outlet.

The company had long outgrown its previous headquarters, also in Mangere at Kirkbride Road, and wineries manager Fabian Yukich said the new facility would cater for long-term growth.

"We looked at the expansion of the New Zealand wine industry over the last 20 years and extrapolated that over the next 50 years and from there we worked out what we thought our future needs could be," Yukich said.

"Even without any further building expansion, we could now grow our production five times larger than it is currently and experience no trouble whatsoever whereas our other premises were at absolute maximum."

The new office administration, warehousing and winery production buildings were designed by architect Hamish Cameron from Archimedia, using many materials that reflect the volcanic origins of the site, such as concrete aggregate and stone, as well as steel and cedar.

The winery includes the largest New Zealand wine tank storage area under one roof, capable of holding over 3.6 million litres of wine - made with grapes from Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and Marlborough.

A state-of-the-art bottling plant serves the entire Villa Maria group, which includes Hawkes Bay wineries Esk Valley and Vidals.

Mr Fistonich says stage two of the development will include a restaurant and top-end accommodation.

"The tourist potential of our new site, with its proximity to the international airport, is huge and we are already hosting theatre-style events in the new barrel hall, which is capable of seating 550 people," he said.