Boutique Rotorua winery, Volcanic Hills, has managed to impress not just New Zealanders with their wares, but also it seems US wine buyers.
The 2015 Volcanic Hills Central Otago Pinot Noir has been selected by leading Carrier United Airlines to be served in their International First Class cabins worldwide from April 2017.
World Traveler Imports Director (Volcanic Hills Winery US importer), William Kolb, said the partnership was a perfect fit and would not only add to what United Airlines currently offered, but was a great growth strategy into the ‘hot’ US east coast market for this growing brand. “We carry a complete range of the Volcanic Hills Winery brand and the Pinot Noir is our best-selling wine to date of their range,” he says.
Brent Park, co-owner of Volcanic Hills Winery says: “For us as a winery this has been recognition of what we are producing is right up there with both the New Zealand’s and the world’s best wine makers.
“This development is a wonderful thing not just for our local business, but for the quality of the entire wine industry being recognised on a world stage. Although, to tell the truth, we now have extremely limited supplies of the wine left for sale, which will be potentially tough on our regular local and trade customers for the year.”
Rotorua is not your conventional site for a winery, but where the grapes are sourced is the key to the success. Creating wines which represent the best of what New Zealand’s viticultural offerings, rather than professing perfection across the grape growing spectrum with a limited vineyard capability, a philosophy not uncommon in the new generation of wine makers and production facilities these days.
Volcanic Hills Winery is now an accepted feature on the Rotorua landscape, having set up business at the highly successful Skyline Rotorua Gondola site in late 2012, with their unconventional location of a winery in the heart of a tourist town, and sourcing grapes from all over New Zealand.
