Reviews of Volcanic Hills Winery Tasting Room (at the top of the Skyline Gondola). (Liquor Store) in Rotorua (Bay of Plenty).
Volcanic Hills Winery Tasting Room (at the top of the Skyline Gondola)
176 Fairy Springs Road, Fairy Springs, Rotorua 3015, New Zealand
Description
Information of Volcanic Hills Winery Tasting Room (at the top of the Skyline Gondola), Liquor store in Rotorua (Bay of Plenty)
Here you can see the location, open hours, popular times, contact, photos and real reviews done by the users.
This place has good reviews, this means that they treat their customers well and you’ll feel great with their services, recommended 100%!
Map
Open hours of Volcanic Hills Winery Tasting Room (at the top of the Skyline Gondola)
Monday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Tuesday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Wednesday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Thursday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Friday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Saturday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Sunday
11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Reviews of Volcanic Hills Winery Tasting Room (at the top of the Skyline Gondola)
L. H.A five-star experience. The view alone is five stars, but our server, Carmen, curated a delightful experience from start to finish! Carmen clearly knew her wines; she was patient, and her smile radiated genuine warmth.
I lived in San Francisco for many years and we frequented the wine country. I am now trying to lean into the Australian and Zealand wines (whites, Pinots and other offerings) rather than the big bold Cabernets of California that defined the wine education in my youth.
Carmen and I had a big discussion about Chardonnay oak and stainless, and again, it was clear that she knew her wines and especially the Volcanic Hills wines that she was serving. We also overheard her at the other tables educating other patrons and even trying to navigate some language barriers. She remained unflappable. All tables received a great deal of attention from her. This was no mere “pour and go” tasting. Carmen really took the time to educate every table about her wines. Kudos Carmen for such an incredible experience!
We ended up taking home a few bottles. One of them never quite made it back to the states, because we still had a few days in New Zealand, and I opened it up in Wellington!
Our next excursion after the tasting was at one of the Maori cultural centers, and Carmen told us a bit of history of the folks there and how she was related. What a great way to prep for our next experience and dinner. I was also really enchanted by one of Volcanic Hills whites, which is unusual. Those bottles make it home to the states!
M. P.Wow! What a treat! This winery has something for every wine enthusiast or even the "wine isn't my thing" person. The high-quality selection is impressive, but the service is the star. We had such an amazing time learning about all the New Zealand wines. The view is just so relaxing and the perfect setting to catch up with some great conversations. I was just so impressed with how awesome this winery was to visit. Wished I lived closer or this would be a weekly local spot to enjoy.
F. J.Really enjoyable experience. Brent is super chatty and friendly. He shared his family's stories and adventures as well as his extensive knowledge on his wines and the global wine market. We chose the '3 wine tasting' NZ selection. I'd have gone for the 5 if I wasn't driving. Take away wines and affordable.
Try the punchy Rosè and of course his buttery smooth sav...
E. D.Great wine to try.
I have tasted three wines. Pinot noir, passion fruit flavour and sparkling sweet. They all taste awesome.
The girl was in the cashier at the top of the hills is super cool. She is so friendly and helpful when we pick wines.
Don’t trust my words just taste the wine and see.
R. M.Good wine, good service, and good views. Wish we could have stayed longer.
I got to try 3 of their wines, all were very good. There is more complexity to these wines than others I've tried in New Zealand.
Service was wonderful. Got to speak to the wine maker who explained the differences between these wines and ours in Australia. This allowed me to take on more from the wines than usual.
Will recommend to friends coming through this area.
K. G.It was a very unique experience to take the sky tram up the winery! We bought our gondola
and wine tasting ticket online a day prior to our reservation!
Beautiful views from the winery! Brent was very social to all of the tables and taught us about New Zealand wine! Great experience!
E. S.Wines were very tasty and delightful. The owners are amazing and extremely knowledgeable! I had a great time tasting the wines and conversing. Great atmosphere and very accommodating staff! Highly recommend
S. H.We had such a good time we didn’t even take photos. Bought our gondola + wine tasting ticket at the base of the mountain. I think you can also do this + book a time online. We lucked out it was mid afternoon. We tried 5 wines and got the wedges to snack on. The gentleman from Cali who served us was knowledgeable, friendly and gave some great local recommendations.
Our favorite was the Sauvignon blanc and Pinot gris.
P. J.Visited here today. Completely underrated, great experience, lovely wine and people. Fantastic views and well worth the time spent. In addition the food is very good. Can’t fault.
D. B.Georgia and Johnny made our wine tasting experience phenomenal!! Can’t say enough good things about the 2 of them. They told us so much about each wine we tried, shared lots of historical information about the area, and gave us several recommendations for the remainder of our trip. I wish we could go back for another afternoon with them. Highly recommend!
N. J.Come back home for holiday, meet this amazing man that done the wine tasting
Great personality, really enjoyed his character made me my Aussie friend and brother feel really welcome it’s was so awsme so be in his presence . His wine we’re all beautiful tasting even the one he wouldn’t sell me hahaha no it was great experience I recommend it to all who visit Rotorua
L. M.The only way to go there and do the wine tasting is by paying the skyline tickets. We found it way too expensive and decided to skip this stop. A shame.
A. M.Booked in a tasting the day before coming here, the wines were a great example of wines from the region. Paige did an excellent job at describing things and was happy to meet our every request.
C. M.Fantastic experience and well worth a visit for wine aficionados and casual fans alike. I did the 3 wine tasting course and was able to change the wines I wanted to taste. The tasting came with one-on-one discussion with a staff member (the owner was also floating around!) who was incredible knowledgeable.
In all, a great place to wait for the kids as they luge and beautiful wine. Well worth a visit.
The Winery also features a quarterly subscription and shipping (incl internationally) so you can take the wine with you.
Highlights: the dry pinot noir and smooth tawny.
S. R.Visited Volcanic Hills winery at Rotorua yesterday, not a patch Matakana winery’s professionalism. The guy running it was to winery, what Basil Faulty was to the Hotel business.
The lady assisting him was delightful.
M. M.Brent was the man!! We loved wine tasting here - gorgeous views and great wine- and left with so much more knowledge and laughs than we could have expected thanks to Brent 💖
M. M.so far the best service we got out of all the places we went for wine tasting. the place has nice and comfortable seats with nice overlooking view of rotorua. nice wines especially the chardonnay and staff were great and really friendly.
C. L.The winery's tasting room is located on top of the skyline hill. You have to ride the gondala up but you can package your activities together (husband and I did the gondala ride + wine tasting + 3 luge rides - do the luge, it was so much fun!). The wine in the tasting were fantastic. Johnny was our wine tour guide. He really took the time to get to know us a bit, ask us where we were from, what we've done so far, give us some recommendations, and had a fun way of explaining the different wines we were tasting. He explained that we were in white wine heaven. I had the best sauvignon blanc I've ever had, we ended up buying a bottle (or two). I would recommend getting the wedges and sour cream for the food with your wine tasting. We also had the opportunity to try the 15 year old tawny which was really sweet and strong. Highly recommend!
L. W.I went to this wine tasting 3 years ago during the covid times. Brent was a really friendly social person who gave me a lot of advice about wines. I have never met someone that was so knowledgeable and worldly about wines. One of my best experiences in wine tasting in New Zealand and the world. Would love to come back again.
Greetings from Belgium
J. P.What a great experience with fantastic wines and brilliant view! Highly recommend the Antipasti with wine tasting. Will definitely be back!!
C. C.We loved our wine tasting experience at Volcanic Hills Winery. Brent and Paige both took the time to chat with us, teach us about the winery's history, and share their love for wine. The Pinot Gris and Chardonnay were our top favorites, but you truly can't go wrong with any option. The view and atmosphere is absolutely unmatched. Thank you, again!
K. B.Staff is friendly. Views are pretty good. This is in the middle of an amusement park.
K. H.We were drawn by its great view and oasis-like atmosphere in the busy hill top of Skyline Gondolas. The ladies were super friendly and helpful. Good wine tasting mene. We are not sure if we would recommend them to extend their dining options as it would probably make them too busy and less attractive 😉
T. M.I had a terrific experience! Wonderful staff that were both knowledgeable and engaging. The Chardonnay was pleasantly surprising, especially to someone that does not particularly enjoy Chardonnay. The views are also an excellent bonus.
K. P.I had a pleasant time tasting wines here. Wine was beautiful & also had a cheese platter which was yummy.
j. k.We stopped in to VH Winery for a wine tasting after a morning on the luge. We were told we could sit anywhere without a glass, as they were expecting a big group in about an hour.
We sat at an unreserved table where we could enjoy the view.
Paige, our host was super polite and very helpful. Clearly knowledgeable about the wines and happy to chat with my guests who were visiting from the USA.
I would have given five stars, but her colleague asked us to move to a different table do to the group coming in.
Excuse me, we were sat here specifically to accommodate the group, now we’re being moved again?
Not good, and it’s a shame, we wanted lunch, but instead we finished our last wine and left.
A. R.What a view!! Wine is amazing and if you book online for the skyline and the tasting it’s super easy and a little cheaper. Our legendary wine guide Carmen lead us through some lovely samples and was so friendly and funny! Fantastic day would recommend!!
P. B.Best wine tasting we’ve experienced in NZ so far! The winemaker Brent lead my partner and I through the wines. He was hilarious, honest and knowledgeable. Beautiful views of lake Rotorua and fabulous wine too! Definitely have to visit again :)
S.I visited here for wine testing yesterday. All wine is very good also the lady was really nice. Thank you so much 💓
S. S.A really nice experience! Wine was really nice. Great view. Had a lovely chat with the woman giving the tasting. Get the ticket online via the Skyline Gondola website to save a little bit of money.
V. C.Such a fabulous experience today wine tasting with Volcanic Hill.
The hosts had the most effervescent personalities and made our time with them informative, enjoyable and many laughs.
The wine, mulled wine was delicious.
We look forward to returning again to enjoy this
B. F.Amazing experience-great wine, delicious cheese and amazing company/service. Johnny Rainbow was an excellent knowledgeable and hilarious host. Grab a bottle to go before you leave this place! Also heads up- go to trip advisor at least the day before and get the lift ticket (gondola) and the wine tasting package- you’ll get about a ten dollar discount if you do. My husband and I made the mistake of not buying ours a head of time thinking we would pass on the gondola- but you have to get it because it’s the only way to get up to the winery!
M. W.The wine tasting was such a lovely day out. The views, the wine, the food (highly recommend the potato wedges), the ambience was all fantastic. Johnny was a fantastic host with not only great knowledge about wines, but also such a funny sense of humour - he made our time there.
J. K. -. R.It was a beautiful day at the tasting room. The tasting was intimate and informative. Annie told us about the history of New Zealand and explained the types of wine we tasted. If you just want a taste with no explanation, this is not the place. You can’t beat the views, the decor or the company. It was beautiful! Thank you Annie!!
I. K.My girlfriend and I went to this winery for a tasting of 5 wines and were served by Annie. The wines were great but our server really made the experience, she was friendly, personable and funny enough to have her own stand up show. Really nice experience, would definitely recommend to others.
E. W.I never write reviews but honestly my experience here grated on me so much I had to say something. We had two servers for our group of 4 wine tasting and food platters, one lady who was lovely but the other man serving us really was an embarrassment to the place. Despite us saying we had lived in NZ for nearly 10 years, and had reasonable knowledge of NZ wine, he decided to talk *at* us about how we were really just tourists from 'Eng-er-land', made fun of our accents and asked us if we went to private school. I mean honestly!? I've never felt so uncomfortable and patronised in an establishment, especially one that caters for tourists. Wine was fine, platter hit the spot, and the view helped distract from the service.
P. M.An absolutely amazing experience. Brent was friendly, funny and super engaging with us and our children.
The wine was amazing and he catered it to our own experiences.
Would highly recommend.
B. B.We had an amazing afternoon at the Tasting Room! The hosts were very knowledgeable and we had great banter with them. The Syrah was my absolute FAVOURITE!! My beer drinking boyfriend has been converted by the rosé as it was delicious. Thank you for an excellent experience! We will definitely be back.
D. L.very nice spot to sit and enjoy some fine wine. the owner provided good conversation and was a wealth of knowledge providing information about not only the wine but also the economy of NZ. We enjoyed the incredible views and scenary. would recommend trying the 3 or 5 wine tasting
S. N.Went in looking to add a few bottles to add to our growing collection, ended up having a tasting with Brent and do not regret it. Amazing service, incredible knowledge of the NZ wine industry North to South. And if that doesnt impress you the view definately will! (Not to mention the tasting portions, definately generous!)Walked out with a new love of chardonnay and 4 bottles of wine. Also incredible value!! A wine tasting and 4 bottles of wine for under $120.00. Incredible way to end a day of luging!
F. L.We had such a great experience tasting wine with Annie. She was very warm and friendly!Together with a beautiful view of Rotorua, great wine and awesome conversation. This place is not to be missed! Go there for a relaxing time and great wine!
D. L.One of the best places we have found in Rotorua. Almost dont want to leave a review in case it becomes too popular! Have been 3-4 times over some 5-6 yrs.
Knowledgeable, capable and personable hosts make for a real wine-tasting experience that is so easy to enjoy. Snack platters can be ordered to go with the tastings, and the casual seating with expansive views out over Rotorua cap off a top venue.
R. P.The wine was pretty good however, not sure if it was just the server that we had, but the tastings were done at tables instead of at the bar so a tasting that should have taken 10 min took about 45 and we weren't really provided with alot of information about the different wines. I think he realized the issue and apologized and did give us a free tasting of the tawny but still we would have liked to have had more time to maybe have a glass or two.
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