Do you need to book to visit Gibbston Valley Winery?

Not for the cellar door, which is open 10am to 5pm daily with no bookings needed. Restaurant bookings are recommended and are required for groups of ten or more.

How much is a wine tasting at Gibbston Valley Winery?

Gibbston Valley publish no price for their cellar door tasting boards. Three boards of four wines each are offered. The Classic Cave tour, which includes three tastings, is $30 per person.

What time is Gibbston Valley Winery open?

The cellar door and the cheesery are open daily, 10am to 5pm. The Winery Restaurant serves 11.30am to 3pm and tours run 10am to 4pm.

Can you tour the wine cave at Gibbston Valley Winery?

Yes, on a tour. The Classic Cave tour is $30 for 30 minutes and three tastings, leaving at 10am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Longer tours run at fixed times too. Nobody under 16 is admitted.

Is there food at Gibbston Valley Winery?

Snacks and small plates at the cellar door, a restaurant serving 11.30am to 3pm, and a cheesery and deli selling Whitestone and Gibbston Valley cheese by the wheel or cut to order — with a few free samples before you buy.

How far is Gibbston Valley Winery from the bike trail?

About 350 metres, or a couple of minutes' riding.

Gibbston Valley Winery by Bike

The valley's biggest stop — a cellar door, a restaurant and a cheesery, in front of a wine cave blasted into the schist that Gibbston Valley call the largest in New Zealand.

Six tasting glasses lined up on a wooden board at the Gibbston Valley cellar door bar, rosé and chardonnay through to pinot noir

The red-clad Gibbston Valley winery buildings seen across rows of young vines, with schist bluffs and green hills closing the valley behind

Oak barrels stacked head-high either side of the tunnel through Gibbston Valley's wine cave, cut straight into the schist hillside

Trellised vine rows running away to a bare tussock hill at Gibbston Valley under a wide blue sky

The Details

Address: 1820 State Highway 6, Queenstown 9371
Phone: 03 442 6910
Email: info@gibbstonvalley.com
Website: www.gibbstonvalley.com
Social: Instagram · Facebook

Open

Monday	10am – 5pm
Tuesday	10am – 5pm
Wednesday	10am – 5pm
Thursday	10am – 5pm
Friday	10am – 5pm
Saturday	10am – 5pm
Sunday	10am – 5pm

Bookings: Not essential Book a restaurant table

Food: Snacks and small plates at the cellar door, plus a cheesery and deli. The Winery Restaurant serves 11.30am – 3pm.

Getting There by Bike

The cellar door sits about 350 metres off the Winery Bike Trail — a couple of minutes' riding, and the red dotted line on the map below is that stretch.

It is the closest big-name cellar door to the Queenstown end of the trail, which makes it an easy first stop and a busy one. The address is 1820 State Highway 6, and tapping it in The Details opens it in Maps.

The red dotted line is the distance from the Winery Bike Trail to the winery's front door. Tap the map and zoom out to see where you turn off.

The Wines

Seven vineyards, two in Gibbston and five in Bendigo. The single-vineyard wines are the ones certified organic by BioGro, and since 2024 every Gibbston Valley-owned vineyard is farmed organically. The range is on their New Zealand shop.

Gibbston Valley Collection

Single Vineyard

Reserve

Reserve Pinot Noir2022

Sparkling

These wines taste better in person

BOOK YOUR RIDE — FROM $149

✓ No booking fees ✓ Free 48hr cancellation ✓ Free bad weather refund

What to Expect

Four operations on one site, and four sets of hours. The cellar door and the cheesery run 10am to 5pm. The Winery Restaurant serves 11.30am to 3pm. Cave and winery tours run 10am to 4pm, and the last Classic Cave tour leaves at 3pm. Roll in at half past three wanting lunch and a cave tour and you have missed both.

The cellar door itself needs no planning: “Open 10am - 5pm daily, no bookings needed.” Tastings are self-guided, across three tasting boards of four wines each. No price for those boards is published anywhere on their site, so ask at the counter. Hosted tastings exist too, but depend on the wine team being free — enquire on the day.

The tours are what to plan around. Classic Cave is $30 for 30 minutes and three tastings, leaving at 10am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Complete Winery is $50 for 45 minutes and four tastings, at 11.45am and 3.45pm. Cave Library is $65 for five wines, and a cheese and wine tasting is $55 for four pairings, at 2pm and 3.30pm. Nobody under 16 is admitted to any tour or tasting.

Lunch is worth booking and worth thinking twice about. Bookings are recommended, required for ten or more, and cancelling inside 48 hours — or arriving with fewer people, or not at all — costs $20 a head on the card you booked with. If your ride might run late, do not book the table.

The cheesery is the cheap win: Whitestone and Gibbston Valley cheese by the wheel or cut to order, deli meats, local honey and barista coffee, with a few free samples before you buy.

Worth knowing

Gibbston Valley run their own bike centre and hire e-bikes from the site. If you are already out here on a Whizzy bike that is no concern of yours — you get picked up in Frankton, Queenstown or Arthurs Point and ride the length of the valley, rather than starting and finishing in the same car park.

The Gibbston Valley Story

In the early 1980s an Irishman called Alan Brady planted vines here, at 45 degrees south, where everybody told him it was too cold for grapes. Their own headline for what happened next: “The difference between fool and visionary can be a fine line.”

The Home Block went in in 1983 as Central Otago's first commercial vineyard, and the region's first commercial vintage followed in 1987. In 2001 the 2000 Reserve Pinot Noir took the Pinot Noir and Burgundy trophy at the London International Wine Challenge — by their account the first non-French wine ever to win it.

The cave came in 1995: 1,400 cubic metres blasted into the schist behind the winery, holding more than 400 barrels at a steady temperature with no artificial cooling at all. Gibbston Valley call it the largest wine cave in New Zealand, and the first in the region.

The cheese counter has its own story. Bob Berry of Whitestone and Alan Brady met at trade shows thirty-odd years ago — one drawn to North Otago limestone, the other to Central Otago schist. That is why the cheesery sells Whitestone.

Told from Gibbston Valley's own history.

Common Questions

Do you need to book?: Not for the cellar door — their words are “Open 10am - 5pm daily, no bookings needed.” Lunch is different: bookings are recommended, required for ten or more, and cancelling inside 48 hours costs $20 a head.
How much is a tasting?: No price is published. The cellar door offers three tasting boards of four wines each and puts the price on none of its pages — ask at the counter, or ring 03 442 6910. For comparison, the $30 Classic Cave tour includes three tastings.
What time is it open?: The cellar door and the cheesery are open daily, 10am to 5pm. The Winery Restaurant serves 11.30am to 3pm and tours run 10am to 4pm.
Can you go into the wine cave?: Yes, on a tour. The Classic Cave tour is $30 for 30 minutes and three tastings, leaving at 10am, 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Longer tours run at fixed times too. Nobody under 16 is admitted.
Is there food?: Snacks and small plates at the cellar door, a restaurant serving 11.30am to 3pm, and a cheesery and deli selling Whitestone and Gibbston Valley cheese by the wheel or cut to order — with a few free samples before you buy.
How far off the trail is it?: About 350 metres, or a couple of minutes' riding.

Nearest Stops on the Trail

Chard FarmBack west, up 2 km of unsealed road — book first
Peregrine WinesNext east, and the building is worth the stop on its own
Gibbston TavernWood-fired pizza, and a kitchen open until 6pm