The wines of New Zealand are unique, bridging the gap between the styles of the New and Old Worlds. While high quality, super-intense versions of sauvignon blanc afforded New Zealand international recognition, the wine landscape has quickly diversified and this guide gives what you need to tap into the country’s other rising stars: world-class pinot noirs, high quality red Bordeaux blends, and some up-and-coming alternative white varieties (gewürztraminer, riesling and pinot gris).

This Approach Guide begins by offering a straightforward vintage ratings table, which affords high-level insight into the best and most challenging years for wine production in New Zealand. It then describes the country’s primary red and white grape varieties and where they reach their highest expressions.

Finally and most important, this guide provides detailed, region-by-region reviews of each of the country’s 11 wine producing regions: Auckland (Kumeu, Matakana, and Waiheke Island), Canterbury (Waipara), Central Otago, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, the famed Marlborough, Nelson, Northland, Waikato-Bay of Plenty, Wairarapa (Martinborough), and the Waitaki Valley. For each region, this guide offers insight into its unique terroir, pointing out the best wines and what makes them distinctive.

Rather than seek to tell you what specific bottle of wine to order, this Approach Guide gives an approach to ordering the most appropriate wine for the region and your personal tastes.

Look for the asterisks! * We mark each of our favorite regions, sub-regions, and grape varieties with an asterisk — they have a record for providing quality, consistency, and good values.

We hope you enjoy what we believe is a totally unique guide to the wines of New Zealand.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE: One of the benefits of eBooks is that we can easily update content and release new editions of our guidebooks. These updates are FREE for existing customers. Please visit for a list of recently updated guides and instructions on downloading the new version to your device.

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Best of all, the app never requires an internet connection (all of the information is resident in the app), so you never have to worry about expensive data roaming charges.

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