Villa Maria Estate
New Zealand's Most Awarded Winery
Villa Maria Estate was founded in 1961 by George Fistonich, who still owns and manages this significant New Zealand producer.
George has led the company to achieve an extraordinary record of success for more than forty years; since the early 1980’s Villa Maria has produced more award winning wines, both on the national and international stage, than any other New Zealand winery.
The formula for this success is an uncompromising commitment and dedication to quality at every stage of the grape growing and wine making process.
Along the way Villa Maria has achieved many firsts in the New Zealand industry – one of the most significant was that Villa Maria was the first winery of any size in the world to abandon corks for screw caps across their entire range of wines.
Villa Maria produces four distinctive ranges of wines: the fruit-driven easy drinking Private Bin, the food styled Cellar Selection and the Reserve and Single Vineyard ranges which are sourced from top vineyard sites and in very limited quantities.
A wide number of varietals including Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Riesling, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Gewürztraminer fall into most of these ranges.
Wines are produced in one of Villa Maria’s two state-of-the-art wineries from grapes sourced from New Zealand’s three major grape growing regions – Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne.
These wineries were designed and built specifically to produce reserve quality wines, no matter what price point or range the wine would ultimately fall in, the key factor being an emphasis on minimal handling through all the winemaking stages.
This year has been an exceptional one for Villa Maria in Australia. The Villa Maria Cellar Selection Pinot Noir 2005 has just taken out two of the most illustrious awards in Australasia: The Royal Hobart Wine Show Qantas Trophy for Pinot Noir and the National Wine Show of Australia Riedel Trophy for Pinot Noir.
And in addition, for the eighth time in nine years Villa Maria has been named as Winestate magazine’s New Zealand Wine Producer of the Year.
Winestate also awarded Senior Winemaker Corey Ryan trophy for New Zealand Winemaker of the Year; and Villa Maria’s Single Vineyard Rutherford Pinot Noir 2004 took out the trophy for best Pinot Noir.
These prestigious awards are a fitting tribute to the winery’s dedication to consistently produce supreme quality wine.
