Media release
22 August 2007
Drink wine from any country you want, as long as it’s New Zealand
Guests wining and dining at any of 16 Scenic Circle Hotels throughout New Zealand are being offered a choice – a New
Zealand wine, or a New Zealand wine? The company’s decision to showcase only New Zealand wines (with the natural
exception of champagne) on its wine lists is part of its move to increase its focus on ‘Buy Kiwi Made’.
“And why wouldn’t you want to enjoy quality New Zealand wine, particularly if you are a visitor to New Zealand, or a New
Zealander spending time in a different region from where you live?” says Donna Harvey, Scenic Circle Hotels’ procurement
manager. “Guests, particularly those from overseas, are staying with us as part of a New Zealand experience, and this is
an opportunity for them to sample some high quality New Zealand wines. It’s also a way for our company, which is one
hundred percent New Zealand owned, to support other New Zealand owned businesses.”
Scenic Circle Hotels has signed a two-year contract with the family owned New Zealand winery Villa Maria. Villa Maria
wines, including the Esk Valley, Vidal, Thornbury and Northrow labels, form the mainstay of Scenic Circle Hotels’ wine
lists. Separate lists have been devised for the North Island and the South Island. Supplementing Villa Maria’s products,
each individual hotel’s wine list also features wines from its local region. For example Chard Farm wines feature at
Scenic Circle hotels in Queenstown, Gore, Dunedin and Franz Josef; Scenic Circle Te Pania Hotel in Napier offers wines
from Matariki and Mission Estate; and the company’s two hotels in Paihia serve Omata Estate Northland wines.
“The idea with the wine list is that each hotel will promote New Zealand wines in general as well as the wines of its
province,” says Donna Harvey.
The move to all New Zealand wines is particularly timely, as the government’s Buy Kiwi Made campaign encourages New
Zealanders to consider where products they buy are from, and to support New Zealand companies.
ends