Would you like wine with your spectacular sea view?
Panoramic sea views make the wine experience even more enjoyable at the new Kina Cliffs Cellar Door and Tasting Room. (
Julie Ashcroft pours for wine tasters Ceiney Jones and Jim Hunter)
Kina Cliffs has become the latest wine vineyard in the Nelson/Tasman region to open a cellar door and tasting room.
Located next to their home at 38 Cliff Road, at Kina the stylish new tasting room offers a truly breath-taking nearly
270° view that stretches from Nelson across Tasman Bay to the Abel Tasman National Park and around across rolling hills
to Mount Campbell and the Western Ranges.
Kina Cliffs has been quietly producing award winning wine for over four years from their 3.2 hectare vineyard which is
hand tended by Julie and Alistair Ashcroft. In just four years they’ve won one Gold medal and four silver medals¹. They
now supply over 30 local restaurants and cafes with their Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir wines, as well as
selling their wine online through their website and from selected local wine stores.
The Ashcrofts say their new tasting room adds a further avenue for people to experience their wine.
“We’re really excited about opening the cellar door because the unique location so close to the sea is what determines
the flavour of the wines. Visitors can see the vines that produced the wine right in front of them, feel the sea breeze
that keeps the vineyard healthy, and even wander down the beach and see the clay gravel soils in the cliffs that give
those big flavours to the wine.,” says Al.
The tasting room will be open Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays over summer and Julie says it’s because they have young
children they’ve chosen to keep Sundays for the family.
Julie and Al are both from farming families and chose to move into winegrowing and away from a city lifestyle a decade
ago. Kina was a special place for Julie since childhood and in 2004 they chose to follow their dream and planted their
first vines with lots of help and advice from friends and family. Hundreds of the posts seen from the tasting room deck
are from her parents’ old kiwifruit farm in Motueka – one of the first in the region.
“Now that the tasting room is open it’s another goal achieved for our little vineyard. The first day we opened the
Nelson Food and Wine Society visited and we were overwhelmed with their enthusiasm for our wine and support for the
tasting room”.
“We want our tasting room to feel welcoming and comfortable both for visitors to Nelson and local people, so we extend
an invitation to wine lovers to pop in try the wine, have a chat with us or just relax and take in the awesome view,”
says Julie.
ENDS