Big Win For Christchurch Wine Bar Cellar Door In Major International Awards

At the Wine Spectator Restaurant Awards in New York, top Christchurch wine bar Cellar Door was judged to be amongst the best in the world, winning a coveted “Best of” Award of Excellence.

US magazine Wine Spectator, considered the world's leading authority on wine, began its awards program in 1981 to recognize the world's best wine lists. Their Awards of Excellence are awarded annually to establishments for their wine programme, judged on the quality, representation and diversity of the wine selection, presentation, and suitability for an establishment’s style.

To win a Best of Award of Excellence, a wine list must display excellent breadth across multiple winegrowing regions and/or significant vertical depth of top producers, along with superior presentation. Typically offering 350 or more selections, these restaurants are destinations for serious wine lovers, showing a deep commitment to wine, both in the cellar and through their service team.

Cellar Door’s award singles out their selection of wine tasting “flights”, unique in New Zealand. Over 20 curated flights are offered every day, showcasing grape variety, winemaking style, region, terroir, vintage etc, presented together with notes so customers can engage as much as they wish, or just enjoy the wines.

“We are really so stoked to get an award from Wine Spectator, let alone to make the Best of list,” said Tim Ogle, director and founder of Cellar Door.

“We have pretty lofty goals, and we always thought if we could meet them we would probably have a world-class product, it’s a real testament to our programme to get this international recognition”

“Our wine programme is a big job and a team effort. Our attention goes into doing our thing as well as we can every day, so we are humbled for a global publication to acknowledge us”

Cellar Door opened in the historic Christchurch Arts Centre in early 2020, and quickly became a beloved haunt for Canterbury wine lovers with their wine tasting “flights”, as well as a big winelist and food menu to match from chef Michael Burgess. It was named in the Gourmet Traveller World Top 50 Wine Experiences, Cuisine NZ Good Food Guide, and has won “Best Winelist” four years in a row at the local New Zealand Restaurant Association Awards.

Cellar Door is the first restaurant in Christchurch to be recognised by the famous international awards since Pescatore and Saggio di Vino, and is one of only two in New Zealand in 2024 to make the Wine Spectator list.

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