Yealands Wins Most Innovative Tourism Experience

Media release

February 7, 2017

Yealands Family Wines Wins Most Innovative Tourism Experience

Drinks International announced the results of its annual awards on 6th February, and Yealands Family Wines took out the top prize in the Most Innovative Tourism Experience category for their White Road App and self-guided vineyard tour.

For the sixth year running Drinks International Wine Tourism Challenge recognises innovation and excellence among wine producers, winemakers and associated businesses all over the world.

The White Road App, developed in 2016 allows visitors to self-drive around the vineyard, stopping at ten sustainable points of interest to experience first-hand the sustainable practices in place at Yealands Seaview winery, and get a clearer understanding about what Yealands stands for.

The ten stops on the tour include Vine Pruning Bales, Native Weta Sleeves, Compost, Look Out Point, Seasonal Inter-row Plantings, Butterfly Gully, Twin Lakes, NZ’s Largest Solar Array & Wine Turbines, Music in the Vines and Babydoll Sheep.

Peter Yealands, Founder of Yealands Family Wines, has always maintained that the best way to educate visitors is to physically show them. He says, “Our self-drive vineyard tour sets us apart from the other cellar doors in New Zealand. The White Road tour has proved very popular with guests visiting the vineyard as it provides a chance to see ‘behind the scenes’ of what most wineries keep private.”

Yealands winery welcomes over 10,000 visitors to is cellar door every year and remains the only vineyard in New Zealand to allow visitors to travel around unattended.

Internationally recognised for both their sustainable and innovative practices, Yealands Family Wines has won numerous accolades including the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence in 2016 and was the first winery in the world to become carboNZeroTMCert accredited from inception. Yealands continues to live by its philosophy of ‘Think boldly, tread lightly, and never say it can’t be done’, and is proud to add this latest award to its impressive collection.

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