Marlborough’s Cellar Door of the Year Competition Winners

MEDIA RELEASE 22 November 2017

Marlborough’s Cellar Door of the Year Competition Winners Announced

The Wine Marlborough Cellar Door of the Year final was held at Brancott Estate Cellar Door and Restaurant last night where Bladen and Hunter’s Wines were announced joint winners of the title with Wairau River coming in third place. Alongside Bladen, Hunter’s Wines and Wairau River, the finalists included Hans Herzog and Johanneshof Cellars.

Bladen owner, Dave Macdonald also took out the title of the Wine Marlborough Cellar Door Personality of the Year alongside Brancott Estate Cellar Door and Restaurant host Kimberly Matthews. Both Dave and Kimberly received a mystery shop score of 100%.

“It was time to not only celebrate the top cellar doors, but also the individuals that make someone’s visit absolutely brilliant”

“We have such an amazing team of cellar door hosts in Marlborough which the very close scores represented. It’s great to know that when visitors come to our cellar doors, they are getting a world class experience,” says Wine Marlborough Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Harriet Wadworth.

Finalists for the Cellar Door of the Year title were mystery shopped on criteria the hosts had set themselves along with Wine Marlborough and were put through their paces with a quick-fire buzzer round that included questions about the region, other cellar doors, wine tourism and general information visitors may ask for. Again, the standard was very high across the board, with very little separating those near the top. As well as it being a fantastic accolade to celebrate as a company, Wine Marlborough also awarded the staff with prizes for them to enjoy as a team.

“We are so immensely proud to receive the 2017 Cellar Door of the Year award. It was very stiff competition! We would have to be one of the smallest cellar doors in the valley and I’m thrilled that we can still provide a service and experience that can match the larger wineries. Hopefully this means a very busy season for us!” says Bladen owner, Chris Macdonald.

As well as visiting the top cellar doors, visitors to the region and locals can visit 32 others, with 10 offering winery restaurants and another eight offering platters and small bites. It’s a brilliant place to spend a long weekend or holiday and will be even more accessible with the reopening of State Highway 1 on the 15th of December.

See the full Marlborough Wine Trail Map here.

Domestic visitors spent a total of $230.46 million in Marlborough to year end March 2017 and International visitors spent a total of $138.48 million in Marlborough to year end March 2017, an increase of 7% on the previous year.

@winemarlborough #winemarlborough

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