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Mt Difficulty Wines

Welcome

Mt Difficulty is a boutique winery located in Bannockburn in Central Otago, New Zealand.
The Bannockburn area is internationally recognized as one of the few places in the world where the pernickety Pinot noir variety has found a home outside Burgundy. Martinborough in New Zealand and Oregon are the only other regions where Pinot noir seems to flourish.

The unique microclimate of the Bannockburn area provides hot summers, a large diurnal temperature variation and long cool autumns which bring the best out of the Pinot noir grapes. This, along with a mix of clays and gravels ideal for viticulture, provides an excellent basis not only for Pinot noir, but also for Pinot gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay.

Mt Difficulty was named after the mountain over-looking Felton Road and the southern Cromwell basin. This mountain is a very important part of the Bannockburn microclimate providing shelter from the cool winds of the Wakatipu Basin and Gibbston.

To ensure the full potential of the region is realized, we have a policy of very low cropping levels in our vineyards, all of which are owned and managed by the partners of Mt Difficulty. Most of our vines were planted eight to nine years ago. This is relatively old for Central Otago and is extremely valuable in adding extra complexity and concentration to our Pinot noir wine.

In early 2001 we commissioned a brand new, state of the art winery amidst our vineyards on Felton Road. The winery was specially designed to produce hand made Pinot noir, along with separate facilities for other varieties such as a specific barrel hall for Chardonnay. This facility, along with the expertise of wine maker Matt Dicey, allows us to convert the outstanding qualities of the grapes into equally outstanding wine.

The Mt Difficulty brand started in 1998 with a very small production of Pinot noir and Chardonnay. This Pinot noir went on to win a Gold medal at the 1999 Air New Zealand wine awards, with the Chardonnay attaining Silver. This was a great result for a startup winery and shows the potential of Central Otago for these varieties. Previously the grapes from our vineyards were included in many top-performing wines from other Central Otago wineries.

The four Mt Difficulty vineyards are privately owned by the same people who started and own the Mt Difficulty brand and winery. The initial joint venture has grown into a leading New Zealand boutique winery with export markets in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore, with the rest of the world to come!