Ransom Winery

1 Jan

Ransom Wines is the first stop on the Matakana Wine Trail, a popular feature of the greater Auckland wine region. The vineyard sits adjacent to the Mahurangi River, while the award-winning winery is situated on a knoll with sweeping views across the vineyard and beyond to the Mahurangi Hills.

The vineyard was established in 1995, and design work on the winery was started around the same time.

Location
Auckland

Date Completed
2010

Client
Ransom Wines

Team
Neil Cotton

Photography
Simon Devitt

Stage One - an underground barrel room, the main tank hall and various ancillary rooms – was built in time for the 1997 vintage. The top of the building, comprising the tasting gallery and courtyard, catering kitchen and owners’ apartment, was completed in late 2000.

The main gallery forms an open and highly visual link from the arrival point in the car park through to the vineyard and view beyond. On the way through the gallery, there is a view down into the tank hall, and tall doors that open to a north-facing courtyard with extensive views of the valley.

The form of the building avoids obvious references to traditional European masonry wineries, preferring instead to create an appropriate New Zealand architecture of openness and light, well sited in the wider landscape.

Natural materials of heavy timber, steel and polished concrete predominate.