Bendigo Vineyards

This wide and raw slopes on the western side of the Dunstan Range are soaked in sun all year round, and cloaked in mean frosts in the cooler months. This made it hard going for the miners who flooded the area seeking gold in 1861, air temperatures sometimes reaching 38 degrees in summer and minus 20 in the winter.

Though the gold rush was short-lived, the miners managed to leave their mark upon the landscape, by way of some useful roads, some stone ruins, and interesting remnants of the brief but heady days. Descriptive placenames like Crippletown, Logantown and Chinaman's Creek dot the landscape, and some of these have been taken up by the new business people who have filtered, more gently, into the area since the 1990s, all growing grapes for wine.

The sandy, silty loam suits the nutritional needs of grape vines and the ancient alluvial terraces provide perfect platforms as do the gently sloping hills.

First there was Quartz Reef (named for an old gold mining term) and planted upon Bendigo Station at their Bendigo Estate Vineyard in the late 1990s. The operation is now biodynamic and has 30 hectares under production. They have a cellar door in Cromwell, and do very well.

Also up Bendigo Loop Road are Mondillo, the baby of a real Italian American foodie and his New Zealand wife. They have an on site Cellar Door.

Mondillo's neighbour, since 2003, is Folding Hill, perched virtually on top of the old Bendigo township, where Loop Road meets York Street and Blue Mines Road. Though they have a wonderfully authentic stacked schist building, there is no a cellar door for their exclusive products. except online.

Gibbston Valley Winery have a few paddocks of grapes here too, named East and West Bendigo, outpost from their main operation in the Gibbston Valley.

Prophet's Rock is by appointment, and is a sister vineyard with Rocky Point. Now sustainable, this firm has been here since 1999, employing French winemaking practices. Since 2006 popular Marlborough winemakers Mudhouse have also run a claim here, without tasting facilities.

The final player is The Canyon at Tarras, which has the largest premises, hosting weddings and functions in classic Central Otago style, host and owner is Hayden Johnston, a proud Ngai Tahu vintner who also owns another winery named Kurukuru. The function centre was a castoff from Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell and it has a very happy home nestled into these hills beside a small lake.