Martinborough is a small town in the South Wairarapa, about an hour and a quarter from Wellington. The cellar doors are on the gravel terrace around Memorial Square, mostly a few kilometres apart on quiet roads, so a lot of people do them by bike. Pinot Noir is what the town is known for.
We are on Kitchener Street, a couple of minutes from the Square. Martinborough bike hire is step-through bikes, e-bikes, tandems and the bigger bikes for families. You can pick up from 9:30am and the bike comes back the same day. Roadside assistance is included, and we will collect wine you buy so you are not riding back with bottles in the basket.
| Where | South Wairarapa, about 1 hour 15 minutes from Wellington |
|---|---|
| Known for | Pinot Noir on the Martinborough Terrace |
| Getting around | Bike. Most cellar doors are a few kilometres from the Square |
| A typical day | Three or four doors and lunch, about half a day |
| Bike hire | Green Jersey, 16 Kitchener Street, from 9:30am |
| Stay | Square hotel, vineyard villas, lodge, holiday park |
| Busy times | Weekends, summer, and Toast Martinborough in November |
Wide streets, short hops between gates, and time to sit down at each door. This is what the hire bikes are for.
Choose where you are staying and tick the cellar doors. We will put them in ride order with rough times. Treat it as a guide for the local roads. A few smaller doors are listed further down without a map pin, so check their site for the gate.
Tick a few cellar doors, or use “Suggest a loop”, and the route will show here.
These are the doors in and around the village. If a small place has changed its days since we updated this page, the Wairarapa Wine cellar door guide is the wider list. Gladstone and Masterton are a drive away, so they are not on this loop.
96 Kitchener Street
Hours: Daily. Lately 11am-4pm in the cooler months, and closer to 5pm when it is busy
Big cellar door and kitchen on the north side of the village. Book a tasting on a busy weekend. You can usually walk in for a glass or for lunch.
14 Puruatanga Road
Hours: Wine shop daily 10am-4pm. Seated tastings by appointment, Monday-Saturday at 11am and 2pm
One of the first Pinot Noir places in Martinborough. The shop is a quick stop. The seated tasting needs a booking.
42 Puruatanga Road
Hours: Cellar door and shop daily 11am-4:30pm. Lunch from 12pm, dinner from 5:30pm. Book if you want a table
Cellar door, a shop of their jams and chutneys, and a restaurant. They also have a house you can stay in.
45 Omarere Road
Hours: Monday-Friday 12pm-4:30pm, Saturday 11am-5pm, Sunday 11am-4pm
Small cellar door a few minutes east of Puruatanga Road. Tastings and platters.
5 Huangarua Road, corner of Princess Street
Hours: Monday and Thursday 11am-3pm, Friday and Sunday 11am-4pm, Saturday 11am-5pm. Book for groups of 6 or more
Cellar door, kitchen and villas. A good lunch stop if you are riding the north side.
57 Cambridge Road, tasting room signed on Huangarua Road
Hours: Often 11am-3pm. Winter hours have been Monday-Thursday by appointment and Friday-Sunday 11am-3pm. Confirm before you ride out
Organic place with a small tasting room. Ring ahead if you are a big group. Platters, or a food truck when they have one.
91 Puruatanga Road
Hours: Daily 11am-4pm. Groups over 10 should call ahead
Quiet tasting room further along Puruatanga Road. There is a small tasting fee, and they take it off if you buy wine.
133 Puruatanga Road
Hours: Lunch and tastings Wednesday-Sunday 11am-4pm. Dinner Friday and Saturday until 8pm
The far end of the easy Puruatanga loop. Lawn and a kitchen. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
1 Martins Road
Hours: Open seven days. Tuesday-Wednesday 11:30am-3pm, other days from 11:30am, Saturday through to 6pm
Vineyard lunch with their own wines, on Martins Road at the south-east edge of the terrace.
275 Te Muna Road
Hours: Friday-Saturday 10am-3pm, and you need to book. Monday-Thursday there is one seated tasting at 11am, by appointment. Closed Sunday
South of town on Te Muna Road, about 15 to 20 minutes by bike from the Square. Allow an hour. It is not a five-minute stop.
89 Martins Road
Hours: Monday-Thursday 12pm-4pm, Friday 12pm-6pm, Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday 11am-4pm
Te Kairanga, Martinborough Vineyard and Lighthouse Gin in the one tasting room. Platters and a restaurant. Guided tastings start on the hour.
Martinborough
Hours: Wednesday-Sunday 10am-4pm. Roving pizza Thursday-Saturday 12pm-3pm. Book guided tastings
Guided tastings of what they have open. They will fit in a walk-in if they can. Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Martinborough
Hours: Saturday and Sunday 11am-4pm
Weekend tastings with the family who make the wine. Saturday or Sunday, not midweek.
Dry River flats, south of Martinborough
Hours: Friday-Sunday 11am-5pm, or midweek by appointment. Platters
Single-vineyard Pinot Noir, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. Platters if you want to stay a bit.
Dry River terrace, Martinborough
Hours: Saturday and Sunday 11am-5pm. Bookings encouraged
Quiet weekend tastings, with a view out to the Remutaka and Tararua ranges.
Martinborough
Hours: Saturday and Sunday, tastings by appointment
Seated tastings with the winemakers. You need to book.
Ohio Street
Hours: Friday-Sunday 3pm-7pm at Martinborough Brewery
Small-batch wines poured at the brewery. A late-afternoon stop, and there is beer there too.
John Martin laid the town out in 1880, after a trip around the world in 1875 on the steamship Taranaki. The streets run off Memorial Square in a Union Jack. Texas, Kansas, Ohio, Cork, Naples and Strasbourg are places he went. In the First World War some of the German-sounding street names were changed to British generals: Kitchener, Jellicoe, French and Roberts. That is why our street does not match the others.
The vines came later. Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc went in from about 1980, once people here had worked out that the terrace gravels and the climate suited them. The easy riding is Nelsons, Huangarua, Puruatanga and Martins Roads, about 4km from end to end. Locals call that stretch the golden terrace, and it is about as far as a sensible cellar-door day needs to go.
The Square is still the place to start. The Martinborough Museum is in the old library building. It is open weekends and public holidays, and every day from 27 December to 6 February. The Waihinga Centre on Texas Street has the library and the i-SITE. The memorial gates on the Square are for the Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War, each in a different style of ironwork.
Three tastings and lunch beats trying to squeeze in six. Use the planner above, then book the bikes if you need them. An e-bike helps if you want Escarpment on Te Muna Road as well as the terrace.
The Martinborough Hotel is on the Square. Margrain, Luna, Tirohana, Moy Hall, Palliser and The Runholder all do food as well as wine. Book if you want Saturday lunch. For a 10am ride-through, the cafes and bakeries on the Square are the easy option.
Olivo makes olive oil on the edge of town. The grove is open weekends for most of the year, and every day through December and January. Useful if someone in the group has had enough tastings.
Martinborough Brewery is on Ohio Street, near the Square, and The Good Way pours its wines there on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Lighthouse Gin is tasted at The Runholder with Te Kairanga and Martinborough Vineyard.
The shops, the museum and the memorial gates will fill an hour. The Martinborough Fair is usually the first Saturday in February and the first Saturday in March. Check the dates if you are planning the weekend around it.
Toast Martinborough is usually in November, and beds in town go quickly. The festival cellars need a ticket. If you are here that weekend, book somewhere to stay first, then check which doors are in the festival and which are open as normal.
If you are here for the cellar doors, stay in the village. The coast and the Remutaka are easy day trips, but you will want the car if dinner is back in town.
10-12 Memorial Square
On the Square, so you can walk to dinner and coffee. You can set it as your start in the planner.
Western side of the village
Cabins and campsites a short ride from Palliser Estate and the Square.
5 Huangarua Road
Self-contained villas on the vineyard, each with a balcony looking over the vines. In the day planner, start at Margrain.
42 Puruatanga Road
A house on the estate, from a couple up to a bigger group. Some packages include meals. In the planner, start at Tirohana.
Puruatanga Road
A two-bedroom house in the vineyard, a short walk from the Ata Rangi cellar door and an easy walk into the Square. Ask them direct for dates.
Martinborough
Lodge rooms and villas on the edge of the village, with a pool and a restaurant on site.
For the wider list of B&Bs and cottages, Destination Wairarapa keeps the current stay directory.
If you have another day, two longer rides start from here. They are separate from a loop of the cellar doors.
The full Remutaka Cycle Trail is 122km. Do not try to add it to a morning of tastings. From Martinborough, the day that works for most people is the Rail Trail: tunnels, bush and the Siberia Gully bridge, then a shuttle back. The Remutaka Cycle Trail guide has the sections and grades, or go to the one-day Rail Trail ride.
South of town the road goes to Lake Ferry, the Putangirua Pinnacles, Ngawi and the Cape Palliser lighthouse. You get seals, the fishing boats at Ngawi, and the climb up to the light. We run it as a guided ride, and it takes the whole day. See the Cape Palliser day ride.
You do not need a road bike. The terrace is flat and the gates are close. A basket or rack, a decent seat, and someone to pick up the wine is enough. Families often take a tandem or one of the multi-seat bikes. E-bikes help when the group is mixed, or if Te Muna Road is on the list.
See Martinborough bike hire for the current bikes and prices, or contact Green Jersey if you are booking a group.
Most people come for the cellar doors, which are a short walk or bike ride from Memorial Square. You can add lunch at a vineyard, a look around the Square and the museum, olive oil at Olivo, or beer at Martinborough Brewery. If you have another day, the Remutaka Rail Trail and a guided ride to Cape Palliser both start from here.
Yes. The streets are quiet and flat. Puruatanga, Huangarua, Princess and Martins all join the Square within a few kilometres. Three or four cellar doors is a half day on a bike. Escarpment is on Te Muna Road, which is a longer ride south of town.
About an hour and a quarter by car from Wellington, over the Remutaka Hill. Fine as a day trip. If you want dinner and another morning at the cellar doors, stay the night.
Pinot Noir. The terrace gravels were planted from about 1980, after local research compared the climate and soils with Burgundy. You will also find Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and a lot of small producers.
Some do. Ata Rangi seated tastings, Escarpment, Big Sky, Dry River and Oraterra are by appointment. Palliser, Poppies, Margrain and Luna are easier to walk into, but book for a weekend or a group. Hours change with the season, so check the winery site on the day.
The Martinborough Hotel is on Memorial Square. Margrain and Tirohana have rooms in the vines, Ata Rangi lets McCrone House, and Peppers Parehua is a lodge on the edge of the village. There is also a holiday park west of the Square. Book early for Toast Martinborough and for summer Saturdays.
Margrain, Luna Estate, Tirohana, Moy Hall and Palliser all serve food with the wine. The Runholder has platters and a restaurant. If you would rather eat in town, the Square has cafes.
Yes, if you keep the list short. The Square, a bakery, and one or two cellar doors with a lawn is plenty. We hire tandems and multi-seat bikes, so not everyone has to ride their own.
Toast Martinborough is the main wine festival around here, usually in November. Accommodation sells out. Check the date before you book. On festival day the cellars are ticketed, so a normal ride around them will not work unless you have tickets.
Yes. Bike hire includes a free pickup of bottles you buy while you are out, so you are not riding back to Kitchener Street with a case on the rack. Hires start from 9:30am and the bike comes back the same day.
Tell us the day, how many of you, and whether you just need bikes or want a hand with the plan. We are at 16 Kitchener Street.