Winery promotes tasting

A Rotorua-based winery is enjoying success at its first year attending Fieldays.

Sean and Jo Beer, owners of Volcanic Hills Winery, decided that Fieldays would be the next step to promoting the company.

The company opened in 2009 and now supplies its wine to selected restaurants around the country.

But the idea to come to Fieldays was not just to sell product, but also to promote wine tasting.

“Our winery is the most important thing to us and the business,” said Jo Beer.  “Selling product is just an extra bonus.”

The company does not sell to supermarkets.

“Nope, no supermarkets,” said Jo Beer.  “Our top priority has always been our winery and tasting room, the business is about people experiencing the wine.”

The wine tasting rooms are located in Rotorua at the top of the skyline gondola and Jo Beer explains that you can buy the wine by the glass and enjoy with a cheese board.

“You can spend the day there,” she said.

There has been steady foot traffic to the winery’s booth, with tastings available to anyone over the legal drinking age.

“It’s really hard to say how much product we have given out through tastings as my the booth is so small my husband clears the bottles out a few times a day, but it’s safe to say that a lot has been tasted.

“We absolutely have loved the reaction from people and it’s been a great decision to come to Fieldays.”