The Yealands Estate Winery was created to operate sustainably at every level. Opened August 2008, the winery was built under the draft Green Building Code and was the first winery in the world to be accredited CarboNZeroCERT™ from inception.

Aesthetically, the building is designed to blend into the landscape with no disruptive contours. Rainfall from the roof of the winery is collected in swale drains on either side of the building, and either recycled or piped out to our wetlands. Functionally it operates as possibly one of the most innovative, sustainable wineries anywhere in the world.

Throughout the building, motion sensors control lighting and air conditioning (ensuring neither is left on needlessly). Extensive insulation and heat recovery technologies reduce heat loss and recycle energy for re-use. Probes inside and outside the building maintain constant temperatures while solar panels, wind turbines and the burning of vine prunings generate supplementary power. Our goal is to become self-sufficient in energy, supplying surplus power back to the national grid.

The large winemaking area contains tanks of varying sizes. From their laboratory on the mezzanine floor overlooking this, our winemakers are able to control the temperature of each tank separately and precisely. Besides aiding our sustainability drive, this lets us monitor each batch of wine with absolute precision. Such exact control helps us achieve consistent quality across all our wines, whether we're working with small batches of hand - picked fruit or larger volumes.