STATE HIGHWAY 50 WINERY

Possibly not the most romantic name for a winery in the world, however it does invoke visions of efficiency and technology, which is exactly what our State Highway 50 Winery is about. There is no cellar door or public face - it is where the winemaking headquarters for Craggy Range is based. An entirely vertically integrated winery, from the receiving of grapes, through to bottling and warehousing ready for the market, here exists cellars within cellars where different buildings have a designated purpose, and often are dedicated to making specific wine styles.

The highlights are numerous but include:

  • A forced air coolstore that can chill bins of hand picked grapes down to less than 10ºC in 10 hours to protect fruit condition and flavour allowing us to pick when the grapes are ready without winery backlogs

  • A multi-function grape sorting, crushing and pressing area with the world’s highest quality wine presses to give the best juice extraction

  • More than 100 different wine fermentation and storage tanks, all accurately temperature controlled, to cater for volumes ranging from 1 tonne to 50 tonnes of grapes and everything in between. Many are designed specifically to our dimensions, including pristine, square stainless steel open top fermenters, a selection of small oak cuves imported from France, used exclusively for making Pinot Noir and Syrah and stainless steel column shaped tanks of various sizes especially for our Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling

  • Five temperature and humidity controlled barrel cellars to give precise control of maturation conditions

  • The ability to develop the philosophy of gravity flow on a flat site for the varieties that respond to this approach such as Pinot Noir and Syrah

  • An impeccably clean and hygienic environment allowing the good microbes to thrive and is maintained by the innovative use of ozone.

  • An advanced winery process data collection and control system

  • A comprehensive fully reticulated gas protection system using CO2, Nitrogen and Argon

  • A fully computerised wine batch tracking database and quality control laboratory

  • Precise wine bottling equipment to give accurate control over oxygen pick-up during filling

These cellars were designed by Queenstown architect John Blair and our winemaking team. While innovative and new, they continue to grow and evolve as we understand the specific requirements of our vineyards, wines and technology that is forever changing.