About
Our story
Our story begins in the early 1990's with 'The Gang Of Four' - the owners of five newly-planted vineyards in Bannockburn. Upon a gentlemen’s handshake they decided to work together to produce wine under one label. The hardest part for the Gang of Four was in choosing a name for the label.
The first vintage was produced in 1998, a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, created under the Mt Difficulty label. It was then that Matt Dicey on board to help build Mt Difficulty a winery and he stayed on as head winemaker for 20 vintages.
When Mt Difficulty Wines was officially formed in 2004, the majority of the individual vineyards passed into the ownership of the company. In 2021 Greg Lane joined as Chief Winemaker to continue the story of Mt Difficulty, who has long admired the wines of Mt Difficulty and new world Pinot Noir.
Our place
Bannockburn is the closest to continental climate as can be found in New Zealand. A climate of extremes, Bannockburn’s hot summers, cold winters, hot days and cool nights are conditions which bring the best out of Pinot Noir. Long, cool autumns build up flavour intensity, depth of colour and stability, while low rainfall and humidity mean low disease pressure and less need for spraying.
Bannockburn’s unique soil has high pH shist and gravels, ideal for producing elegant, high quality wines, especially Pinot Noir.
We have the sluicing from gold mining largely to thank for the soil in our vineyards – as it washed down form the hills and settled in lower areas it created perfect conditions for producing our wines.
Our people
GREG LANE, CHIEF WINEMAKER
A South Australian local, Greg grew up surrounded by wine culture from day dot and earned a Bachelor of Oenology from the University of Adelaide with First Class Honours. From there he honed his craft at Shaw and Smith in Adelaide, France, Italy and the United States before being drawn back to Marlborough to take up the reigns at Grove Mill. Greg has most recently been the winemaker at Central Otago winery, Amisfield, before becoming Chief Winemaker at Mt Difficulty in 2021.
Highly regarded amongst the Winemaking community, Greg was named New Zealand Young Winemaker of the Year in 2018 and is keen to continue establishing Mt Difficulty wines as true benchmarks of Central Otago, and indeed new world Pinot Noir.
When off duty, Greg loves cooking, tramping and fishing around New Zealand.
ELLIOT BORREN, ASSISTANT WINEMAKER
Elliot Borren joins us with a load of experience since graduating from the Lincoln Winemaking course, and brings technical knowledge, skill, passion and camaraderie to them team.
In his spare time, you probably won't find Elliot as he will be running an off-road marathon or back country skiing somewhre remote and perilous.
CLAIRE KENDRICK, CELLAR DOOR & RESTAURANT MANAGER
Claire has been leading the team and delivering world-class customer experiences with Mt Difficulty for over seven years, upholding our position as one of Central Otago’s favourite destinations for exquisite wine, dining and views.