Had a great day. Picked up promptly and had a great tour guide in Doug. He was very knowledgeable and great fun. Kept us to time so we could fit in the 5 places planned. The group were great. A good mix of people - mainly from the UK but also a couple from Australia. Stopped at 5 different vineyards. Lunch was lovely (at our own expense), but always at a great place. All the wineries offered something different - some small, some large. Met the NZ Dolly Parton of vineyards!! Amazing day and well worth it!

Darlene is the BEST. She explained winemaking in a way that was easy to understand and that honored the art of making wine. I learned so much during this tour and tasted some of the best wines I've ever had. My friends and I had such a good time despite the day being rainy and chilly. This was a fantastic tour!

We had an amazing full day tour with Darlene! Our 3 generation family were all catered for and accommodated by Darlene. She focussed on where we wanted to go and spent time to ensure we were comfortable and happy. The vineyards were all great and we had a wonderful lunch. Never felt rushed and it felt like we were moving at our own pace (although I’m sure we weren’t!!). Darlene was very knowledgeable and spent time to explain stuff to everyone (our family and another separate couple) but it never felt forced or information for the sake of it. Excellent day and picked up and dropped off at accommodation- perfect! Highly recommended! Great experience end to end (including the booking direct with the owner).

Our guide Darlene was terrific. She was very knowledgeable, engaging and fun. The van was clean and comfortable. The itinerary was great. We got to see large and small producers and taste 25 different wines! The lunch at st Claire winery was delicious. I would highly recommend this tour and ask for Darlene!

We had a wonderful time spending the day with Doug as our tour guide. He was incredibly knowledgeable about both wine and the Marlborough region. The selection of wineries was gorgeous and a real showcase of what Marlborough has to offer.

The tour run by Cam was amazing - so well curated. We went to five different wineries and even a chocolate factory as a bonus at the end. Cam was really friendly and super knowledgeable, it really made our day. We left with a tonne of tips for the rest of our trip too which was great!

What a grape day out! Darlene was an excellent host who drove us round a number of Marlborough wineries (and even a boutique chocolate shop) for tastings. She has a great knowledge of both the industry and winemaking process and could answer all our questions.

The tour was originally fully booked but Cam the owner suited us somehow in and was really friendly and flexible. The tour was held by Doug who is super nice and funny we had a lot of fun and we would highly recommend anything about this! Thanks a lot!

Excellent tour, good range of wines and great group. We enjoyed the food at St Clairs and the chocolates too. Would recommend!

Fabulous day out with Maurice. He works in one of the winerys and is very knowledgeable about the industry generally and the vineyards of Marlborough in particular. On a more human level he was a great conversationalist and was easy to build a rapport with. We brought our 11 year old who would otherwise have been a bit bored but Maurice threw in a stop at a chocolate factory and a vineyard with a sheep dog and Liam, the tame sheep. Our son loved it. We stopped at Scott’s for lunch and had the seafood platter. OMG it was insanely good…

We had Doug Avery as our guide! What a treasure. He was so experienced and passionate. The tour was informative, tasty and fun. If you go, you must use this outfit.

This tour was one of the best things we did in New Zealand, Cam was so knowledgeable and taught us so much about wines and the area. We went to 5 different winery’s and had a wonderful lunch! I would highly recommend 😀

Excellent day with our guide Doug. We booked a gourmet wine tasting. Pick up at the place we stayed at was on time and a nice information mail was sent to us the day before. We were lucky, probably no one else booked a gourmet tour that day, so me and my husband had Doug as our private guide on this trip. Doug was knowledgeable about the wine growing in the area and like us very talkative and a had great sense of humor. The lunch included was 3 courses and very delicious. We managed to visit 4 wineries and a chocolate factory/shop. All very different and Doug had a good sense on guiding us according to our preferences. We very much recommend this tour and please say hello to Doug.

My wife and I visited New Zealand's south island for about two weeks spanning October/November 2024. There we a number of 'bucket list' activities we wanted to cross off our tourist list while we travelled, one of which was a wine tour of the Marlborough region. Hop N Grape popped up in our search for appropriate tours to undertake and we booked a full day winemakers tour for 3 November. Our guide Doug, an extremely warm and affable bloke, collected us from our hotel right on time. Doug steered us (just us at this stage) to the first destination before we collected another couple and ended up visiting 5 wineries with a delicious lunch stop at one of them and a chocolate factory. The depth of Doug's knowledge and experience of all aspects regarding viticulture and beyond was of the highest standard. I would give this review more stars if I could, it is THE tour to take if you're considering a wine tour of the region.

Had a great experience on the full day tour guided by Darlene. They were able to pick me up/drop me off in Picton for a small additional fee, which made it so much easier as I did not have a car. The tour was well-paced and gave us time to enjoy the 4 wineries we visited as well as lunch and tasting at St Clair Estates and a stop at the Makena chocolate factory. Although it may not always be that way, our group consisted of only 4 people so that made it even more enjoyable. We were warmly welcomed at all of the wineries and got to sit with the winery owner at the last stop. I also enjoyed the fact that we didn't get the standard wine tour talk that covered everything from harvest to fermentation to bottling, but Darlene focused on Marlborough's unique features.