A family-owned New Zealand winery, founded in 1961 by its current owner and managing director, Sir George Fistonich, Villa Maria is 100 per cent New Zealand owned.

After extensive research in the 1990s, Villa Maria made the decision to introduce Stelvin screwcap closures across all ranges. Villa Maria was the first major wine company in the world to declare the winery a “cork free zone”, with all wines produced as of 2004 sealed with a screwcap. George Fistonich believes the consistency of wines under screwcap is one of the contributing factors to the company’s incredible success recently.

Villa Maria’s talented people have an unrelenting passion to produce quality wines. Realising that it takes more than just good winemaking to produce quality, a passion to succeed begins in the vineyard. Astute site selection by Villa Maria’s vineyard experts is followed by superior vineyard management and then complemented by expert winemaking. A strong focus on continually improving the vineyards is considered by Villa Maria to be an incredibly important factor in quality winemaking.

The Villa Maria Award is presented annually to a new Master of Wine for excellence in the viticulture paper in the MW exam.

Information provided by Villa Maria Group