About Us

Mercury Bay Estate Vineyard, Winery & Cellar Door

The Mercury Bay's rugged coastline covers some 20km of the eastern Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. Named after James Cooks voyage of 1769, where under orders of his country, he anchored not far from Cooks Beach in the safe harbour to observe the Transit of Mercury on November 9th 1769, while his ship Endeavour took on fresh provisions.

Mission Statement

Mercury Bay Estate is a boutique, family owned vineyard and winery. Our aim is to produce Coromandel’s finest wines using sustainable means.
We wish to share these wines with local food to both locals and visitors to the region in our relaxed and family friendly vineyard and cellar door setting.

Mercury Bay Estate is owned by Simon & Veronica Ward and was formed from the vineyard established by Alex Morcom in 1996 (named Shakespeare Cliff Vineyard and later spawned Cooks Beach Vineyard). The vineyard originally contained plantings of Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay & Sauvignon Blanc.

The vineyard, of course, took its original name from one of the landmarks in the area, the stunning Shakespeare Cliff. Other well known attractions such as Hot Water Beach, Hahei and Cathedral Cove are close by. There's also a well known marine reserve in the bay which attracts many divers.

The subdivision of the vineyard occured in 2004 with each variety being established as a separate viticulture block. We purchased the Pinot Noir block purely as an ideal location to live and enjoy the beauty of this wonderful location.

Our Pinot Noir is produced from different clones, the Burgundian 115 and Swiss 10/5. These two clones are quite different, in growth, ripening and flavour, but are quite complementary. The 115 always ripens earlier and gives a rich full style of Pinot Noir, while the 10/5 is always the latest Pinot parcel that we harvest, and gives a very structured, slightly higher acid, wine. Together you get the ‘ballsyness’ of the 115 on the mid-palate backed by the structure and length of the 10/5.

We offer a Cellar Door & Restaurant where locals and tourists can come and relax and enjoy the beauty we are so fortunately surrounded by, while tasting some of our wines, together with platters of local food.

Our current range of wines include varieties produced from fruit grown on our vineyards at Cooks Beach and from vineyards at Hawkes Bay.