Marlborough Wine & Food Festival is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Marlborough calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year.
Marlborough Wine & Food Festival is one of the wine festivals that anchors the Marlborough calendar, drawing both local visitors and international wine travellers each year. It is held at Brancott Estate Heritage Centre in Marlborough, in the heart of one of New Zealand's most distinctive wine areas. It has been running since 1985, with a long unbroken local tradition behind it.
The Marlborough Wine & Food Festival is New Zealand's longest-running wine festival, established in 1985 — the same era that saw Cloudy Bay's first vintage define Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc on the international stage. Held at Brancott Estate's Heritage Centre, the festival presents 50+ Marlborough producers in marquees set among the vineyards, with food stalls from the region's leading restaurants, masterclasses, sommelier sessions, live music and the Cook Strait views as backdrop. The festival regularly draws 8,000+ attendees on the second Saturday in February. Wine festivals across Europe typically combine producer tastings with food pairings, live music, and a strong sense of place. Visitors can expect access to wines from a range of producers in the appellation, alongside food stalls offering regional specialities, masterclasses or vineyard walks for those who want to learn more, and an opportunity to buy directly from producers at cellar prices. Many events run across multiple days or weekends, allowing visitors to sample different parts of the programme according to interest, and combine well with the area's wider tourism offer. The event is organised by Wine Marlborough, which sets the tone and direction of the programme each year.
Marlborough at the northeastern tip of the South Island is New Zealand's largest wine region, producing around 75% of all New Zealand wine and home of the world-famous Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc — the variety that put New Zealand on the international wine map in the 1980s. The region's distinctive Sauvignon Blanc style — passionfruit, lime, freshly cut grass, intense aromatics with high acidity — has been widely imitated globally but rarely matched. Beyond Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough produces increasingly serious Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and aromatic varieties (Riesling, Gewürztraminer). The Wairau Valley is the historic heart of the region, with the cooler Awatere Valley and the Southern Valleys producing distinctive sub-regional styles. Producers like Cloudy Bay, Dog Point, Greywacke, Saint Clair, Villa Maria and Yealands lead the regional production.
The 2026 edition is scheduled for 14 February 2026. Festival access is ticketed: NZD 80-120 day pass. Full programme, ticketing and updated information are published on the official site at https://www.wine-marlborough.co.nz/. Visitors are advised to check directly with the organiser for the latest schedule, as festival programmes are sometimes updated close to the event date.
Marlborough is reached via Marlborough airport (BHE) at Blenheim, with flights from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Blenheim is the wine-tourism centre, with Picton (the Cook Strait ferry port) just 30 minutes north providing access to the spectacular Marlborough Sounds. New Zealand cuisine pairs the wines with greenshell mussels (the regional speciality), Marlborough king salmon, white-shellbed oysters, the area's strong cheese and olive-oil production, and the wider Pacific Rim food culture. The Marlborough Sounds and the Queen Charlotte Track (one of NZ's Great Walks) add to the regional travel offer.
