Waiheke’s Tantalus Estate for sale
Premium vineyard Tantalus Estate on Waiheke Island is up for sale by tender.
The 20-acre estate in the Onetangi Valley has been owned by the Aitken family for the past ten years. It houses a state-of-the-art winery producing Bordeaux and Rhône style wines, a boutique craft beer brewery, a bespoke lounge bar and 160-seat restaurant.
Tantalus Estate has received multiple awards over the years, most recently winning the Hospitality New Zealand Excellence Awards 2023, Destination of the Year. It is rated as the ‘#1 Things to Do on Waiheke Island’ by Trip Advisor and was named as one of the Top Wineries in New Zealand by the 2023 The Real Review.
Wines from the Estate have also won numerous awards, including Gold and Silver medals in global wine shows such as the International Wine Challenge and the Decanter Asia Wine Awards. It has received Gold star reviews from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate (Jo Czerwinski and Lisa Perotti-Brown), Bob Campbell MW, Cameron Douglas MS, Michael Cooper, Sam Kim, and WineOrbit’s Candice Chow (along with the late Raymond Chan).
The main hospitality building with its distinctive bell tower was designed by Cheshire Architects, while the award-winning winery was planned to blend into the hillside of the valley. It makes use of innovative technology so that all stages of production are gravity-assisted. It features square wine tanks to save space, and three South American ‘concrete eggs’ help to create Tantalus’ unique expressions of Syrah, Chardonnay and Merlot.
In recent years, a wetland on the property has been replanted with thousands of native plants and has seen the return of native birds and wildlife.
“Since we purchased this property in 2013, we have taken meticulous care to develop it into the premium and successful establishment that it is today,” says majority owner, Bruce Aitken.
“The sale of a property of this significance rarely comes along and will likely attract attention locally and internationally,” says Matthew Smith of Ray White Waiheke, who is managing the sale.
