French Peak Vineyard is a small family-owned vineyard and cellar door at 79 French Farm Valley Road, French Farm, on Banks Peninsula near Akaroa in the Canterbury region. The property sits inside an extinct volcano at around 80 metres altitude, roughly 700 metres from the sea, which gives it cool maritime breezes and a long, sunny growing season.
### History and vineyard
First vines were planted at French Peak in 1989, making it the oldest vineyard on Banks Peninsula. Simon and Carolyn Lints, originally from Scotland, bought the property in June 2021 after 13 years living in Singapore and now run it as a family business.
The vineyard has been managed on organic and biodynamic principles since 2016 and is working towards BioGro certification. In 2022 the owners switched from spur to cane pruning, which increased fruit set across a vine count of around 9,000. Production is limited, and the winery states that vintages sell out most years.
### The wines and the cellar door
French Peak produces Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Rose. The cellar door is housed in a barn styled on a small English pub, with a rustic indoor room and an outdoor seating area under large parasols looking over the vineyard and the surrounding hills.
This is a tasting destination rather than a full restaurant. The food offer is platter-based and sourced tightly from local producers. The Wee Cheese Platter ($35) brings together Barrys Bay cheeses made 2.7 kilometres away, Old French Road olives, Okuti Valley hazelnuts, Little River Bastille chutney and crackers, and suits up to two people. The Best of Akaroa Platter ($75) adds salami, pate, dried fruit and warm bread from A la Baguette in Akaroa, and suits two people or four grazing.
The standard experience is a self-guided vineyard tour with a guided tasting of four wines, at $20 per adult, with a $10 non-alcoholic option for those aged five and over and under-fives free. French Peak also runs "Who Stole the Grapes?", an escape-room style puzzle trail of five puzzles set around the vineyard, priced at $35 for groups of two to three and $45 for groups of four to six, and requiring a wine tasting booking per person. Accommodation is offered on site.
The vineyard is private property and entry requires a wine tasting booking, made in advance. Trading hours are limited and seasonal, so confirm before travelling. Visitors should also note this is a working vineyard with uneven, sometimes slippery paths and uphill walking, so appropriate footwear matters. The site displays a Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice 2026 badge.
### Suitability for incentives and small groups
French Peak is well suited to small incentive groups, partner programmes and team activities rather than large seated functions. The combination of a genuine vineyard tour, a guided tasting, local produce platters and a purpose-built puzzle trail gives it more structured group content than a standard cellar door, and the Akaroa Harbour setting makes it a natural half-day excursion from Christchurch. Larger parties and any exclusive arrangements need to be discussed directly with the owners. See more Christchurch venues.
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