Mt Difficulty is a winery, cellar door and restaurant at 73 Felton Road, Bannockburn, in Central Otago. It sits on a terrace above the Bannockburn inlet with Mount Difficulty, Bannockburn's highest peak and the source of the winery's name, as the backdrop to its vineyards.
The origins go back to the early 1990s, when the owners of five newly planted Bannockburn vineyards agreed, on a handshake, to produce wine together under a single label. That arrangement, involving the Molyneux, Mansons Farm, Verboeket Estate and Full Circle vineyards, continued until Mt Difficulty Wines Ltd was formally established in 2004. The first vintage, a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay, was made in 1998. Recognition came quickly: at the 1999 Air New Zealand Wine Awards the 1998 Pinot Noir took a gold medal and the Chardonnay a silver.
The estate holds some of Bannockburn's oldest plantings, and Pinot Noir remains the focus alongside a single-vineyard range.
The Winery Restaurant at Mt Difficulty and the cellar door share the same site, with terrace seating looking out over the vineyards and the Cromwell basin. Daytime trading is the core of the operation:
Mt Difficulty handles functions on a limited and carefully managed basis, which organisers should understand before planning around it:
This is not a conference venue and should not be treated as one. What it does offer is a genuine, well-regarded winery dining experience at a scale that suits executive dinners, board and leadership retreats, small incentive groups, VIP hosting and famil visits. The 38-person cap and seasonal restrictions mean early enquiry is essential, particularly for anything between December and February.
Bannockburn's cluster of cellar doors makes it straightforward to build a half or full day around a visit here, and Cromwell, Queenstown and Wanaka are all within comfortable coach range for groups using Central Otago venues.
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