You are entering the no-frills zone. The Quartz Reef cellar door is a small, stark room attached to a large industrial shed (which houses the Quartz Reef winery itself) in a street lined with similar structures.

Don’t be deterred, however, by this unadorned, shop-floor environment. The wine is what matters most to Rudi Bauer and his team and you’ll find plenty of beauty in the wine glasses at Quartz Reef.

Austrian-born winemaker Bauer has been a formative influence on the development of Central Otago wine. One of the region’s first trained winemakers, he worked at Rippon Vineyard in the late 1980s before co-founding Quartz Reef in 1996, where he has made the wine since.

Quartz Reef’s vineyards are located in Bendigo, the first to be planted in that sub-region. They carry full biodynamic certification.

Excellent methode traditionnelle styles are made here and due to come onstream is grüner veltliner.

Our picks Quartz Reef styles itself the “House of Pinot”, and certainly pinot noir and pinot gris make up the bulk of production. Two pinot noirs are made: the standard pinot and the gorgeous single-ferment Bendigo Estate Pinot Noir.

Plus The smallest “home block” in New Zealand is the interesting vineyard you’ll find on the little traffic island in front of the Quartz Reef cellar door. These are pinot noir vines (mainly), unusually trellised using the Einzelstockerziehung system favoured in some German regions.