Smith & Sheth is a wine business founded through a shared love of wine and special parcels of land that produce grapes of exceptional quality. The Smith & Sheth Heretaunga Wine Studio is both an immersive tasting room and a luxurious escape from the world for a few hours. This urban winery – unattached to a vineyard, offers an innovative experience unlike anything else in this Great Wine Capital, the country, or indeed the world.
The Smith & Sheth Oenothèque and Wine Studio were opened in 2019 – a collection of great wine experiences including a cellar door, wine bar, wine shop, and theatre-come-barrel hall. In visualising the concept, owner Steve Smith and his design team identified that wine tasting, along with the language used around wine, can make for an intimidating experience. So, the carefully designed space, its friendly, professional hosts, and the captivating cinematography on an impressive wide screen all work together to relax and comfort visitors, increasing dopamine levels and setting the mood for an inspiring, enthralling, educational and entertaining experience.
As inaugural winners of the BOWT Innovative Award, they have accepted the challenge to continue to innovate with a desire to defend the category. To achieve this, they have added three new experiences including the Experience Heretaunga, designed as a response to feedback from local tour operators for visitors who want to enjoy an immersive tasting in the Studio, but don’t have time for the full experience. This shortened version of the Experience Aotearoa, follows a similar format, but focuses on the Smith & Sheth brand and wines from Hawke’s Bay only.
Another new experience is one that takes guests into their vineyards before finishing in the Smith & Sheth Wine Studio. The Omahu Vineyard & Wine Studio Immersive Experience was created in collaboration with Gordon Russell, a long-time friend of the business and Steve Smith.Visitors begin the day with Gordon in the Smith & Sheth Omahu vineyard, in the famed Gimblett Gravels. In the vineyard guests learn firsthand about the innovative Smith & Sheth philosophies based around regenerative viticulture and high-density planting. Gordon then brings the guests to Malo Restaurant for a relaxing lunch. After lunch, guests are welcomed into The Smith & Sheth Wine Studio for ‘Experience Aotearoa, New Zealand’, where they are co-hosted by Sean Burns & Gordon.
Lee Brown, Great Wine Capitals Judge
“Smith & Sheth delivers a polished, multi-sensory wine experience that blends storytelling, music, and design to create a uniquely immersive and premium wine journey. As a first-time visitor, the experience was genuinely exciting – it made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, delivering a sense of awe and immersion that is rare.”
Photo credit: Smith & Sheth