Renwick between local history and wine

Renwick brings local history together with wine experiences. If you’re weighing up different priorities for your stay, you’ll find both a museum with regional collections and trails and activities centred around wineries here. The options range from a historic walking tour to a named cycle route with tasting stops.

Local history and museum

Renwick Museum collects and displays the history of Renwick, Marlborough and the surrounding areas. The Watson Memorial Library offers a glimpse into the collections: it includes part of the original collection assembled by Herbert Watson almost 100 years ago. It also contains books by early settlers and children’s literature, as well as one of the best collections of School Journals outside the National Library.

If you’re interested in family history, the museum can help with research into Renwick family history. It has information on more than 700 families. Special exhibitions also explore topics from Renwick and the surrounding region; the exhibitions on offer may change.

With its Heritage Trail guide, the museum offers a historic walking tour through Renwick. Renwicktown was a Presbyterian settlement and the site of the first church of a denomination in the Wairau. The local history offering therefore includes both museum collections and a walk through the town.

Walking tours and cycle routes

The Heritage Trail near Renwick is an off-road walking and cycling track. It is considered a popular way to visit nearby wineries for Marlborough wine tastings. This means you can choose between a walk focused on history and a route centred on visiting wineries for your outing.

The Bike-&-Sip route provides specific distance details: it passes through Rapaura and Renwick, is six kilometres long and passes nine wineries. There are also stops for food, art and cold drinks along the way. Route details may be updated, so check the latest description before your trip.

Wineries and tastings

Bike 2 Wine operates from the Olde Mill House B&B in Renwick. More than 20 wineries within a five-kilometre radius offer tastings and can be reached by bicycle. The number of wineries may change. The five-kilometre figure refers to a radius from the B&B; for Bike & Sip, the distance is given as the length of the route.

Gibson Bridge Wines is a family-run winery in Renwick, covering six acres with 5,500 vines. The Tasting Studio opened in 2007 and offers a wine experience. If you’d like to include it in your plans, it’s advisable to check current visitor options.

The winery focuses on Pinot Gris: it mainly grows this variety and offers ten Pinot Gris wines. There is also a small quantity of Gewürztraminer. The range may change, but the information about the grape varieties gives you a concrete sense of how Gibson Bridge Wines differs from the other wine experiences described here.

Discover more destinations: Grovetown, Havelock, Picton, Anakiwa, Kenepuru Head, Rai Valley, Te Rawa, Canvastown.

For the main travel overview: Marlborough District.