UPDATE JUNE 2020
Tirohana is delighted to be open for business during Level-1 and to welcoming guests for dining and Cellar Door tastings and sales.
The staff will ensure the strictest levels of hygiene and regular cleaning are followed and social distancing will still be respected.
During winter, the team can be spotted pruning the vines to make way for Vintage 2021 and consequently, lunch and Cellar Door is available on Saturdays/Sundays during this time.
Dinner however is available seven days a week from 6pm via reservation.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to Tirohana very soon.
Following our Prime Minister’s address to the nation and the move to Level-2, Tirohana is delighted to announce it will once again be open for business from Friday 22nd May 2020.
Of course, there are many restrictions still in place under Level-2 so, at this stage, Tirohana will be open as follows:-
• Friday – Cellar Door and dinner
• Saturday/Sunday – Cellar Door, lunch and dinner
• Lunch and dinner will continue to be served on Friday/Saturday/Sunday during June to allow time for our team to prune the vineyard during daylight hours.
Please note that during Level-2, reservations are essential for lunch, dinner, and Cellar Door tasting/sales. During this phase, we are unfortunately unable to allow walk-in tasters or diners.
There is also a set of guidelines we must strictly adhere to for the safety of our guests and staff including practising safe distancing, regular cleaning of surfaces and door handles, requesting guests to use hand sanitiser when entering and exiting the premises and each guest signing into the guest register.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the beautiful messages the team received during the lockdown and are humbled by the amount of support we have had.
We are thrilled to have been able to keep our core team of staff busy and supported through this time and they are all so excited to be able to welcome you back to Tirohana.
To make a booking for tasting, lunch or dinner, please email or call 06 306 9933 (please note during Level-2 that whilst the phone will be unmanned, phone messages will be checked regularly).
UPDATE APRIL 2020
We hope that you and your families are keeping well and safe in these challenging times.
As many will know, we have been trying to trade as normal as possible following the government protocols as the COVID-19 status evolves so that our clients and staff are operating in a safe and secure environment.
Today though, again as you will be aware, the government have mandated that all restaurants close, which Tirohana will do so with immediate effect.
We are still analysing the implications regarding our harvest because obviously there are only some things our team can do at home (i.e. working from home – and harvest certainly isn’t one of them 🙂 ).
In light of the current situation we wanted to advise of the following:
VOUCHERS
Those who still have vouchers which should have been redeemed by March 31st 2020 will be given a grace period to redeem them one year later being March 31st 2021.
We have yet to hear from the owners but we think for our Platinum Club that we will once again be offering vouchers around May/June ish so that all our clients can utilise these when our doors are open again for business.
CURRENT STATUS AT TIROHANA
With our restaurant being closed as well as our Cellar Door we are still able to operate online in terms of wine sales and so if you feel inclined to order a bottle or half a case or even a case then please contact Toby at tobyjames@tirohanaestate.com or phone 06 306 9933 or mobile 021 126 6042. We are able to courier complimentary anywhere within New Zealand but sadly for overseas clients during the current state we will be unable to fulfil any overseas orders (our online store remains open for domestic orders in New Zealand).
THE TIROHANA TEAM
We know that many of you have gotten to know our regular team and will be concerned about their personal fiscal welfare with the enforced shutdown.
We wanted to reassure you that the owners at Tirohana are guaranteeing the jobs of our full-time staff and we are all doing all that we can to ensure the fiscal health of our community as well as our individual businesses including many of our suppliers who will really suffer with the economic situation as a result of COVID-19.
Obviously the priority is physical and spiritual health. Followed by fiscal health and any client wishing to order wine online might take comfort knowing that there is a degree of benevolence via us being able to at least keep some elements of our trade open and in so doing maintain the fiscal security and continuity of our full-time staff so that there are no layoffs.
The same applies to being able to trade with our suppliers so that hopefully our community will remain as vibrant economically as possible.
FOR THOSE WORKING AT HOME OR SELF-ISOLATING
In addition to enjoying a glass and/or bottle (hopefully not too many cases 🙂 ) of your favourite Tirohana wine during any lockdown period we might interweave some online ‘specials’ for you to view.
Ray (owner of Tirohana Estate) has mentioned that we might do some streaming of wine talks, even wine interaction with our sommeliers, perhaps even cooking instruction, podcasts and quizzes (yes, with prizes! 🙂 . This will help our regular team have ‘something to do’ while we are unable to trade. So more news on that soon. We will advise if and when we come up with something innovative on our website and social media and would welcome the opportunity to perhaps interact live online with many of our regular clients.
OTHER MATTERS
As again many of you might know, the Raymond Thompson Family Trust owns and operates Tirohana Estate with wine and hospitality being a passion for Ray as a refuge from his ‘day job’ of being in the television and motion picture industries as a producer-writer and composer.
Ray of course is the founder of the Cloud 9 Screen Entertainment Group and again for those staying at home for periods of elongated isolation might find it of interest to check out some of Cloud 9’s product which is family viewing with a child/adolescent bias.
Ironically one of Cloud 9’s largest successes is ‘The Tribe’ which is set against a world facing a pandemic through a virus. The series though is in no way apocalyptic but is ‘blue sky’ and positive and aspirational and enjoyed by a child/teen audience but many adults have become addicted due to the human interplay/soap elements. So if any of you or your children would like to check it out it’s freely available on YouTube through https://www.youtube.com/user/thetribetvseries .
The Tribe in better quality is also available to download or stream via Vimeo https://vimeo.com/cloud9screenent/vod_pages/page:2/sort:date .
You will see on the link that there are a whole bunch of really lovely other series produced by Cloud 9 such as The Adventures of Swiss Family Robinson which was shot in New Zealand and on a paradise island in Fiji and explores a family isolated and surviving through challenging events.
The series is lovely family viewing.
There are other series as well including William Shatner’s A Twist in the Tale or the wacky Atlantis High or spiritual Revelations – all of which star many favourite names and faces of New Zealand’s tremendous talented actors and actresses.
And it was all filmed and produced in New Zealand and made by a Kiwi cast and crew and has been successfully exported to 130 countries but ironically is not regularly available in its home country until lately through the online platforms.
Anyway this is just another thought of how some may wish to occupy their time in addition to enjoying a glass of Tirohana wine to kick back and relax and while away the hours watching some alternative programming.
We will keep in touch and give you updates as and when they are known.
But in the meantime, we wanted to thank you all for your ongoing support.
We will miss seeing so many familiar faces in the short-term in our cellar door and restaurant but are sure that we will be of service again in the not too distant future.
We remain positive and optimistic that ‘life’ will get back to normal and we will all endure through this adversity if we all support one another and as our Prime Minister mentioned, if we can be kind and supportive.
So until the next time – be safe and we wish you and your families all our very best wishes at this difficult time.
The Tirohana team.
42 Puruatanga Road, Martinborough, New Zealand
Tel: 06 306 9933
Mob: 021 126 6042
Web: www.tirohanaestate.com/
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