Marlborough Wine & Food Festival

Held each February in the heart of New Zealand's most celebrated wine region, the Marlborough Wine & Food Festival holds the title of the country's longest-running event of its kind. Marlborough is internationally recognised for its distinctive Sauvignon Blanc, and the festival gives visitors a chance to taste directly from the producers responsible for putting the region on the world wine map.

Beyond wine, the festival leans heavily into Marlborough's other great local product: seafood, and Greenshell mussels in particular, harvested from the sheltered waters of the Marlborough Sounds. Food stalls pair the region's mussels and other seafood with the wines grown just a short drive away, creating a genuinely local, terroir-driven tasting experience rather than a generic food-and-wine expo.

Set against the backdrop of Marlborough's vineyard landscape, the festival has become something of a rite of passage for New Zealand wine enthusiasts, and a reliable excuse for a wider exploration of the wider Marlborough Sounds region.