Organisers of Ripe, Wānaka’s leading food and wine festival, have cancelled this year’s event due to Covid 19 red setting restrictions.

Otago event planning director Nathan White said they simply had no choice but to cancel this year’s event with the 100 person limit for events.

“We had hoped that things may change in time, but the reality is that’s unlikely to happen and we wanted to give supporters as much notice as possible.

"We are obviously disappointed to be announcing this news and know that our wine and food community will share in our sentiment.” 

The Ripe Wine and Food Festival, planned for March 19, 2022, at Glendhu Bay Station, has been postponed until March 18, 2023.

Tickets will be rolled over to next year.

Anyone unable to attend in 2023 can get a full refund (excluding ticket provider fees).

“As many of our supporters appreciate, running events in this crazy Covid world is challenging.

"We hope our festival community will join us in getting excited about next year’s festival now that they have a ticket and a date to look forward to.”

Nathan hopes to host a virtual wine event on March 19, the same day as the event was due to be held. 

“Details will be announced soon, but this virtual event will give lovers of Central Otago wine a chance to connect, learn and taste Central Otago Wines with some of our best-known vintners and winemakers virtually."

For those wanting to get their fix of Ripe Festival Wineries before then, www.ripewineco.nz offers wines from a range of the Ripe exhibitors and is New Zealand’s only dedicated supplier of Central Otago Wines.

Ripe Festival ticket holders will receive a discount code for Ripe Wine CO so they can still enjoy the wines they would have sampled at the festival.