Giant flames engulfed a historic winery in Waikato overnight.
The 600-square-metre Vilagrad Winery, located in Ngahinapouri, just south of Hamilton, caught fire at around 1am today.
The fire reportedly destroyed about 80 per cent of the property. The office buildings, the kitchen, half of the winery, and a 100-year-old cask room are now gone.
“Just devastated, the family has taken it quite hard,” said winery co-owner Jacob Nooyen. “This is a 100-year-old winery here in the Waikato, we’ve lost the old cellar which is such a shame.”
Nooyen, said that the alarms would have gone off, bit nobody would be able to hear them. He also said that his first thought after seeing the blaze was “God, save the wine!”
“I’m a winemaker there’s so much we put into wines … It’s disappointing but that’s part of a fire. The fire brigade did a great job to maintain it,” he told reporters.
Firefighters–made up of 18 fire trucks and 70 men–were called in.
The cause of the fire is not yet known, but authorities are currently doing investigations.
“We’ve managed to save one end of the events centre and part of the winery at the other end,” said Hamilton station officer Daryl Trim. “There were a few hazards with LPG cylinders throughout the place so we had to be quite careful. Extensive damage through the place, a lot of it has been totally destroyed.”
The winery is now on its fifth generation of owners. It was started by Nooyen’s great-grandfather Dalmatian emigre Ivan Milicich Sr, who started growing grapes in 1906.
The winery in insured, and the family said that while they will be closed for a while, they would try to be back sometime in the summer.
“Dad’s in there now trying to tidy up,” said Nooyen.
