Blaze hits Waikato’s Vilagrad Winery

As Jacob Nooyen watched the winery his family had established a century ago go up in flames his first thought was “God, save the wine! I’m the winemaker and there’s just so much work that’s gone in to making the wine,” said the winery owner and winemaker after Monday morning’s blaze which severely damaged 60-70 per cent of the Ngahinapouri winery near Hamilton. Every Waikato firefighting crew was called in to battle the blaze.