Wine with notes of royalty will be made near Auckland today.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will visit the Hunting Lodge Winery in Waimauku this afternoon as part of their New Zealand tour.

Winery chief executive James Shortall says the winery tries to utilise its heritage, being one of the first sites in the country to have sauvignon blanc vines.

He told Mike Hosking that in order to make the most of it, they've let members of the public make wine blends with their winemaker.

"We are planning on doing that with the royal family, and we may just call that the crown blend."

Shortall says the call to host the visit came out of the blue.

He says wet weather could change the tour plans, but they'll show the royal couple their permaculture garden, which supplies the on-site restaurant.

"That uses a lot of our waste streams from food scraps, cardboard we use on site, green waste, winery waste, that sort of thing."