The Hawke's Bay wine region is

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's oldest and second-largest wine-production region, on the east coast of the North Island. Production reached 41,000 tonnes in 2018 from of planted vines, representing 10.2% of total national production. Some of the oldest wineries still operating in New Zealand, including

Te Mata Estate Te Mata Estate is an independent, family-owned Hawke's Bay winery and New Zealand's oldest, in continuous operation since 1895. The winery produces everything on-premises at their Havelock Hills site near Havelock North, south of Napier. Establis ...

, Church Road, and

Mission Estate Mission Estate Winery is New Zealand's oldest surviving winemaking concern, first established in the Hawke's Bay in 1851 by French Catholic Marist missionaries for producing sacramental wine. It is one of the largest wineries in the Hawke's Ba ...

, were established in the Hawke's Bay area in the late 19th century. Despite this, it was only established as a

geographical indication A geographical indication (GI) is a name or sign used on products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin (e.g., a town, region, or country). The use of a geographical indication, as an indication of the product's source, ...

(GI) in 2018. The GI protects any wine produced within the boundaries of the entire

Hawke's Bay Region Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region is ...

, but in practice the vineyards are chiefly concentrated in the plains and low hills surrounding the cities of

Napier Napier may refer to: People * Napier (surname), including a list of people with that name * Napier baronets, five baronetcies and lists of the title holders Given name * Napier Shaw (1854–1945), British meteorologist * Napier Waller (1893–19 ...

and

Hastings Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...

Climate

Wines

Red wines made from Merlot blends and Syrah are consistently well reviewed. Varietal white wines from

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern French wine, France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from English wine, Englan ...

Sauvignon Blanc is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the Bordeaux region of France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words ''sauvage'' ("wild") and ''blanc'' ("white") due to its early origins as an indigenous grape in ...

Pinot Gris Pinot Gris, Pinot Grigio (, ) or Grauburgunder is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the Pinot Noir variety, it normally has a grayish-blue fruit, accounting for its name, but the gra ...

and

Viognier Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 754 Oxford University Press 2006 Outside of the Rhôn ...

are also produced.

Sub-regions

There are several sub-regions within the Hawke's Bay GI, most notably Gimblett Gravels and Bridge Pa Triangle, which have developed reputations for fine red wines.

Gimblett Gravels

The Gimblett Gravels is an area of approximately defined by the extent of a particular local soil

stratum In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...

known as the Omahu Gravels. It is one of the few

s in the world defined by a soil type rather than the usual geographical, municipal or political boundaries. (N.B. this last part is incorrect as of November of 2023, as far as being a GI officially recognized by the New Zealand Intellection Property Office, the organization that regulates GIs.) The designation is controlled as a registered trademark owned by the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association, available only to its members. Membership is open to any producer that can show their vineyards are on the Gimblett Gravels soil (and thus by definition within the Gimblett Gravels area), and membership then allows the use of the label designation on any wines sourced (minimum 95%) from these vineyards. There are no other grape growing or winemaking regulations. Notable producers are Te Awa, Villa Maria, Trinity Hill, Newton Forrest Estate, Craggy Range, Esk Valley, Church Road, Sacred Hill, and CJ Pask.

Bridge Pa Triangle

Also known as the Ngatarawa Triangle, the Bridge Pa Triangle wine district is approximately traced by three roads: Ngatarawa Road, State Highway 50 and Maraekakaho Road. The area adjoins the Gimblett Gravels to the north, and contains the old riverbed of the nearby

Ngaruroro River The Ngaruroro River is located in the eastern North Island of New Zealand. It runs for a total of 164 kilometres southeast from the Kaweka Range, Kaimanawa Range and Ruahine Range and then east before emptying into Hawke Bay roughly halfway betwe ...

before it changed course after an earthquake in the 1860s. The soils include free draining alluvial gravels and shallow clay-loam soils over

Lake Taupō Lake Taupō (also spelled Taupo; mi, Taupō-nui-a-Tia or ) is a large crater lake in New Zealand's North Island, located in the caldera of the Taupō Volcano. The lake is the namesake of the town of Taupō, which sits on a bay in the lake's nor ...

pumice tephras. Vineyards were first established in the area in 1981 by Alwyn Corban and Garry Glazebrook, who founded Ngatarawa Wines. Their successes attracted others to the area, and the Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District organisation was eventually incorporated in 2015. Membership allows producers to use the Bridge Pa Triangle logo and branding on the label as long as the wine has a minimum of 85% of the grapes sourced from the area. There are no other grape or wine-production regulations. Notable wineries in the area include Alpha Domus, Sileni Estates, Red Metal and Ash Ridge. Several other producers make single vineyard wines from their plantings in the Bridge Pa Triangle area, most notably the award-winning Syrah from Te Mata Estate's "Bullnose" vineyard.

Te Mata

The ''Te Mata Special Character Zone'' is an area of hills adjacent to

Havelock North Havelock North ( mi, Te Hemo-a-Te Atonga) is a town in the Hawke's Bay region of the North Island of New Zealand, situated less than 2 km south-east of the city of Hastings. It was a borough for many years until the 1989 reorganisation of local ...

and

Te Mata Peak Te Mata Peak is a peak south of Hastings rising up to 399m in the Te Mata Hills in the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand. A sealed road leads to the popular lookout at the summit, as well as many trails for hikers and mountain bikers. The Hastin ...

. It was first protected by the Hawke's Bay Regional Council in 1996, making it New Zealand's first legally protected wine growing area. The principal producers in the region are

, Craggy Range and Black Barn, but other producers have vineyards in the area, including De La Terre and Trinity Hill.

Te Awanga

Several vineyards are established in the coastal area around the small town of

Te Awanga Te Awanga is a small rural beachside town in Hawke's Bay region, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. Te Awanga is near Cape Kidnappers, which has a renowned colony of the Australasian gannet. Te Awanga town is just smaller than Haumoana, which is furthe ...

, east of Hastings. The area has the sunny warm Hawke's Bay climate, moderated by cool coastal breezes at night. Notable producers here are Beach House, Clearview Estate, and Elephant Hill.

Central Hawke's Bay

Growers further south around the towns of

Waipawa Waipawa is the second-largest town in Central Hawke's Bay in the east of the North Island of New Zealand. It has a population of At the 2013 census, it had a population of 1,965, a change of 2.2 percent from the 2006 census. The town is locate ...

and

Waipukurau Waipukurau is the largest town in the Central Hawke's Bay District on the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on the banks of the Tukituki River, 7 kilometres south of Waipawa and 50 kilometres southwest of Hastings. H ...

registered their own sub-region geographical indication in 2019, which covers roughly the southern half of the larger Hawke's Bay GI, with the same boundary as the

Central Hawke's Bay District Central Hawke's Bay District is part of the Hawke's Bay Region in the North Island of New Zealand. Formed in 1989, it has an area of 3,333 square kilometres with a population of It had a population of 12,717 people as of the 2013 census. This is ...

local authority. The principal producers are Lime Rock, Junction Wines and Pukeora Estate.

References

External links

Hawke's Bay Winegrowers

Gimblett Gravels Wine Growing District

Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District
{{Wine regions of New Zealand Wine regions of New Zealand Geography of the Hawke's Bay Region