Hawke's Bay | Wine Terms

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Hawke's Bay

New Zealand winegrowing region located on the east side of the North Island near the city of Napier (known for its Art Deco architecture) and surrounding the beautiful Hawke’s Bay. It’s about 260 miles southeast of Auckland and 200 miles northeast of Wellington. Vines were planted in the region in the 1850s, but the commercial wine industry didn’t really take hold until the 1890s. Hawke’s Bay soon developed a reputation for producing high-quality wines from European varieties (VITIS VINIFERA), and by the 1910s it was producing almost one third of New Zealand’s wines. After shifting to being a producer of FORTIFIED WINES for a number of decades, the pendulum swung back and Hawke’s Bay has again become a region recognized for its excellent TABLE WINES. Its excellent climate enables consistent production of high-quality CABERNET SAUVIGNON, MERLOT, and CHARDONNAY, as well as very good SYRAH, RIESLING, PINOT NOIR, and SAUVIGNON BLANC, although the Sauvignon Blanc wines do not have the CRISPNESS of wines from a cooler area like MARLBOROUGH. With about 7,600 acres, this region is New Zealand’s second largest after Marlborough.

Related Links: Vitis vinifera, fortification, table wine, Cabernet Sauvignon

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