Hawke's Bay

Versatile, refreshing and incredibly age worthy. Chenin Blanc is one of the great grapes of the wine world for all these qualities and more and this one is made with grapes grown on Ian Quinn?s Two Terraces vineyard in Mangatahi, Hawke's Bay. Quinn, the grape grower, is an unapologetic devotee of Chenin Blanc, which he supplies to several passionate winemakers, including Gordon Russell of Esk Valley. 

Russell ferments this Chenin in stainless steel, maturing it in a concrete egg for six months on fine lees. It's dry in taste and literally just off dry in style with residual sugar of 5.8 grams per litre. 

New Zealand?s climate is exceptionally well suited to this stunning classic French white grape variety, as winemakers such as Gordon Russell of Esk Valley, has shown for decades through his passionate perseverance with this lively white grape. 

Chenin Blanc is one of the world's most versatile grape varieties because it can be used to make bone dry, full bodied whites, which both France and South Africa specialise in and it can also make super succulent sweeties. The grape's naturally high acidity adds balancing freshness to wines made from it, which retain a brightness and lively style. 

Clearview Sea Red is a deliciously full bodied sweet wine made from a blend of red grapes and fortified to retain sweetness, raising its alcohol to 17% ABV, producing a big, loveable cuddly sweetie. Ideal for drinking with cheddar cheese on a cold night by a warm fire or anytime you're looking for a delicious sweetie. 

Clearview Estate sprang to life in 1986 when Tim Turvey and  business partner Helma van den Bergare purchased the neglected but historic Vidal's No.2 Vineyard at Te Awanga in coastal Hawke's Bay. This is their take on fortified dessert reds such as port, displaying a weighty, unctuous palate of dense berry fruits and plums, which finishes dry and long. The wine is blended across vintages and the base variety is Malbec. Drink now for a fruitier style or cellar carefully for several years.

About Clearview Estate

Clearview Estate is one of oldest, most well established wineries in Hawke's Bay and is situated on the Te Awanga Coast, south of Napier. It's a great place to visit for tastings at the cellar door as well as lunch in the dappled shade of the established courtyard area. The winery was founded by Tim Turvey, winemaker and co-owner. The current winemaker is the multi talented Matt Kirby.

A proprietary estate red blend sourced mainly from the warm, inland soils of Bridge Pa Triangle and Gimblett Gravels. Plummy Merlot and spicy Syrah dominant flavours complexed by additions of Tempranillo, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Generous, soft, red fruits with easing going drinkability.

This is a wine that punches way above it'w weight. It's made by Hawke?s Bay Wine Co's Sophie Harris, with fruit from vineyards in Te Awanga and the Gimblett Gravels. These two sites complement each other beautifully with the cooler coastal Te Awanga offering keen acidity and floral to balance the riper flavours off the gravels.

Rich ripe and succulent, offering dark red and black fruits, superb acidity and real length.

This is an outstanding new addition to the much loved Esk Valley stable and it successfully straddles the big buttery Chardonnay style with all the subtleties that wine fans adore about the Chardonnay grape too - namely, its crisp, freshness. 

It is part of the new Esk Valley Artisanal Collection wines, which were launched this year and this one is made from clone 95 vines in Hawke’s Bay. The grapes were fermented in French oak with wild yeasts, which gives this wine its rich and nutty flavours, its seductive savoury notes and its full body.

The finished wine went through 50% malolactic fermentation with lees stirring to accentuate and lift the big flavours in this big wine.

Te Kahu means the cloak in Maori and refers to the mist that shrouds the Craggy Range Giant's Winery in the Tukituki Valley in early morning . This bold but balanced red blend highlights five classic grapes from Bordeaux in south west France; Merlot leads the way in this sharply priced red with proportions of the other grapes varying each year. These include Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. 

We love this red from Craggy, which we think offers an outstanding wine in terms of being exceptional value for money which drinks well now and can age positively into the future too. 

Inspired by Beaujolais, made in Hawke's Bay and all about expressing Gamay's soft red berry flavours with lifted floral aromas and a smooth, medium body. Carbonic maceration was used for 47% of the wine and it enhances the fruit and floral aromas. The remaining 53% received a traditional, warm, red wine fermentation. The resulting wines completed their malolactic fermentation and were matured for seven weeks in seasoned French oak barrels, before blending and bottling.

Vineyards

In 1995, Te Mata Estate introduced to New Zealand a superior selection of Gamay Noir ? Jus Blanc, the grape variety of the best wines of France?s Beaujolais region. Estate Vineyards Gamay Noir 2020 is a single vineyard wine from Te Mata Estate?s Woodthorpe Terraces vineyard, harvested on 3 and 12 March 2020.

Woodthorpe vineyard is located on elevated, north facing terraces in Hawke?s Bay Tutaekuri River valley. Between 1863 and 1914 it was home to the annual Woodthorpe races. 

Mills Reef Winery has a well deserved reputation for making some of New Zealand's creamiest, most approachable and delicious Chardonnays from Hawke's Bay grapes. This wine is a great example with its full body, dry flavours and creamy textures. 

Mills Reef winery is in Tauranga. Its owners source their grapes from Hawke's Bay and Marlborough.

"This is impressively fruited and gorgeously expressed on the nose showing dark plum, blueberry, game, black olive, cedar and floral characters. The palate is concentrated and richly fruited, exhibiting silky mouthfeel and seductive savoury nuances. The wine offers fruit power as well as elegance and balance. At its best: now to 2023." Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Sep 2017

Family owned Beach House Winery turns out some of our best sellers in store at Regional, including this creamy, full bodied, super duper good value Chardonnay from Hawke's Bay. It delivers exceptional drinking for the price thanks to winemaker Chris Harrison, who founded and owns the brand with his family. 

Super peachy, full bodied and dry voluptuous Viognier style - it's mouth filling and rich with great balance and a ligth touch of lively acidity to stretch out the wine to a long, peachy finish with flavour hints of apricot paste and skin. The grapes were whole bunch pressed with 60% barrel fermented to accentuate the body and texture to the wine. The remaining 40% was fermented in stainless steel tanks bringing freshness.

This wine displays classic stone fruit characteristics of apricot, white peach with floral details and subtle creaminess on the palate.

Alpha Domus Wines was founded in 1989 by the Ham family, which bought and planted 20 hectares of vineyard on formerly bare land on the Western Heretaunga plains, the area now known as the Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District. 

Some of the original Merlot grapes from those early plantings make their way into this juicy, off dry rose with its fresh red berry flavours, soft texture and mouth watering finish. 

We are the only retail store in the country with an allocation of this outstanding dry Fiano and we sold out just prior to the cyclones. Winemaker Jenny Dobson has released another 12 bottles to us, but that’s it. The vineyard did survive the inclement weather intact, but volumes are likely to be down next year. She and we are big fans of Fiano, which originally comes from southern Italy. Her Hawke's Bay version has proven so successful that it sells out within days of arriving at Regional so she is planning to double production when the weather permits.

She has since made a 2014 Fiano from the Bush Hawk vineyard, which she now leases from owner Bryce Campbell, who planted the first 300 vines in 2010.

Fiano is an old grape variety from Campania in south west Italy, dating back to the 12^th Century, following which it widely planted but later fell out of favour due to being decimated by phylloxera in the late 1800s. Plantings of Fiano were sporadic in Italy until the 1940s when winemaker Antonio Mastroberadino made his first 30 bottles in 1945.

Alpha Domus is a family owned winery in Hawke's Bay, which produces a wide range of wines from high quality sparkling to full bodied, age worthy reds. 

This is their introductory Syrah, a dry full bodied red with notes of spice and red fruit. It drinks well now and can hold for three to four years from vintage date, but is not intended to be aged for the long term.

Serve in a large glass at room temperature; it's great winter drinking.

Stone Paddock Cabernet Franc is an outstanding red made by Paritua, one of Hawke's Bay's top producers of reds modelled on the best of Bordeaux. This gorgeous ripe Cabernet Franc is full of fragrant red fruity aromas and flavours of redcurrants, raspberries and spice, held together with supple tannins which dance across the mid palate of this wine. 

It's made from grapes planted on free draining red metal soils of the Paritua vineyard, an organically farmed single vineyard in the Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District of Hawke?s Bay. Vines here are managed with an open canopy to provide good airflow and exposure to sunlight, which aids ripening for this classic Bordeaux red grape variety. 

The wine was matured in seasoned French oak for 12 months followed by blending, fining and filtering just prior to bottling.

If you have ever wondered why an actor you?ve always admired seems to be perpetually cast in supporting roles and never lands the lead, it will be easy to relate to Cabernet Franc. One could argue that this seductive classic red could lord it over both Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It is a parent of both of these better known grape varieties, but Franc tends to hang around the edges, adding its personality when needed with colour, depth and spice but rarely vying to be star. And yet, when it is allowed to shine, here is a grape and a wine to adore.