Hawke’s Bay wines were a hit with Australian audiences at NZ in a Glass – New Zealand winegrowers’ largest wine event held in Australia – recently.
The annual event, held in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, attracts over 1000 wine trade and media during each day-long programme.
“There was quite a buzz amongst the attendees about Hawke’s Bay, there was a lot of word of mouth recommendations for people to come and taste our wines,” says Paul Ham of Alpha Domus. “They were really interested to know what else we did, what other New Zealand varieties there were to taste aside from Sauvignon Blanc. Our Syrah, Bordeaux blends, and especially our Chardonnays were a big hit.”
Lisa Daysh of Bridge Pa Vineyard says attending the events has proved very beneficial.
“We found that although the Australians think they are the experts at producing Shiraz (called Syrah in New Zealand), actually they discovered that our style of Syrah is not what they expected and they were impressed.”
So impressive, in fact, that the company secured a distributor with a large number of on-premise customers at the event.
Roger Tynan of Lime Rock Wine, one of two Central Hawke’s Bay wineries that attended, also found good interest in Hawke’s Bay wines.
“I think guests were a bit surprised at the range of varietals that were represented by our region.
“Quite a few sommeliers were keen to taste our Sauvignon Blanc as an overdue alternative to that coming out of Marlborough. Grown on limestone, our wines have quite a distinct style and it has been taken on by a number of fine dining restaurants in Sydney, which is really gratifying.”
The nine Hawke’s Bay wineries who attended were Alpha Domus, Bridge Pa Winery, Ngatarawa, Crossroads, Elephant Hill, Mills Reef, Trinity Hill, Cypress Wines and Lime Rock Wines.
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