Hawke’s Bay wine event relaxed, focused, innovative

29 January 2013

Hawke’s Bay wine event relaxed, focused, innovative

In a format befitting the style of the region and its wine industry, Hawke’s Bay - Our World in Your Glass two-day showcase has been pronounced “very relaxed, focused and innovative” by UK Master of Wine Tim Atkin.

Atkin was one of 21 international wine influentials who came to the event hosted by Hawke’s Bay Winemakers Inc. on their way to the tri-annual Pinot Noir conference being held in Wellington this week.

“It was a new way of looking at a region; mixing with the winemakers was fun but educational. It was nicely hands on,” was Atkin’s verdict of the 12 event itinerary that saw guests take bike rides through Hawke’s Bay Wine Country, be taken for a quintessential Kiwi breakfasts of Weetbix and toast with Marmite, and local winemakers debating the merits of Syrah and Bay blends with Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule as adjudicator.

“The programme was light-hearted yet allowed plenty of opportunity to showcase our region’s strengths,” says Lyn Bevin, executive officer of Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc, the regional organisation that pulled the event together. “The publicity we expect our guests to generate in their wine columns, blogs and educational sessions in their home markets, will be invaluable.”

Some of the exposure was immediate, with chatter on the Chinese social media Weibo site constant, as a number of the eight-strong Asian contingent were talking with their audiences and answering questions they were asking in real time.

Matthew Jukes, a writer with the UK Daily Mail described his time in Hawke’s Bay as “revelatory”. He explained that he knew wines would be good in the region but that the strength of the Chardonnays “was news to me. The quality of the 20 or so I’ve tried here have all been really smart.”

For Tim Atkin, it was the size of the district that surprised him, and the number of distinct sub-regions and new producers he had not known about, with the coastal Elephant Hill, Clearview Estate and Central Hawke’s Bay’s Limestone Rock, noted by him as “new discoveries”.

Monty James New Zealand Winegrowers Asian marketing manager, who was accompanying the eight Asian guests, says there had been a real sense of WOW from his guests around what they had experienced in Hawke’s Bay. “It was a real thunderbolt for them. They know French wine and they have been so impressed with how well Hawke’s Bay wines compare. It’s really put New Zealand in their head space.”

David Lawrason, Canadian wine writer and educator conducted a session that put Hawke’s Bay Merlot wines in the global market from his perspective. Discussion after the presentation was strong.

He said he was impressed at the advance in quality the region had achieved in the 20 years since he was last here. He was particularly impressed at how well Hawke’s Bay wines aged.

Mr Jukes also commented on the impressive rate of change in Hawke’s Bay brought about he felt, by the younger people within the industry challenging the paradigm.

In farewelling the international contingent at a dinner in the original homestead of A J Vidal, a founder of the region’s wine industry, HBWG Chairman Nicholas Buck said the Hawke’s Bay event aimed to put guests at the centre of the programme.

“We are proud to show you how the potential of Hawke’s Bay is becoming realised.”

ENDS

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