Smooth wine emerges from gravel pit

By DITA DE BONI liquor writer

A group of Hawkes Bay vignerons hope a new marketing initiative for wine made from land once blanketed in pumice and gravel will provide a unique proposition to quality quaffers.

The region's growers have banded together to launch the first wine trademark based on the type of soil found in the area. It is the first such known designation in New World wine to take its appellation from a material usually reserved for driveways and country roads.

The name Gimblett Gravels will be affixed to almost all wines of the region that take grapes from the 800 hectares of rocky terrain laid down by the old Ngaruroro River and exposed after a huge flood in the 1870s.



While other regions have created appellations based on geographical boundaries, including Waitara in North Canterbury and Martinborough Terraces in Martinborough, the 34 members of Gimblett Gravels say theirs is a unique marker. It represents soil types that yield some of the most high-profile Bordeaux varietals in New Zealand.

Around $30 million of wine is generated in the area, with that figure expected to grow to around $45 million in the next three to four years.

More than half the wine is destined for New Zealand shelves, with the remainder heading to Britain and the United States.

Until the 1980s, the Gimblett Gravels area was regarded as the least-productive land in the Hawkes Bay. Now it attracts up to $70,000 a hectare.

Association president Steve Smith says the region hopes to match the success of places like Napa Valley with unique growing conditions.