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30 June 2008

Hawke’s Bay tourist operators get an educated taste for local wine

Members of the Hawke’s Bay Wine Country Tourism Association recently got an eye-opening perspective and taste of the local wine industry that many say they want to share with their own staff so they too can promote the region’s wine diversity and strengths to visitors.

Over 60 members of the regional tourism organisation experienced the introductory presentation international media and wine experts receive from Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc. when they visit the region.   They then had the opportunity to sample wines from 16 local wineries and discuss those wine styles with winemakers.

HBWG executive officer Lyn Bevin made the presentation at the Association’s quarterly sector meeting and shared information on local geographical, climatic, historic and topographical aspects that contribute to creating the diverse range of wines from Hawke’s Bay. 

Bill Nimon, managing director of coach company Nimon and Sons Ltd said afterwards that it was the sort of information all his drivers should know.  “It was good solid information about the whole region and it would give our tourist visitors a very good overview of Wine Country.” He was keen to get a copy of the presentation to include in staff training packages.

New HBWCTA member, Wayne Bicknell of Standfast Adventures, a saltwater fly fishing charter company said the information would be very useful to share with clients.  “You need something to talk about in the quiet times and the more interesting information you know about the region the better.”

Auckland-based AA Tourism Services publishing manager, Sandy Kilgour who was in Hawke’s Bay as part of her scoping for the 101 must do’s for Kiwis promotion, said she had found the presentation “really educational”.  “It was really interesting to hear the Hawke’s Bay story, what the region’s point of difference is, and how strategic the region is in marketing itself as a significant and distinctive wine region.”

She said she was particularly impressed by the spirit of cooperation that was evident with Winegrower members working as one to be competitive against other wine regions not just in New Zealand but around the world.

Hastings motelier, Jan Nicol of Elmore Lodge said she was going to check out the HBWG website to pick up on some of the figures about plantings and results shared in the presentation.   “We make recommendations to our guests about wineries to visit but it will be good to provide guests that are interested with information about the whole wine region.”

Some of the facts shared with HBWCTA:
• There are 67 wineries and 186 grape growers in Hawke’s Bay.
• Hawke’s Bay is New Zealand’s oldest wine region with Mission Estate Winery established in 1851.
• Hawke’s Bay is New Zealand’s largest red wine region with over 2500 hectares planted in red grape varieties and 15,000 tonnes of red grape varieties harvested per annum.
• Hawke’s Bay is the second largest wine region in New Zealand.
• Chardonnay is the most planted wine variety in Hawke’s Bay followed by Merlot.
• Hawke’s Bay has annual average sunshine hours of 2297 hours and is the latitude equivalent to Madrid in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Over 30 different grape varieties are grown here, starting with A for ‘Arneis’ to Z for ‘Zinfandel’.
• Over 25 different soil types makes Hawke’s Bay a wine region of diversity.
• Our biggest export markets are the UK, Australia, the USA and Canada.

More information on the diversity of Hawke’s Bay as a wine region can be found on www.winehawkesbay.co.nz

For further information contact:

Lyn Bevin
Executive Officer
Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc.
Phone 876 3418 or 027 621 7891

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