This appreciation, based on scientific advances and a more holistic approach to winegrowing, has largely put paid to the fruit salad blocks that once claimed some of the Bay's most fertile locations. Site and vine selection are now more carefully aligned to optimise the benefits of the region's diverse growing environments.
As better targeted plantings age, such an approach is expected to boost the quality of wines that grow in areas as diverse as isolated river terraces in the region's north through to cooler climate locations in Central Hawkes Bay.
It may be early days for creating wines that truly express the character of terroir but the more marketing-minded are mobilising to harness the potential they see for promoting the individual qualities of Hawkes Bay's wine subregions.
By telling stories around these locales, they aim to build their brands, captivate wine writers and appeal to wine tourists looking for a more focused visitor experience.
For Hawkes Bay Winegrowers, it was a challenge to identify a flagship wine on which to hang the region's hat. Was it to be Hawkes Bay's elegant Chardonnays, its emerging and well-received Syrahs or the Southern hemisphere's fruit-driven take on Bordeaux-style blends? And was choosing one going to be at the expense of another equally deserving wine style?
No-one is disputing that Hawkes Bay grows an uncommon cornucopia of both red and white varieties and that there is enormous scope for linking the wines produced to the subregions in which they grow.
That has to be weighed up against one of the other advantages of this region. Producers can spread their risks by growing grapes in various parts of Hawkes Bay and they have unrivalled opportunities to blend fruit from different vineyards in crafting their wines.
The dynamics are still to play out around wine subregionalism, particularly as there is still debate about what constitutes Hawkes Bay's main winegrowing areas. The picture has also become increasingly complicated in recent years, with industry players experimenting with new varieties, pastoral farmers diversifying into growing grapes and hitherto untried areas now planted in vines.
To try and dsicuss each and every sub-region in Hawkes Bay would take thousands of words given there are so many making their mark. They include; Mohaka, Esk River, Te Awanga, Heretaunga, Bridge Pa, Ohiti, Dartmoor Valley, Mangatahi and Crownthorpe Tces, Havelock Hills, Tukutuki Valley, and Central Hawkes Bay.
However Gimblett Gravels, the most heavily promoted area, comes closest in claiming something akin to the French concept of an appellation.
GIMBLETT GRAVELS
Established in 2001, the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District Association comprises 25 wineries and five grower members. All are vineyard owners within a designated area northwest of Hastings.
The district is based on soil type – Omahu Gravels that are characterised by variable layers of silt, gravel and stone laid down over centuries as the Ngaruroro River carried greywacke debris down from the rugged Ruahine Range to the west of Hawkes Bay.
In the 1870s, perhaps as the result of flood or earthquake, the river changed its course.
In taking a more northerly route to the sea, it exposed coarsely textured and weakly structured beds and banks of alluvia to the north and east of the landmark Roys Hill. These free-draining soils have proved well-suited to late-ripening reds such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, although other varieties such as Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, Montepulciano and Tempranillo grow here as well as lesser plantings of Arneis, Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho and Viognier.
The area was regarded as wasteland, however, before astute wine industry players spotted its potential the late 1980s. Before then, farmers had run one sheep to three acres and aero-modellers favoured the vast paddocks with few fences and trees to snare their planes.
Town planners gave the go-ahead for a drag strip, warehousing, coolstores and even a rubbish dump, and part of the Hastings' suburb of Flaxmere encroaches onto land that would now be prized for growing grapes. A concrete company purchased 150 hectares, and its plans to mine gravel were only thwarted as a result of a vigorous campaign spearheaded by former Stonecroft owner and Hawkes Bay winemaker Alan Limmer.
The first vineyards, planted in Mere Road in the late 1970s, comprised Chenin Blanc and Muller Thurgau and it was some time before superior varieties took their place.
Flying over the dry and barren wasteland, Chris Pask wondered whether the Cabernet Sauvignon he grew on fertile land would ripen better in this arid environment. Chancing his arm, he purchased a 40ha block at the end of Gimblett Road and in 1981 was the first grower to plant Cabernet Sauvignon, closely followed by David Irving and Gavin Yortt, and John Kenderdine.
In 1983, Dr Limmer planted his Mere Road vineyard with Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, and the noted soil chemist subsequently scooped a varietal trophy for Stonecroft Gewurztraminer at London's International Wine Challenge.
Chardonnay quickly became the most important white variety, however, together with Sauvignon Blanc.
Pask made the district's first Bordeaux-style varietal red in 1985, and this wine and his eponymous wine company's 1986 vintage also won wide acclaim, topping wine shows and tastings all around the country.
In the early 1990s, companies such as Babich, Delegat's and Villa Maria also began purchasing land and developing vineyards in the district's stoniest soils. Faced with mounting opposition, the concrete company gave up the battle to mine for gravel and sold its parcel of land. The Gimblett Gravels gets slightly less rain than other Hawkes Bay localities and much the same sunshine hours.
However, the association claims the district's daytime temperatures are up to three degrees celsius warmer during summer and autumn compared with most others in the region. Evenings are also said to be warmer because of thermal conductivity in the stony soils.
The higher temperatures are seen as an interaction between the district's sheltered location some 15km from the sea, a relatively low altitude of 30 metres above sea level, the shelter provided by Roys Hill and, "very importantly", gravel soils that warm up early in the spring, dry out rapidly and act as a thermal blanket for the vines. While conceding that its claims are not adequately represented by standard climatic indices of maximum and minimum temperatures and growing degree days, the association's website states: "There's something to be said for the gut feel of a farmer, and that's all we are, fancy farmers! Maybe the proof is in the wines."
The district sees its gravels as its most significant point of difference – "a key terroir factor mostly because of its influence on the amount of water that is available to the vine through the season, and how the vine gets it."
Craggy Range wine and viticultural director Steve Smith, a driver in founding the association, uses the term "terroir manipulation" in referring to the need for human intervention to express terroir. "In the Gimblett Gravels, terroir manipulation is part of the vigneron's art." While the French concept terroir does not embrace the use of irrigation, vines in the Gimblett Gravels, lacking clay in the gravelly soil structure, would struggle to survive without the measured application of water drawn from a vast aquifer below the Heretaunga Plains. Drip-fed low-vigour vines, the association says, expose more fruit to the sun and produce smaller crops and smaller berries that are imbued with flavour, colour and riper tannins. "By irrigation and probably some leaf plucking we have manipulated our vine to think it's in a terroir that is hotter than it really is," says Smith.
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