Dee Wine Reserve Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2019

3 May 2025By Yvonne

Dee Wine Reserve Hawke’s Bay Merlot Cabernet 2019 $tbc Soothing and smoothly savoury, this classic Bordeaux-style blend has soothing cocoa, smoked blueberry, baked boysenberry and graphite-laced goodness. Fine-grained, sandy tannins and fleshy length of flavour. info@deewine.co.nz

Alpha Domus The Batten Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2024

2 May 2025By Yvonne

Alpha Domus The Batten Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2024 $44 I cannot stress this enough. The Batten 2024 is my Chardonnay of the year so far, and if you’re a Chardonnay fan or Chardonnay collector, you must beg, steal, borrow, barter, do whatever it takes to get your mits on this vintage as soon as you … Read More

Monowai Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2023

19 April 2025By Yvonne

Monowai Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2023 $24 Gorgeously golden in the glass, winemaker and owner Emma Lowe has, from a horrific cyclone year, I might add, created a bold, peach and cashew-crammed style with refreshing acidity, buttered toast dusted with cinnamon characters and a finish that’s like a marathon being run in your mouth. Tropic-tastic and … Read More

Trinity Hill Hawke’s Bay Pinot Gris 2023

8 April 2025By Yvonne

Trinity Hill Hawke’s Bay Pinot Gris 2023 $24.99 2023 was a really tricky year for Hawke’s Bay grapegrowers as Cyclone Gabrielle struck with devastating force just as harvest was about to begin. Yet the folk at Trinity Hill managed to craft a snappy, richly-structured, dry-styled gris laced with classic nashi notes and a hint of … Read More

Three Fates in Bay Buzz Magazine 2025

1 April 2025By Yvonne

Three Fates wine by Yvonne LorkinApril 1, 2025 From left: Holly Girven-Russell, Casey Motley, Hester Nesbitt. Photo: Florence Charvin When it comes to wine stories fitting the cultural zeitgeist, it doesn’t get more current than three, young Hawke’s Bay women stalking each other on social media before opting to leap into business together with the … Read More

Brookfields Back Block Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2023

1 April 2025By Yvonne

Brookfields Back Block Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2023 $22 Peter Robertson is an ex flatmate of the Wizard of Christchurch. He also began making wine in Hawke’s Bay in the early 1970s and purchased Brookfields Vineyards in 1977, forty years after it was founded in 1937. He was one of the first to leap onto the … Read More

Jenny Dobson Florence Hawke’s Bay Fiano 2023

12 March 2025By Yvonne

Jenny Dobson Florence Hawke’s Bay Fiano 2023 $45 Having been involved with crafting Fiano from fruit grown in tiny amounts in the Bridge Pa subregion since 2010, Jenny Dobson is easily New Zealand’s foremost expert on Fiano production. Fiano is an ancient, white grape with its spiritual home in Campania in Southern Italy. Still, it … Read More

Huntress Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2023

11 March 2025By Yvonne

Huntress Hawke’s Bay Syrah 2023 $48 This is the first time Jannine Rickards has released a syrah from Hawke’s Bay, and she sourced her fruit from the Herringbone Vineyard in Bridge Pa. Taking a third of the grapes and fermenting them as whole clusters (rather than the traditionally crushed berries) has created a wine with … Read More

Three Fates Gordon Russell Hawke’s Bay Chenin Blanc 2024

11 February 2025By Yvonne

Three Fates Gordon Russell Hawke’s Bay Chenin Blanc 2024 $40 From Ian and Linda Quinn’s Two Terraces vineyard out in Mangatahi west of Hastings, this wild-fermented collaboration between Holly, Hester and Casey from Three Fates, and Holly’s father Gordon Russell (ex-Esk Valley) one of New Zealand’s pioneer Chenin Blanc masters. Aromas of mandarin, jasmine, peach … Read More

Maison Noire Gabrielle’s Kiss 2023

15 January 2025By Yvonne

Maison Noire Gabrielle’s Kiss Hawke’s Bay Red Blend 2023 $20 Hit hard by Cyclone Gabrielle in February 2023, Guillaume Thomas at Maison Noire opted to get creative with their Cabernet Franc and Syrah grown high up on the Waimarama Road – and do some crafty blending. Highly floral, laced with bay, tobacco, green peppercorns, black … Read More