Day 24 – April 23, 2025 – Rosewood Cape Kidnappers Hawks Bay Wine Tour

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Another day another wine tour. Hawks Bay is renowned for its wine, particularly grapes that are historically grown in the Bordeaux region in France.  Our guide for today was Robbie Darby. She had vast experience in wine and was very knowledgeable.

Our first stop was Graggy Range, known for its Pinot Noir and Chardenay. We sat for a tasting of several wines, all very good. Then we were teamed with another group for a tour of the winery and barrel room. For this they poured a glass of their Bordeaux blend to drink while walking. This was not exactly to our plan, as when we do a tasting we never drink, when tasting several wines, drinking would not be a good idea. But we persevered.

It was interesting that the first stop was a room where they do the first vinification. This reminded me of another winery that had the same arrangement of casks in a circle. I will have to go back through my past pictures to find it.

Then we went down to the barrel room. Frankly like many we have seen.

We next stopped briefly at Black Barn Vineyard to see the amphitheater they have there and noticed they had not picked the grapes. Many had dried out and my guess was they are preparing to use them for a sweet wine. We tasted some of the grapes and they were very sweet.

It was lunch time, so we stopped at a wine / café for a brief lunch. We shared some small plates and then it was off to Trinity Hill. I noticed here, in their barrel room, they had several different sized barrels.

They gave us some of their best with an emphasize on their “Gimblett Gravels” and Rhone style wines. Very good stuff and something we are definitely going to add to the cellar.

Lastly, we stopped briefly at Te Mata. They do a lot of expert and should be available in the states. We only tasted three of their wines, a Chardonay and two Bordeaux blends, including their Colleraine, considered their top wine.

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