PHOTO: GETTY IMAGESBack then, Hawke’s Bay was the foremost wine region in New Zealand. "It meant Hawke’s Bay offered a lot of innovation at the time." Changing weather patterns have forced Hawke’s Bay wine-makers to look at new vineyard sites inland, areas which fell out of favour after being planted in the 1990s. "It’s a simple and natural manner that in some way captures the site in the bottle — that is it in its most extreme." Esk Valley is also reflecting that in wines from its premium vineyards by renaming them as Great Dirt wines.

Source: Otago Daily Times May 25, 2021 16:30 UTC