Rain? Wind? Not among the grapevines
Escape the rain and wind this weekend and spend a Saturday among the Hawke’s Bay grapevines.
This Saturday is the third annual Bridge Pa Triangle Wine Festival, a boutique event that showcases eight of the region’s wineries.
Bridge Pa Triangle Wine District Association chairman Paul Ham says the triangle is a winemaking sub-region, west of Hastings, that comprises up 2000 hectares of the Heretaunga plains.
It includes the largest concentration of vineyards in Hawke’s Bay.
The festival is based around a circuit of six stops, with buses continually ferrying wine-lovers between the sites. Every stop will offer different food, wine and music for the three-day event, open from 10am to 6pm daily.
Vineyards began planting around Bridge Pa in the mid-1980s, but the area’s popularity really took off in the 1990s. Now eight wineries are based in the triangle, while several others also grow there.
‘‘It’s a wine-growing subregion of Hawke’s Bay; it has a unique style of wines due to the soil type.’’
Ham describes the local product as being aromatic, approachable wines with rounded tannins.
Last year’s festival attracted 1600 people. This time, the organisers are expecting between 1800 and 1900, having capped patron numbers at 2000.
Buses from Napier, Hastings, Taradale and Havelock North will all provide transport to the rural area.
Ham is the managing director of Alpha Domus – one of the eight local wineries – having bought land at Bridge Pa in 1990.
‘‘We produced our first wines in 1996 and it’s grown from there, but we have remained 100 per cent family owned.’’
Another stop on the festival trail is Paritua Vineyards, a site open to the public just once a year for the weekend-long event. It’s sharing its stop with Hawkes Ridge Wine Estate nearby.
Further down the road is Sileni Estate, which is sharing a site with Red metal Vineyards.
Next is Abbey Cellars, another family-owned winery and home to PHOTO: FAIRFAX NZ
‘‘It’s a winegrowing subregion of Hawke’s Bay; it has a unique style of wines due to the soil type.’’ Paul Ham, of Alpha Domus
the Fat Monk craft beer label. The final two stops are Ngatarawa Estate and Ash Ridge Wines.
Showers are forecast for Friday and Sunday but a break in the weather is predicted for Saturday, offering sun, some cloud and a high of 24 degrees Celsius.
General tickets to the festival cost $35. They are available at the gate or from Event finda.