Hawkhurst Vineyards -
               Hawke's Bay finest wines

Hawkhurst Quality

Hawkhurst Estate has vineyards situated in Havelock North, Hawke's Bay producing premium estate grown grapes on established vines. The river silt deposited in times of flood from the Karamu Creek is rich in natural minerals and vines thrive without irrigation or artificial fertilisers and produce fruit with a very intense flavour undiluted by irrigation. .

Hawkhurst has been growing grapes for over 25 years and have specialised in the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot varieties. Recently Malbec has been added to our list of producing varieties. Our yield of fruit is generally very low due to the average vine age of 14 years and ground cover crops to reduce vine vigour and provide a natural ecosystem for organic grape production.

The quality and integrity of the wines we produce are not dictated by corporate policy made in England, Australia or the USA. We do not need to worry about the movement of the DOW, FTSE or ASX and the pressure to generate corporate profit at the expense of quality and integrity...

We think the extra cost involved is money well spent and as we drink a lot of the wine ourselves, we like the wine to be free of unknown chemical residues.

Growing Organic

We use only Copper and Sulphur organic sprays to control all fungal diseases. We are lucky in the fact the only problem insect pest is mealy bug which we control with a predatory wasp and by stripping off the old vine bark in the winter to wind, rain and frost.

We do not net our vines so birds do eat our grapes but they keep other insect pests under control naturally, we also rely on ladybirds and plant natural ground covers between rows to encourage them. We thin our grape bunches if they touch so rot does not start where we can not spray with copper and sulphur, we leaf pluck around bunches so the fruit dries out after rain and dew quickly, this reduces the chance of rot setting in.

The fruit exposed to more sunlight also has a better natural colour in the skin which makes high quality dark coloured wines. We need to use organic sprays every time it rains because the organic sprays do not enter the plant to control disease and can only act on the surface of the vines, leaves and canes.