Like a fine wine, the terrain has clearly aged well across the western side of the Heretaunga Plains.
Across about 2000 hectares of that terrain, formed from over 10,000 years ago when the river ran through there creating a foundation of alluvial greywacke and fine silt.
An almost perfect terrain for the growing of good grapes and creation of fine wines.
"Soft, rounded aromatic wines," was how one of the drivers of the Bridge Pa Triangle family of winemakers, Paul Ham from Alpha Domus, put it.
The triangle has the largest concentration of vineyards in Hawke's Bay and has also sometimes been called the Maraekakaho Triangle and the Ngatarawa Triangle, with Alwyn Corban and Garry Glazebrook from Ngatarawa Wines first sparking wine production in the region in the late 1980s.
By the late 1990s several other boutique wineries, among the first of them Alpha Domus, set up shop there and the "triangle" tag initially emerged in 2008, and three years later a small group of winemakers and owners got together to get it off the ground.
"It started with a few boutique producers in 2011 and now it is 2016 and we have just welcomed Villa Maria and Church Road aboard, so I think that says a lot for the development of this sub-region."
While they create and bottle their wines elsewhere they have vineyards there.
Mr Ham believes the Bridge Pa Triangle will add to its current 11 members in years to some.
"There are still some pockets of land here and in time they will be planted."
He said the driving force for the members was to tell the story of the region, through their wines and with events like the Bridge Pa Wine Festival.
In past years many grape varieties were planted on what he called heavy soil, but the triangle introduced lighter soils.
"The vines are getting older and the wines are getting better,"he said, adding that the stand-out varieties were syrah, followed closely by chardonnay and cabernet merlot.
He said the group was a true winemaking community and said all worked for not just the good of the triangle but for the overall good of Hawke's Bay wines.
That was underlined by the organising of a major media event which the Bridge Pa Triangle will be hosting next February.
"We will have about 30 media from all around the world here so that is a big opportunity for us to tell the story of the triangle to the world," Mr Ham said.
The visit will tie in with the Classic Red Symposium which which will also see media and trade in large attendance.
"We'll give them a long lazy lunch, a barbecue and wine tasting and of course we will tell our story."
Mr Ham said the expansion of the triangle group as well as the stellar seasons of late had resulted in good reason for the members to get together recently for a Christmas gathering, with a celebration touch.
Many took along the trophies, awards and medals which had been picked up over the past couple of years, and the full list was hugely impressive.
Among the scores of awards was the Air New Zealand Champion Wine of Show which went Church Road's way with its 2013 McDonald Series Syrah...one of nine awards it has picked up.
Ngatarawa has picked up about 20 awards and Alpha Domus has a string of gold awards as well as trophies at the Winestate Awards and the Hawke's Bay A&P Bayleys Wine Awards.
Ash Ridge was the A&P's Winery of the Year for 2014 and also picked up Champion Merlot.
Te Mata Estate's Bullnose was a five-star entrant for Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide - the remarkable accolades go on.
In terms of producing another exceptional vintage, which would make it five in a row, things were looking pretty good across the triangle and the region.
"It is all lining up very nicely at this stage," Mr Ham said, although he was cautious about saying too much as there was still a lot of time to run yet.
But there had been no late and damaging frosts and flowering had been exceptional.
Good temperatures and breezy days.
"We're quietly confident."