Industry gets taste of best in the Bay

Bilancia vineyard manager Alex Hendry (left) compares tasting notes with Esk Valley Estate assistant winemaker Pierre Simonet at the Hawke's Bay A&P Bayleys Wine Awards tasting for exhibitors. Photo / Duncan Brown

It was a truly collegial spirit at yesterday's Hawke's Bay A&P Bayleys Wine Awards tasting for exhibitors event.

Staff, from all wineries entered, sampled each other's product at the EIT - before delivering it to a galvanised spittoon.

"The success of a region is something that has to be done together," event organiser, wine science and viticulture lecturer Tim Creagh said.

He said any wine entered into this year's award would have done "exceptionally well" at the first awards 15 years ago.

"It is really important to lift the whole region up."

More than 90 per cent of Hawke's Bay wineries, including multinational winemakers, enter the competition.

Entries for the awards, supported by Hawke's Bay Today, are accepted from wineries with wine made from 85 per cent Hawke's Bay grapes.

While the exhibitor tasters knew which wines had won medals, they did not know the category or supreme winners, which would be served with the awards' ceremony dinner on October 20 at the Hawke's Bay Showgrounds.

Te Awa Winery winemaker Richard Painter interrupted blending his 2014 Malbec for the opportunity. "It is the best chance to taste the greatest range of Hawke's Bay wines in one room at one time," he said.

"It is the best way to judge how the region is doing, in terms of wine quality and style of wines coming out of the last few vintages." Mission Estate Winery assistant winemakers Alex Roper and James Ostergren said it was a unique opportunity to benchmark their wine.

"We are looking at some pretty fantastic vintages as well," Mr Ostergren said.

"We are looking mainly at 2013, 2014 and there are some 2015 - we have had three awesome vintages in a row.

"The overall quality in the room is right up there and it is interesting to follow what people are doing stylistically as well, because wine follows different trends," Mr Roper said.