One of New Zealand’s biggest drug busts uncovered, the new policy threatening 20 years behind bars for Kiwis in Bali and Florida braces for another ferocious storm.
A well-known Hawke’s Bay winery is opting to sell its restaurant, vineyard and cellar door to focus on selling wines on the US market.
Those who know the local wine industry say they do not believe Te Awanga Estate Winery’s decision is a harbinger of things to come at otherHawke’s Bay’s vineyards and cellar doors.
The winery, nestled amongst the foothills that hug the Cape Coast, has been put on the market, but owner Rod McDonald says their wines are not disappearing from Kiwi shelves.
A former NZ winemaker of the year, McDonald started thinking about selling the property he has run a cellar door on for 12 years, when he realised most of the brand’s sales were now coming from the export market in America.
“Looking at best use of resources and how to deploy them we just couldn’t justify continuing to have a lot of capital tied up in the vineyard. So we made the decision to investigate putting it on the market.”
Te Awanga Estate Winery, on Clifton Rd, has vineyards, a cellar door and a restaurant. Photo / Jack Riddell
The land encompasses 17.3 hectares of prime viticultural land, with a mix of merlot, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, syrah, pinot and cabernet franc grapes, with 60% in the white varietals.
It also includes a licensed restaurant and cellar door, which boasts views of the Pacific Ocean from Napier Hill to Cape Kidnappers.
The winery’s idyllic setting and pizza menu have drawn crowds over the years, largely over the summer months.
McDonald would still like to open the winery this summer in a sale that allows him to lease back the property, but that will require negotiation.
The tender process closes in early November, and McDonald and his team will make a decision after that.
“We love the Te Awanga sub-region and people have supported us amazingly.
“All the growth opportunity is in the US market. The domestic market for us, well for everybody, is really tough at the moment with hospo and retail.
“To continue to operate the business and to take advantage of the opportunities that are there, we’ve really got to chase growing our exports.”
According to New Zealand Wine, the US is our biggest wine export market, with $804.2 million worth of Kiwi wine sold there in the last 12 months from July.
However, Export NZ’s regional manager for Hawke’s Bay Amanda Liddle does not necessarily believe this is an early signal that local wine producers will be cutting back their local output in favour of exports.
“All wineries have their own business model that will work for them and their production levels and resource around that. We would like to see businesses in every sector establish and maximise export markets to generate offshore revenue where possible.
“This will be an exciting move for Te Awanga Estate.”
Rod McDonald inspecting his vines at Te Awanga Estate in 2016. Photo / Warren Buckland
Executive officer at Hawke’s Bay Wine Brent Linn agrees.
“I think individual businesses make their decisions around where their market is and going, but if we look at it from a regional perspective the cellar doors are still a very important part of the Hawke’s Bay wine story and it’s evidence by some of the recent developments where we’ve seen significant investment or re-investment in their cellar doors.
“So that is an indicator that the cellar door is very alive and well and important in terms of telling the Hawke’s Bay wine story to both international and domestic consumers.”
McDonald still wants his wines in the domestic market, and he wants to continue the brand’s subscription service Drinkers + Keepers, which provides the brand’s wines direct to consumers.
He will continue to craft wines from vineyards the company leases in Te Awanga, Haumoana, and Bridge Pā.
“The reality is that the brand isn’t going to disappear and we’re going to be involved in all the local community stuff as we are now,” McDonald said.
