Wairarapa wine festival opens harvest

The Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival will be held at the The Cliffs riverside reserve on Dakins Rd, in Gladstone, tomorrow, marking the start of this year's grape harvest.

Some of the best wine and food Wairarapa produces will again be on offer at the annual Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival this weekend.

The festival will be held at the The Cliffs riverside reserve on Dakins Rd, in Gladstone, tomorrow, marking the start of this year's grape harvest.

Twenty-seven exhibitors from Wairarapa wineries, restaurants and food producers will be showing their wares.

There will also be a number of trade stalls and arts and crafts stalls.

Exhibitors will be operating from marquees set among the 100-year-old native trees, which are a feature of the site on the banks of the Ruamahanga River.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to meet winemakers from participating vineyards.

Food and wine matches will be judged by Ray McVinnie and John Saker, Cuisine Magazine's respective food and wine editors, and, for the first time, there will also be a "people's choice" food and wine match award.

Steamed crayfish dumplings, seared scallops and paua, and black pudding patties were some of the highlights of last year's menu.

Music from emerging artists such as Anna Mae and band Long Lost Uncle will feature at the beginning of the day, with a variety of other bands set to entertain festival-goers throughout the afternoon.

Tranzit NZ will provide a regional shuttle service, which will also connect with the train.

There will be free parking a short distance from the site with shuttle buses running to and from the carpark.