Last year, Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand became the twelfth member of the Great Wine Capitals of the World. Great Wine Capitals is a global network consisting of 12 of the world’s great wine regions. The network was founded in Bordeaux in 1999. The idea of the Wine Capital Global Network is to benefit and promote wine-related industries in these wine regions through a broad collaboration within for instance industry, tourism, and education.
Hawke’s Bay is beautifully located on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. On the rolling slopes are vines, olive groves, palm trees, and cypresses. With around 5,000 hectares it is the second largest wine region in the country and also the oldest.
Mission Estate, which still exists, was founded in 1851. Hawke’s Bay is known for its concentrated chardonnay and excellent syrah, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Napier, the ‘capital’, is a charming little town with unique art deco buildings.
Other regions in the Wine Capital Global Network are
- Adelaide/South Australia,
- Bilbao/Rioja,
- Bordeaux,
- Cape Winelands,
- Lausanne,
- Mainz/Rheinhessen,
- Mendoza,
- Porto,
- San Francisco/Napa Valley,
- Valparaiso/Casablanca Valley, and
- Verona.
There is, as one of their rules, only one GWC per country and one would wish that they were not so limiting restrictive. There are many more that would merit to be part of a network to promote good wine. Seems a bit unfair.
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Travel: Join us at BKWine on a tour to Hawke’s Bay and (almost) all of New Zealand’s wine regions in March 2024!
