{"id":386078,"date":"2026-04-18T16:28:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386078\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:28:21","slug":"early-pickings-in-hawkes-bay-making-for-great-wine-2026-vintage-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/386078\/","title":{"rendered":"Early pickings in Hawke\u2019s Bay making for great wine \u2013 2026 vintage report"},"content":{"rendered":"

He expected 2026 to be a standout vintage for Hawke\u2019s Bay\u2019s reds.<\/p>\n

\"CraggyCraggy Range chief winemaker Ben Tombs.<\/p>\n

He said the red grapes had a \u201clonger hang time\u201d on the vines because the warmer start of the summer, cooler January and rainfall in February had recharged the canopy and soil.<\/p>\n

This allowed Tombs and his team to \u201cpush out some ripeness\u201d of the fruit on the vine, \u201cwhich is well needed for these varieties\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe syrah, merlot and cabernet are exceptional. I think it\u2019s the best I\u2019ve seen since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Winemaker and owner at Clearview Estate, Tim Turvey, said his 40th vintage in Te Awanga was \u201cearly and amazing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple really,\u201d Turvey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we want is hot and dry, and we got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said some were calling the best vintage for Hawke\u2019s Bay reds \u201cever\u201d thanks to ripe flavours with great structure and acid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe acid\u2019s the thing that gives us our freshness in Hawke\u2019s Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turvey said the colours of his grapes were the best he\u2019d seen in a long time after ripening \u201csuper quick\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favourite vintages were 2009 and \u201913. I think this might excel it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might learn something a bit from this as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HarvestHarvest 2026 at Clearview Estate and Winery in Te Awanga. Photo \/ Tim Turvey<\/p>\n

The Trinity Hill harvest started on February 12 this year, one week earlier than 2025.<\/p>\n

General manager Sarah Watson said this was because of the warm spring and early warm summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrinity has been producing wine since the mid-1990s, and I believe this could be one the earliest harvests on record<\/a>, if not the earliest.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said 120mm of rainfall in January put the growing vines in \u201cgreat stead\u201d for the dry start to autumn.<\/p>\n

Watson said 2026\u2019s cooler but dry March created \u201cideal conditions for developing outstanding fruit\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said Trinity Hill\u2019s main white variety, chardonnay, had \u201cexcellent balance and concentration\u201d.<\/p>\n

Watson said there were also early signs the winery\u2019s red would be of excellent quality.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, harvest 2026 has shaped up to be a very high-quality vintage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke\u2019s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He expected 2026 to be a standout vintage for Hawke\u2019s Bay\u2019s reds. Craggy Range chief winemaker Ben Tombs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,1561,7793,3390,24392,3602,2245,2082,200208,16773,1976,78,1446,111,139,69,60725,200207,1560,213,165,27300,27627,1533,1754,70361,379],"class_list":["post-386078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2246","tag-bay","tag-bays","tag-best","tag-each","tag-earlier","tag-early","tag-for","tag-grapes","tag-great","tag-hawkes","tag-in","tag-making","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-picking","tag-pickings","tag-report","tag-sports","tag-their","tag-theyre","tag-vintage","tag-will","tag-wine","tag-wineries","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}