Wine region
Hawke's Bay
Hawke's Bay is a wine region in New Zealand, home to 64 wineries, producing red, rose, white wines.
On this page
Hawke's Bay's 64 wineries make roughly equal red and white wine; Chardonnay is the most common single-grape bottling; wines carry GI designation.
About the Hawke's Bay region
- Location
- Hawke's Bay is a wine region in New Zealand.
- Climate
- The area has the sunny warm Hawke's Bay climate, moderated by cool coastal breezes at night.
- Soils
- The Gimblett Gravels is an area of approximately 800 hectares (2,000 acres) defined by the extent of a particular local soil stratum known as the Omahu Gravels.
Region facts sourced from Wikidata contributors, item Q85765961, retrieved 2026-07-11. (CC0), Wikipedia contributors, "Hawke's Bay wine region", Wikipedia, revision 1355705629, retrieved 2026-07-11. (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International).
Most common single-grape wines
When Hawke's Bay wines are made from a single grape (rather than a blend), these are the most common:
- Chardonnay
- 37 single-grape wines
- Merlot
- 23 single-grape wines
- Sauvignon Blanc
- 22 single-grape wines
- Pinot Noir
- 10 single-grape wines
- Gewürztraminer
- 7 single-grape wines
- Cabernet Franc
- 6 single-grape wines
Wine profile
Hawke's Bay is roughly split, making substantial red (53%) and white (41%) wine.
787 distinct Hawke's Bay wines tracked, spanning the colours and styles below.
- Red417 · 53%
- White323 · 41%
- Rose44 · 6%
Types: Port, Sparkling, Still.
Catalogue vintages span 1997 to 2016.
Representative Hawke's Bay wines
Selected from stable product-to-region relationships for diversity — not a claim that these are the region's best wines.
- Mazuran's — The Governor's Cellar Merlot
- Esk Valley — Pinot Gris
- Thornbury — Rose
- Unison — Selection Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
- Monowai — Chardonnay
- Ka Tahi — Merlot Malbec
- Te Awanga — One Off Silky Smooth Organic Sangiovese Cabernet Sauvignon
- Southbank Estate — Chardonnay
Quality designations
Wines here carry GI status — a controlled quality designation.
- GIGeographical Indication — a defined origin area used in Australia and other New World countries.
New Zealand wine designations
- GI
- A New Zealand geographical indication identifies a product as originating from a region where a quality, reputation or characteristic is essentially attributable to that origin.
Understanding the wine data
- Designation
- The protected-origin or administrative category associated with the wine, interpreted using country-aware rules. The same abbreviation can mean different things in different countries, so we only show the meaning approved for that country.
How this ranking is built
Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.
Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.
Explore Hawke's Bay
Ways to browse Hawke's Bay — each count is the size of that specific collection (a subset of the 787 wines tracked above):
- Red Hawke's Bay (330)
- White Hawke's Bay (308)
- Rose Hawke's Bay (41)
How to choose a good Hawke's Bay wine
Look for the GI designation — it signals a controlled-origin Hawke's Bay wine.
FAQs
- Where is Hawke's Bay?
- Hawke's Bay is a wine region in New Zealand.
- What do the designation terms on Hawke's Bay wines mean?
- GI: A New Zealand geographical indication identifies a product as originating from a region where a quality, reputation or characteristic is essentially attributable to that origin. These terms describe geographical or regulatory categories; they do not by themselves guarantee that one producer or bottle is better than another.
- How are wineries and producers selected for Hawke's Bay?
- Producers are included when WhatDrink has a canonical producer-to-region relationship supported by the catalogue data. Display order may use represented wine count and relationship confidence to provide useful coverage; it is not a ranking of winery quality, prestige, production volume or critical acclaim.
- How are representative Hawke's Bay wines selected?
- Representative wines are selected from products with a stable relationship to this region, with preference for clear producer identity and a useful spread of producers, wine styles and designations. Inclusion is not an editorial score and does not mean these are the region’s best wines.
- How much wine data does WhatDrink have for Hawke's Bay?
- The current regional catalogue contains 787 linked wines from 64 linked producers. Counts describe WhatDrink catalogue coverage and may change as source data is refreshed.
Regional data is aggregated from wine directory and product-catalogue sources; grape and style associations reflect characteristic varieties and may vary by producer and vintage.