It’s been a while since Regional Wines has hosted a tasting and so it was fantastic to kick off the year (albeit a bit belatedly) with such a zinger. Hopefully this will be the first of many more.Te Mata Estate really is one of those wineries. With a reputation that precedes it and arguably New Zealand's best known and most iconic wine in the shape of Coleraine, it is hard to taste these wines without preconception of quality and elevated expectation. This can be a dangerous starting point for any tasting, but the wines certainly did not disappoint. This was...

Join our first ever virtual wine tasting in the first week of April when you buy any bottle of Esk Valley wine this month. Any purchase of an Esk Valley wine means that you can sign up for this free tasting, the only catch being that you can do it from the comfort of your own home. Not a bad catch, especially when one of Hawke's Bay's most experienced winemakers will pay you a visit while you're tasting or listening in.  This is the first virtual tasting we have hosted and it is being held in collaboration with Esk Valley winemaker Gordon...

Syrah is most famous for centuries of great red wines made on the hot slopes of the cool northern Rhone Valley, France. Its future here in New Zealand is significantly more recent with the first Syrah grapes planted in 1990, most famously by Alan Limmer but another winery also planted Syrah that same year in Hawke's Bay. Who was it? Que Syrah Syrah So, which winery was the second to plant Syrah in New Zealand's second biggest wine region? It's not a trick question. The answer is Te Mata Estate, our winery of the month for March. This innovative producer is most closely associated with commanding...

One great winery, two passionate wine families and a long history have all culminated to make Te Mata Estate the producer of many of New Zealand's most highly sought after red and white wines, all modelled on the best of Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley (with the exceptional Bullnose Syrah) and also now includes a Pinot Noir. Buy Te Mata Estate wines here We have all of these wines and their everyday reds and whites, on special for the month of March.  Read on for the history, the wines and the background... The history Te Mata was originally part of Te Mata...

Daniel Kemp is one of our most interesting wine suppliers and this month he brought in a couple of suitcases full of exciting new products from around New Zealand and the world. It takes bravery to even attempt to weather the storm of importing wine right now, due to global delays in shipping and transportation, thanks to the pandemic, but Kemp has tied himself to the mast and remains at the top of his game with both wine importation and distribution of it, nationwide This month he led our wine team through a diverse and delicious range of wines, starting with champagne...