Te Mata Estate

Te Mata Estate is New Zealand's oldest winery. Always in the same place, Te Mata has the oldest buildings and commercial vineyard sites in New Zealand - with over 120 years of wine production from the same site. Te Mata's flagship wine 'Coleraine' is regarded by many as New Zealand's finest red wine. When made, Coleraine is available on March 1.

Te Mata Estate is located in Hawke's Bay, on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand. This wine growing region is defined by its five major rivers, a wide diversity of soil types and a climate of dry sunny summers and long autumns. The proximity of the Pacific Ocean makes the region maritime and temperate with a natural 'rain shadow' which can keep soils particularly dry during ripening season.

Te Mata's winery and its vineyards are run by the Buck family - John Buck OBE, a former chairman of the Wine Institute of New Zealand and member of the NZ Wine Hall of Fame, as well as his sons and company directors Jonathan Buck, CEO Nick Buck and Tobias Buck. Coleraine is named after the Buck family's ancestral hometown in Northern Ireland. Te Mata Estate Winery Ltd relies on its long-term senior management staff, a permanent vineyard crew and a team of hand-pickers led by senior viticulturist Larry Morgan. Te Mata's winemaking team has been led for over 30 years by Technical Director Peter Cowley.

As part of their ongoing training Te Mata Estate staff and members of the Buck and Cowley family have worked in the Barossa, Mendoza, Spain, Tasmania, Chile, Burgundy, Piedmont and regularly in the Médoc Aoc Bordeaux France with specialist cabernet producers such as Château Margaux, Château Léoville-Barton and Chateau Mauvesin.

Since 1896 Te Mata Estate has hand-harvested grapes exclusively from their own Hawke's Bay vineyards under direct control of the winery. Te Mata has produced, blended and labelled small-batch premium wines entirely on site in their original winery buildings. Te Mata Estate is a boutique winery and is based in the Havelock Hills, 15km south of Napier, in New Zealand's first legally-protected grape-growing area - the 'Te Mata Special Character Zone'.

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Wikipedia