Two Terraces Vineyard

About

Two Terraces Vineyard, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand

Mission

Two Terraces Vineyard is being developed by Ian and Linda Quinn, with assistance from one of New Zealand’s leading viticulturalists.

We are inspired by many of the smaller wineries making wine in New Zealand for the premium end of the market, and are aiming to create a similar business as grape growers. We have no intention of making wine commercially, although we will probably make some for friends and family at some point!

The property consists of ~24ha (around 60 acres) spread over two terraces laid down by the Ngaruroro River. We are initially planting 10ha of vineyard on one of the terraces, and have a further 10-12ha which we will develop later. The property also has around 2ha of sloping banks, a portion of which we plan to plant with staked Syrah, in a manner similar to the way it is grown in the northern Rhone Valley in France.

The lower nightime temperatures of the inland site should support production of wines in a cooler climate style with good aromatics and elegant structure, avoiding the risk of overripe charactoristics. There is still a nice diversity of opinion on what varieties work in this sub-region of the Hawke’s Bay, but adjacent vineyards strongly endorse Chardonnay, Merlot and aromatic whites, while a group of us passionately believe it will be a good site for cool-climate Syrah.

Over the past 15,000 years, the nearby Ngaruroro River has laid down some spectacular terraces, with shallow stony silt loams over red metals. As well as being shaped by the river, the soils also contain volcanic deposits from past eruptions on the volcanic plateau in the central North Island.

Until it’s purchase, the site has been farmed as part of (or adjacent to) some of the larger, more historic stations in the Hawke’s Bay. While most of the riverside terraces were developed into vineyards during the 1990’s and 2000’s, this property remained in family hands and has been grazed in a very low intensity manner.

We plan on adopting a focus on sustainable viticulture from the outset. As well as joining the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand program, we also intend developing an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan, working to build appropriate biodiversity on the property to support that, and to make use of technology to monitor, report and accurately shape the way the property is farmed. Evolving to organic certification once the vineyard is established is also an option we will look at in the future.

We are current talking with several winemakers about the variety and volumes of grapes they are interested in, ahead of placing orders for vines in the first half of 2015. Most of the site infrastructure will go in during 2015 and the first half of 2016, with initial planting taking place when the vines are available in September 2016.