Hawke's Bay Winery and Vineyard
Huthlee Estate Winery
84 Montana Road
Ngatarawa
Huthlee Estate is a well established vineyard and boutique winery
located in a premium wine growing area of Hawke's Bay.
The estate is situated approx 12 kms South West from Hastings City , right in the heart of Hawke's Bay's Wine Country.Within a relatively short distance of the property are the main winegrowing areas of the Gimblett Gravel Appellation and the Ngatarawa Triangle, which are becoming increasingly recognised internationally for their quality wine production. Huthlee is situated adjacent to a golfcourse and is close to the Bridge Pa aerodrome. Surrounding properties are utilised for a mix of lifestyle, horticulture, viticulture and olive production.
Huthlee's wines feature in many of the current New Zealand wine writer's books . in 1998 their Merlot topped the Cuisine Magazine Red Wine Awards.
The Global Encyclopedia of Wines quotes " The owners Devon and Estell Lee have built up an impressive range of good quality reds from bordeaux grapes. Their fleshy, stylish, 100% Cabernet Franc and their meaty Merlot, are always underpriced and the Cabernet Sauvignon and blends are consistently complex, comcentrated and well structured for age. A recently introduced Pinot Gris displays remarkable spice, earthiness and steely acids."
Huthlee Estate specialises in fine wines, with an emphasis on red wines with the vines on the estate benefitting from the Mediterrean style climate of Hawkes Bay and also the dry, shingly free draining land they grow in.
Huthlee Estate comprises a total of 15 hectares (37 acres) in two land titles.
FIRST LAND TITLE
The boutique winery has been operating since the late 1980's on 6.7hectares (16.5 acres) of land. This is a fully developed site made up of a vineyard, cellar door operation/retail shop/catering kitchen, laboratory and winery, cellar, and a four bedroom house, with accomodation with an office. There is also a fully developed vineyard comprising approximately 35% Merlot; 30% Caberent Franc; 17% Pinot Gris; 10% Sauvignon Blanc ; 1% Pinotage; 2.7% Malbec; and 3.5% of Cabernet Sauvignon. There is a net planted area of just over 6 hectares ( 6.07 ha) with a loss to headlands , buildings and non productive areas of 0.63 ha .
The total number of vines is 11,120 (more or less) There is also a windmill,powered by petrol,on this block.
This property has resource consents to take underground water for irrigation and frost protection. Also consent to erect a winery processing building with a capacity to process up to 60,000 litres of grape juice and an ancillary wine sales building. There is an off licence held for the property.
SECOND LAND TITLE
The second title of land comprises 8.3 hectares with an accessway to Ngatarawa Road on its south eastern corner. More than half of this land is developed in viticulture, with the balance of the land currently cropped, with potential to extend the exisiting vineyard. The vineyard plantings on this block include Merlot; Cabernet Franc;Cabernet Sauvignon; Sauvignon blanc and Pinot Gris. There is also power to the boundary, with water presently sourced from the adjoining estate property.
Other improvements on this block include a storage shed, with a lean-to, a small fuel shed amd three other small corrugated iron sheds that are not permanently fixed to the property.
The land is zoned Plains. The Heretaunga Plains includes some of the most fertile soils in New Zealand and contains an underground water resource for Hastings and Napier. Average rainfall in this area is approximately 700-800 mm per annum, with the main rainfall months being May to August, approximately 120 days. Hazardous conditions are minimal, with historically a low unseasonal frost factor.
There is also an extensive list of plant and machinery which is available to be sold with this property. Wine stocks are also being offered for sale. These stocks include wine which is presently cellared, wine bottled, labelled and in cartons and also wine currently being stored in barrells.