Now celebrating its tenth year, the Bridge Pā Wine Festival is a must-do for any wine enthusiast. We donned our sun hats and summer finest to find out what the festival is all about.
On the third Saturday of January each year, wine lovers across the country gather to enjoy a day of food, live music and award-winning wines at the Bridge Pā Wine Festival. With eight wineries now participating in the event, including Abbey Cellars, Alpha Domus, Ash Ridge Wines, Oak Estate, Paritua, Sileni Estates, Redmetal Vineyards and Zaria Wines, it’s the perfect way to discover new wines from one of Hawke’s Bay’s most interesting sub-regions.
The Bridge Pā Triangle is an area roughly marked out by three roads. With the oldest soils on the Heretaunga Plains, grapes grown here sit atop an ancient site shaped over thousands of years by the changing course of the Ngaruroro River.
“The special nature of the soils here provide depth and flavour to the resulting wines,” says Paul Ham, co-founder and managing director at Alpha Domus. “Free-draining ‘red metal’ gravels are overlaid by alluvium derived from volcanic ash and greywacke, creating a unique viticultural area capable of growing a diverse range of grape varieties.”
The Bridge Pā Wine District Association was created to promote the distinctive terroir of the sub-region, and a celebratory wine festival was the perfect way to introduce these unique wines to the world. “The wines tend to be generous, elegant, aromatic, round, expressive and feminine,” says Bryce Edmonds, owner and winemaker at Zaria Wines. “The wines we make resonate with the land from which they are grown.”
The concept for the festival was inspired by a previous event which aimed to link all of the wineries in Hawke’s Bay via bus – a task that proved to be too logistically challenging. “We saw an opportunity to replicate the event on a smaller scale,” says Paul. “We are perfectly suited to a scaled-down version. There are enough wineries to make it interesting, but festival goers are able to get around to all of the sites if they wish.”
Hop-on hop-off buses connect the participating wineries, with no longer than five minutes between each stop. Festival goers can enjoy glass pours, live music and different street food vendors at each winery. It’s the ultimate way to enjoy a sunny Hawke’s Bay day: reclining in the shade on one of the many bean bags and rugs with a glass of wine in hand, soaking up the live music and vineyard views.
Since its beginning in 2014, the event has continued to gain in momentum. “Each year we work hard to improve the festival,” says Paul, “both from an association and individual venue perspective by finetuning logistics with the buses, food, music and shade.” This year, buses ran more frequently between the wineries, and new pick-up locations were available in Central Hawke’s Bay, opening the event up to a wider audience. With Hawke’s Bay recently named as the World’s 12th Great Wine Capital, there’s no better time to make the most of the Bay’s world-class wine tourism activities.
So many people pitch in to make the day a success, and Paul’s favourite part of the festival each year is when he can take a moment to step back and appreciate all the hard work that’s been put in: “I’m happy when the festival is underway, everything is running smoothly, and I see relaxed visitors enjoying themselves and commenting on what a great day it is.”
As the latest winery to participate in the festival, Bryce was able to reflect on a job well done: “My favourite memory from the day was just after 5.00 p.m., when only my friends and family remained. The temperature had cooled and there was an amazing glowing red sunset. I could look around and bask in the knowledge that we had successfully completed our debut at the festival.”
And so, with happy festival goers back aboard their buses home and another successful day of sunshine, laughter and music having come and gone, the participating wineries can crack open a bottle and say a well-deserved “Cheers!” as the sun sets on another fantastic festival.
