Hastings - Hawke's Bay Unsuccessful in Great Wine Capital Bid

Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule says despite news Hastings has been unsuccessful in the bid to be New Zealand's Great Wine Capital there are some excellent positives to be taken out of the application being made.

 

Hastings - Hawke's Bay was approached in April by the Bordeaux-based Great Wine Capitals Global Network to make an application to join other cities around the world in the network, including Bilbao (Spain), Bordeaux (France), Cape Town (South Africa), Florence (Italy), Mainz (Germany), Mendoza (Argentina), Porto (Portugal) and San Francisco, Napa Valley (USA).

 

Christchurch was also invited to make an application and a judging panel of three international representatives visited to make their decision in August.

 

Last night Mayor Yule held a small thank you function for all those Hawke's Bay businesses who supported the application and hosted or entertained the delegates on their visit here.

 

He had the unfortunate job of informing them the bid had not been accepted.

"The reason cited for not being successful was down to the size of the population in Hastings and the region.

 

"The delegates were very impressed by the strong cohesion, cooperation and support between the wine and tourism stakeholders in Hastings and Napier, and the excellent quality of wine produced in Hawke’s Bay.

 

"However, the Executive Committee of the Great Wine Capital Network preferred to remain strict to their criteria in terms of size of their member cities and wine regions," Mayor Yule says.

 

In a letter to Mayor Yule, Catherine Leparmentier, Permanent Secretary of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network said Hastings - Hawke's Bay would be a great member of a wine-regions organisation, however, "we must keep in mind that the GWC is a network of cities. "

 

"We thought we could find some way to overpass this, but we finally had to reckon that it was not possible,” Ms Leparmentier says.

 

“You can be very proud of the quality Hawke’s Bay offers its visitors. The magnificence of the sceneries and the kindness of the people make it a very attaching and memorable region. And of course, the excellent quality of wine produced there absolutely deserves the international recognition they receive now.”

 

Mayor Yule reiterated this point to the industry representatives, who were very disappointed not to become accepted as a member of the prestigious network.

 

“They don’t doubt the quality of our wine, in fact quite the opposite. Because we were so good, and could prove that the industry was behind the application, it actually made their decision quite difficult," Mayor Yule says.

 

“One silver lining coming out from this is the amazing way the different industry groups and businesses united for the good of Hawke's Bay. It was fantastic to see and be a part of.

 

"We hope Megan Harris and the Hawke’s Bay Wine Country Tourism Association can capitalise on that good will and develop our wine tourism experience even further,” Mayor Yule says.