Tough job picking best local drops | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

It sounds like a wine lover's dream day.

To taste about 80 of Hawke's Bay's finest wines all in a sniff and a sip in under eight hours.

But for the judges of the bi-annual Regional Wine Selection it is demanding and at the end of the day vital in providing a selection geared to be tasted by visitors from all over the world.

And besides, while the three judges for this year's leading line-up got to savour the rich aromas and taste the many varied flavours they did not allow those drops to go any further than the taste buds in their mouths.

The wine selection event has been going for the past eight years and is designed to compile a classy line-up of the region's top varieties.

The line-up is then presented to the many visiting groups of wine writers and media from all over the world who call into the Bay to see what it has to offer on the wine front.

There had been a gradual growth in recent years in the number of writers heading downunder to sip the fruits of the Kiwi grape.

Hawke's Bay Winegrowers executive officer Lyn Bevin, who oversees the six-monthly selections, said during the month of December alone there were 10 visiting groups who steered a path through the region.

"These visits are incredibly valuable," she said.

"People look for recommendations from the media, and many traditional wine writers are using social media sites - and they are very influential in terms of (people) discovering new places."

She said globally Hawke's Bay was still seen by many as being relatively new in the wine world - but its reputation was growing fast.

At last Tuesday's selection event Trinity Hill's John Hancock, CJ Pask's Russell Wiggins and Paul Mooney from Church Road Winery put 86 of the region's top wines to the test through a strict blind tasting session.

They eventually decided upon 32 wines to represent the Bay-produced varieties which will be presented to international guests.

Ms Bevin said the selection had been drawn from wines which had previously won gold medals or trophies from New Zealand and international competitions. They were effectively picking a list of reds, whites, blends, dessert and bubbly which were the best of the best - in their eyes (and tastebuds).

The judging took place at the EIT's Sensory lab, and gave some viticulture students a close-up look at the processes and disciplines involved in wine selection.