Esk Valley

"A small valley with a big history"

Esk Valley is one of New Zealands oldest wineries and was established in 1933 just north of Hawke's Bay. In 1987 receivership was looming over Esk Valley due to a price war raging in the New Zealand wine industry and so in comes Sir George Fistonich. He purchases the operation in an effort to help Esk Valley maintain its commitment to simple artisan winemaking.

Nowadays Gordon Russell is the senior winemaker and Esk Valley operate from a new site in the heart of the Gimblett Gravels region. They continue to use traditional methods such as hand plunging the red wines in large concrete fermenters to gently extract the colour and tannin from the grapes.