Stonecroft - NZ's oldest Syrah
- Monday 19 May 2025
- 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
- New Zealand School of Food and Wine, Level 3, 104 Customs Street West, Viaduct, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand
Stonecroft, Hawke's Bay
Stonecroft is home to the oldest Syrah vines in New Zealand. Planted in 1984 on what is now the Gimblett Gravels, Stonecroft is an artisan producer of fine Hawke's Bay wines.
Join us on Monday 19 May to discover more.
Read more about Stonecroft's History
A single row of vines comprises Stonecroft’s original Syrah planting. These vines were planted in 1984 and are the oldest producing Syrah vines in New Zealand. They were rescued by Stonecroft’s founder, Dr. Alan Limmer, from the viticultural research vine collection at Te Kauwhata (now defunct). The vines were probably originally imported from Australia around 1900 by Romeo Bragato, largely ignored, and then in the 1970’s became part of a research programme to test virus elimination techniques. Fortunately, this treatment was successful. Once the programme was completed, the research station had no use for the vines and they would have been discarded if Dr. Limmer had not uplifted the vines and planted them at Stonecroft.
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