The NZ sales team lead a privileged existence thanks to Mother Nature and Rod, Matt and the rest of the magicians at the winery in Hawke's Bay. Showing wine to consumers and customers alike is always easier  when it tastes great! We have witnessed a great response to the March 1 release of the Gimblett Gravels Vineyard wines from the 2009 vintage from trade and consumers. Our trade customers have relished the opportunity to show these wines off in style with the recent Gimblett Gravels dinner at Kermadec Restaurant in Auckland which sold out to lovers of these Craggy Range wines partnered with fine fare. Dida's Restaurant in Victoria Park celebrated the release with a Tapas inspired affair matched to the wines – another sold out event.

Other consumer events that have taken place include an intimate degustation dinner at Stafford Road Wine Bar with guests commenting that Te Muna Road Pinot Noir 2009 was the highlight of the evening. Glengarry had a great fund raising event in Wellington at their Thorndon Quay store – Craggy Range along with many other NZ distributors and Floriditas Restaurant donated wine and food to raise $2,200 towards the Red Cross Christchurch earthquake appeal. To finish what was a very busy month for us in the sales team the New Plymouth Wine Club kindly invited Craggy Range to be the first tasting event of the year on March 31st and I relished this opportunity to wax lyrical about the wines from our stable – a big thanks to Bruce and Marg Willan and of course Michael Radich.

With every good winery it is important that there is a great team of people representing them. We are lucky enough to have some exceptional talent showing the Craggy Range wines to trade and consumers so I would like to take this opportunity to pay homage to the great people I get to work alongside – our Captain - Brent Hindman, Andy Crozier-Silk and Charlotte Owen.

Cheers!

Steph Reade