Media Releases

Country Calendar Toasts Sacred Hill – A Great New Zealand Winery

TV One on Saturday, 31 July at 7pm
The intrepid journey of famous Hawke’s Bay winery, Sacred Hill, will feature on New Zealand’s longest running television series, Country Calendar on TV One, Saturday, 31 July at 7pm.
The story begins in the mid 1980s, when the Mason family boldly diversified from sheep and cattle to viticulture, transforming their stunning Dartmoor Valley farmland to new found wine country.
It was bid to escape tough farming conditions at the time, but the Mason’s soon learned the rigours of grape producing when the original vineyard was repeatedly wiped out by drought, flood and then Cyclone Bola.
All the while, bothers David and Mark Mason were discovering their love of wine. Teaming up with winemaker, Tony Bish, the Sacred Hill wine label was born. The name is derived from Puketapu - which means ‘sacred hill’ in Maori - a small village close to the estate.
Near on a quarter of a century later, Sacred Hill is one of New Zealand’s most prolific wine producers, with three vineyards in the Hawke’s Bay as well as plantations in other key wine growing territories, including Marlborough.
Country Calendar Producer, Julian O’Brien, believes the Sacred Hill story represents a significant era in New Zealand’s farming heritage.
“The Sacred Hill story is a family story - of their survival in rural New Zealand during profoundly tough times in the history of New Zealand’s farming community. The new direction they sought signified a new era in provincial New Zealand as winemaking began to explode.”


For the programme, Country Calendar focus on the Sacred Hill of today - the family life of David Mason and Tracy Haslam, raising their children on the original Mason family homestead, the 2010 harvest and the philosophies of award-winning winemaker, Tony Bish, who shares the blending process of the 2009 Rifleman’s Chardonnay , a consistent award-winner for the brand.
Says David Mason, Managing Director of the Sacred Hill Winery:
“It has been a pleasure opening our doors to Country Calendar this year. We are very proud of our story here at Sacred Hill. To be profiled on a series that has become a New Zealand institution for telling great rural yarns, is a great thrill.
“We hope people will learn more about the Sacred Hill brand and better understand our passion for making stunning New Zealand wines.”

An indication of the extent to which New Zealand winemakers have raised their quality bar has been the increase of top medal awards in the first day of judging at the 2010 Royal Easter Show Wine Awards in Auckland. The newly appointed chair of judges, Kate Radburnd comments:
'White wines from the 2009 vintage and reds from earlier vintages, mainly 2008, reflected the evident focus of the winemaking community on improving quality by lower yields in vineyards and continued honing of their winemaking technique. The gold medal wines are top class by the highest international standards.
'Ms Radburnd, who is the chief winemaker for CJ Pask Winery in Hawkes Bay, made history when she became the first woman to chair a major national wine competition in New Zealand.' Terry Dunleavy, Director


Please see attached Adobe PDF documents to view the latest media releases:

• Birthday wishes - May 09
• New Zealand Wine Centre Wins Art Deco Award – Nov 08
• The Most Exciting and Invigorationg Wine Experience of Your Life - Oct 2008