Our Mangatahi Vineyard is planted on an ancient river terrace that was formed by the Ngaruroro River which now flows around 60 meters below the vineyard.

With its headwaters in the Kaweka Ranges to the west of Hawke’s Bay, the river has created the landscapes through glacial melts, floods and droughts over the last few hundred thousand years.

The old terraces that remain are made up of greywacke (a compressed sandstone) boulders and gravels from the ranges, and a topsoil borne of windblown loess, volcanic ash and humus created by ancient forests and vegetation.