The Journal — NZ Luxury Homes

Craggy Range: The Winery That Defines Hawke's Bay

Discover the architectural elegance and viticultural mastery of Craggy Range, a landmark Hawke's Bay estate redefining New Zealand fine wine on the global stage.

Published 2 September 2026 · 13 min read

Category: Architecture

Craggy Range is a premier Hawke's Bay winery, globally recognized for its exceptional Prestige Collection wines and award-winning Giants Estate architecture. Situated beneath Te Mata Peak, the estate features a Three Hats restaurant, biodynamic gardens, and exclusive luxury accommodation, operating under a unique 1,000-year family trust to ensure enduring quality.

There is a moment, pulling into Craggy Range's Giants Estate from Waimarama Road, when the building and the landscape resolve into something that feels inevitable rather than designed. The circular drum of the Sophia fermentation cellar sits to the left. The sandstone-clad winery building opens ahead. Te Mata Peak rises 399 metres directly behind — limestone and tussock, ancient and exact — and the estate's lake catches the afternoon light in the foreground. Architect John Blair designed the Giants Estate complex, in the words of the Great Wine Capitals network, to seamlessly combine high-tech elements with a romantic aesthetic — creating a cohesive yet diverse array of structures where each space offers a unique perspective on winemaking.

Craggy Range was founded in 1998 by Terry and Mary Peabody — an Australian family whose search for the world's finest wine-growing land took them through France, the Americas, and their home country before bringing them, definitively, to Hawke's Bay. Their instinct, shared with New Zealand Master of Wine Steve Smith, was that the Gimblett Gravels and the slopes beneath Te Mata Peak were capable of producing wines that could sit alongside the world's greatest estates. More than 25 years later, that instinct has been validated at every level: by critics, by collectors, by La Place de Bordeaux, and by the guests who stay on the estate and leave with a different understanding of what New Zealand wine can be.

Craggy Range is governed by a 1,000-year family trust — one of the most unusual and most clarifying facts about the estate. It means every decision, from vine management to architecture to accommodation, is made with a time horizon that no listed company or investment-driven winery can match. It is why the biodiversity programme covers nearly 50 hectares of replanted native land. It is why the kitchen garden is biodynamic. And it is why the wines, vintage after vintage, taste less like the product of a commercial operation and more like the expression of a place that someone genuinely intends to keep.

The Wines: From Gimblett Gravels to La Place de Bordeaux

Craggy Range's wine production is built across two distinct sites in Hawke's Bay — the Gimblett Gravels Winery in Fernhill and the Giants Estate Winery beneath Te Mata Peak — plus a working vineyard at Te Muna Road in Martinborough on the southern tip of the North Island.

The Gimblett Gravels site produces most of the estate's volume, drawing on the stony, free-draining alluvial soils that the sub-region's trademark designation protects. Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay from these gravels form the backbone of the Prestige Collection — the flagship range that Decanter World Wine Awards 2026 assessed with a Platinum for the Te Muna Sauvignon Blanc (scoring 97 points and described as quivering with fragrant florals, fresh orchard fruits and passion fruit nuance) and Gold for both Syrah and Chardonnay from Gimblett Gravels. Only one percent of wines globally reached Platinum status in the 2026 awards, and only eight New Zealand wines were recognised at this level — Craggy Range accounting for one of them.

The Prestige wines carry individual names that have become part of New Zealand's fine wine vocabulary. Le Sol is 100 percent Syrah from Gimblett Gravels — one of the most acclaimed expressions of this variety in the Southern Hemisphere, described by Decanter as poised and impressive. Sophia is the Merlot-dominant Bordeaux blend, named after Sophia Loren on good authority, fermented in 8,000-litre French oak cuves in the purpose-built circular cellar that gives the Giants Estate its most distinctive visual element. The Quarry is the Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant counterpart, named for the gravelly wasteland that the Gimblett Gravels was once considered before viticulture transformed its value. Les Beaux Cailloux is the Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay, named for the small pebbles in which the vines are rooted. Aroha — meaning love in Māori — is the Martinborough Pinot Noir from the Te Muna Road vineyard.

In 2022, Le Sol and Aroha became the first New Zealand wines to join La Place de Bordeaux — the historic négociant network that distributes the world's most sought-after fine wines across Europe and Asia. The move, in the words of third-generation family member David Peabody Jr, reinforces the idea that New Zealand does have a place in the world of fine wine. It is not a small claim. It has been received, by Bordeaux's oldest négociants CVBG and Mähler-Besse, without reservation. Hawke's Bay wine region Great Wine Capital

Giants Estate: The Architecture of a Winery Destination

The Giants Estate complex at Havelock North is not simply a place to taste wine. It is a destination in its own right — one that the Great Wine Capitals network named the 2025 Global Winner for Best of Wine Tourism, recognising both the physical architecture and the quality of visitor experience it enables.

The estate contains the cellar door, restaurant, organic kitchen gardens, boutique accommodation, and the working winery itself — all within a site that was purpose-built for the integration of winemaking and hospitality rather than retrofitted for tourism. The Sophia barrel hall, where the prestige Merlot-dominant Bordeaux blend ferments in twelve 8,000-litre French oak vats, is part of the tasting experience. The kitchen garden — biodynamic, productive, and the primary supply source for the restaurant — is accessible to visitors as part of the Giants Estate Experience.

The Giants Estate Experience — priced at NZD $175 from October 2025 — takes guests through a seated tasting of iconic wines from the Prestige Collection, including bottles reserved exclusively for this experience, concluding with a tour of the winemaking facilities and the underground cellar. Light bites from the kitchen, inspired by the organic gardens, accompany the tasting. For a serious wine visitor, it is the most substantive single winery experience available in Hawke's Bay.

Image: Richard Brimer / Qantas Travel Insider — The heart of Hawke's Bay wine country, Havelock North, where Craggy Range's Giants Estate sits beneath Te Mata Peak

The Restaurant: Three Hats, Chef of the Year, and a Kitchen Garden at the Door

Craggy Range Restaurant holds Three Hats from the Cuisine Good Food Awards — New Zealand's highest restaurant accolade — and was named both Winery Restaurant of the Year and produced the Chef of the Year in the 2025 awards. Executive Chef Casey McDonald, whose career spans restaurants including Phil Howard's two Michelin-starred The Square in London and Gary Danko in San Francisco, leads a kitchen that has made the estate's dining programme a destination in its own right rather than an adjunct to the wine.

The menu is organised around the produce of the kitchen gardens and trusted local growers — and the distance between the garden and the plate is, in many cases, measurable in steps rather than kilometres. Hawke's Bay lamb, local seafood, seasonal vegetables, and estate-grown herbs form the foundation. The wine list is predictably excellent: Craggy Range current release alongside library vintages, paired by a team whose access to the full archive of the estate's production gives them a depth of knowledge few restaurant wine lists can match.

The restaurant operates lunch and dinner seven days a week, with reservations essential — particularly through summer, when the outdoor terrace reserved exclusively for dining guests becomes one of the finest lunch settings in New Zealand wine country.

The Loft, an intimate dining space tucked upstairs above the main restaurant, offers a dinner-party experience distinct from the main room — suited to private groups, celebratory dinners, and guests who want a more enclosed and personal setting than the main restaurant's panoramic ambience provides.

Accommodation: The Lodge, River Lodges, Cottages, and Te Mānia

Craggy Range's accommodation programme has expanded significantly in 2026 with the opening of The Lodge — a four-bedroom flagship property privately set within the Giants Estate, designed for both relaxation and entertaining with elegant interiors, manicured grounds, and generous outdoor living spaces.

Image: Craggy Range via Decanter — The Lodge at Craggy Range, four-bedroom flagship accommodation opened 2026 within the Giants Estate

The Lodge is not available by the room. It is available as a whole, accommodating up to eight guests across four generously proportioned bedrooms, each with a private ensuite. Stays include daily gourmet breakfast provisions, a complimentary Giants Estate Experience at the cellar door, non-alcoholic beverages, and a bottle of Prestige Collection wine on arrival. Evenings are reserved for dinner across the estate's dining spaces — the restaurant, The Loft, or the outdoor terrace. Additional enhancements including turn-down service, luxury transfers, in-room wellness treatments, and private chef experiences are available on request.

The River Lodges — two luxury two-bedroom properties overlooking the Tukituki River — offer an alternative for couples or smaller groups. Each features king bedrooms with private ensuites, indoor and outdoor fireplaces, a full chef's kitchen, and private terrace views of the Tukituki River valley and Te Mata Peak escarpment. The Vineyard Cottages, nestled directly among the vines, are the most intimate option — one and two-bedroom configurations with private terraces, wood burners, and the daily rhythm of the working vineyard visible from every window.

Te Mānia by Craggy Range — the estate's most architecturally distinctive accommodation — is a striking one-of-a-kind residence showcasing sweeping views of Te Mata Peak and the Tuki Tuki Valley through expansive glass doors. Three distinct spaces — Te Mānia Room, a primary sleeping house, and a secondary sleeping house — each function as a serene sanctuary while remaining connected to the broader estate experience.

Sustainability and the 1,000-Year Trust

Craggy Range's sustainability programme goes considerably beyond the standard wine industry certification language. Nearly 50 hectares of land across the estate are replanted with native trees — one of the largest private biodiversity restoration projects associated with a New Zealand winery. The kitchen garden is run on biodynamic principles. Organic vineyard management is underway across the estate's key sites.

The 1,000-year family trust that governs the estate is the philosophical foundation for all of this. A winery making decisions for the next millennium does not make the same decisions as one managing quarterly returns. The restrained use of oak, the diversity of fermentation vessels, the commitment to specific vineyard sites over blended convenience — all of it reflects a winemaking philosophy shaped by time horizons that most commercial operations cannot sustain.

Why Craggy Range Matters to the NZ Luxury Homes Audience

Craggy Range occupies a position in Hawke's Bay that no other winery can claim: a world-class wine estate that is also a luxury accommodation destination, a destination restaurant, a recognised fine wine producer on La Place de Bordeaux, and the most architecturally considered winery in New Zealand. For buyers exploring premium residential property in Hawke's Bay — a region that the Great Wine Capitals network has formally recognised alongside Bordeaux and Napa Valley — Craggy Range is the clearest expression of what life in this region can look like at its highest level.

An evening at the restaurant, a stay in The Lodge, a morning walking the kitchen gardens and tasting through the Prestige Collection in the cellar — this is the experience that tells a buyer what Hawke's Bay actually is, more persuasively than any market report or property inspection could do. Rosewood Cape Kidnappers luxury lodge Central Otago wine region guide

The Standard-Bearer

Craggy Range is not the oldest winery in Hawke's Bay, nor the largest, nor the most accessible. It is the most complete — the estate where winemaking, architecture, hospitality, cuisine, and conservation have been aligned under a single philosophy and given enough time to become, together, something greater than any one of them could be alone. For those arriving in Hawke's Bay for the first time, it is the most important single visit. For those already familiar with the region, it is the one that keeps revealing something new.

For those exploring residential and lifestyle property in Hawke's Bay and the wider North Island, nzluxuryhomes.nz provides private access to the most considered holdings in this market.

To visit Craggy Range: book wine experiences at craggyrange.com or call +64 6 873 0141. Restaurant reservations at craggyrange.com/pages/restaurant.

Key Takeaways

• Craggy Range operates under a 1,000-year family trust, prioritizing long-term land stewardship and biodiversity over short-term commercial gains.
• The estate’s prestige wines, including Le Sol and Aroha, have achieved international acclaim, becoming the first New Zealand labels to join La Place de Bordeaux.
• The Giants Estate is a world-class destination offering a seamless blend of high-tech winemaking, architectural beauty, and a Three Hats award-winning restaurant.
• Visitors can enjoy the immersive Giants Estate Experience, which combines guided tastings of rare vintages with tours of the biodynamic gardens and underground cellar.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes the Craggy Range wine production unique?

Craggy Range is defined by its commitment to terroir across three distinct sites: the stony Gimblett Gravels, the Giants Estate under Te Mata Peak, and Te Muna Road in Martinborough. By managing these diverse microclimates and adhering to a 1,000-year vision, they produce wines like Le Sol and Aroha that represent the absolute pinnacle of New Zealand viticulture.

Is the Craggy Range restaurant highly rated?

Yes, the Craggy Range restaurant is a culinary standout, holding three hats from the Cuisine Good Food Awards. Under the direction of Executive Chef Casey McDonald, the kitchen utilizes produce from the estate's own biodynamic gardens, offering a refined farm-to-table dining experience that pairs perfectly with the winery’s extensive archive of prestige wines.

Can visitors tour the Craggy Range winery facilities?

Yes, guests can explore the inner workings of the estate through the Giants Estate Experience. This curated tour includes a seated tasting of the Prestige Collection, access to the purpose-built circular Sophia fermentation cellar, and a walkthrough of the biodynamic kitchen gardens, providing a comprehensive look at the intersection of winemaking and luxury hospitality.

What is the significance of the 1,000-year family trust?

The 1,000-year trust structure is fundamental to the Craggy Range philosophy. Unlike standard corporate wineries, this long-term governing mechanism ensures that all decisions regarding viticulture, architecture, and sustainability are made to protect the land for future generations. This results in consistently high-quality wines and a deep commitment to environmental biodiversity across their estates.

Expert Insight

Craggy Range represents the rare intersection where architectural intent, environmental stewardship, and viticultural excellence converge to create a truly global luxury wine destination.

97 — Points awarded to Te Muna Sauvignon Blanc by Decanter World Wine Awards (Decanter World Wine Awards 2026)

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