About Us

Linden Estate's Winery's vineyards are situated on the slopes of the Esk Valley hills. This provides a unique microclimate which protects the vineyard from frost and gives stunning views through the valley. Hawke's Bay is known as a warm area of New Zealand, with moderate rainfall and abundant sunshine.

History

Linden Estate was established by Dutch Engineer, Wim van der Linden and family in 1971. It was sold to a Canadian businessman, who exited in Receivership.  The present owner, Bruce Jans et al, purchased this prime property in 2006, with a goal of re-establishing the brand. With a completely new and passionate team from 2020, our aim is to make premium boutique Hawke's Bay wines. Hard work and attention to detail is key to growing exceptional fruit using environmentally conscious practices that achieve depth, richness and complexity while profiling the intense fruit flavours in our wine varieties.

Our 1,000m2 barrel hall and the Red Beech cellar door which was designed by renowned architect Dave Launder and built in 2019, is an example of great architecture, beautiful timber with magical people providing the best experience for all. 

Our Vineyards

Linden Estate's Winery's vineyards are situated on the slopes of the Esk Valley hills. This provides a unique microclimate which protects the vineyard from frost and gives stunning views through the valley. Hawke's Bay is known as a warm area of New Zealand, with moderate rainfall and abundant sunshine.

Esk Valley is the most northerly of the Hawke's Bay wine growing areas and is one of the oldest vineyard locations in the area. We pride ourselves on our boutique-style production, growing twelve varieties of grapes in small, carefully managed blocks, within a stunning Valley setting - very unique within New Zealand.  

Our estate consists of 11Ha of vineyard situated on a range of soils and slopes. As we consider ourselves custodians of the land a holistic approach is taken to grow wine on the estate.   Wildflowers are utilized to enrich soils, increase carbon and nutrient cycling, re-deposit organic matter and create a spectacle when wildflowers bloom.

Rich soils lend themselves to regenerative farming systems and our approach to viticulture stems from a focus on soil health and quality. This leads to the elimination of herbicides, integrated grazing by sheep and dry farming.

Join us for a tasting, glass of wine, or bottle available to enjoy with friends. We always have ‘make your own’ food platter and often food from the restaurant is available.

Cyclone Gabrielle

Valentine’s Day - February 2023, ex-tropical Cyclone Gabrielle bore down on the Hawke’s Bay region, depositing over half a metre of rain in 24 hours in the nearby Glengarry catchment which feeds into the Esk River – just a stone’s throw across the road from Linden Estate. This violent storm caused massive flooding throughout the Hawke’s Bay and neighbouring regions, with Esk Valley being one of the hardest hit locations. Tragically, the local community was severely impacted with devastating loss of several lives to the raging floodwaters, and the destruction of many homes and businesses.

Valley D’Vine, our neighbouring restaurant and tenant on Linden Estate land, became an emergency hub for the community during the floods and for many months afterwards provided support to locals with access to donated resources of food, household supplies, vouchers, and perhaps even more importantly, social and mental health support at a time which was particularly stressful and overwhelming for so many.

Linden Estate vineyards on the flats, the Cellar Door, Barrel Hall and our winery and implement buildings were in floodwaters over a metre deep, which was loaded with silt from slips and scouring of land upstream. When the floodwaters receded, the silt remained, to a depth of around 30cm in and around the lower vines and the buildings. At various points around the buildings and grounds you will see signs indicating the height of floodwaters of Gabrielle on 14th February 2023, below was the silt (mud) level left when the waters receded. We also have some photographs on display in the Cellar Door of the impacts of the Cyclone.

Our Recovery

The task to dig out the buildings and the lower vineyards from the silt was enormous and needed many hands as well as heavy machinery to remove the silt and clear the debris away. Linden Estate was significantly aided by individual volunteers and businesses from less-affected neighbouring towns and from around New Zealand, and owners and staff are perpetually grateful for the support and kindness shown to us by people from all over New Zealand, and indeed throughout the world. Linden’s motto became ‘Devastated but not Defeated’, and volunteers were a crucial component in helping us through.

If anyone (or business) reading this volunteered assistance in our surfacing from the muddy mess we found ourselves in after the Cyclone, please accept our heartfelt thanks.  Such was the scale and impact of this event we have poor records of who came and helped – please make yourselves known to us.  Linden is a monument to so many good people - Kiwis and others from around the world, who came, saw, and conquered! We are all victors.

The stunning cellar door building had its Red Beech walls stripped off, sanded, varnished and replaced to bring them back to ‘new’, with the linings on other walls also removed and replaced, and a full refit of all electrical systems and plumbing being required. The polished wooden floor was sanded and refinished, and salvageable furniture was cleaned and repaired.

Our insurance company has been very professional but we lost the majority of the 2023 grape crop and all the front vineyard infrastructure – which was all uninsurable.  Some of our previous attractions, such as the self-drive vineyard tour on our Tuatara vehicles which were damaged in the floods, have not been able to resume, but we are fortunate that our marble statues all survived, and our signposted statue walk remains a pleasant gentle walk around the grounds.

The silver lining to this destructive event, however, was a chance to reimagine some things – if you’ve been here before, you may notice we’ve done some earthworks (silt works!) on the grass area in front of the Cellar Door – making a wonderful amphitheatre style entertainment area with stage – perfect for events.

Grapes are a resilient plant – many of our vines on the flooded lower flats have survived, however the damage from rushing water loaded with trees and debris from properties upstream caused the loss of around 20% of the vines in these areas. The vines on the gentle hills at the rear of the property were largely unaffected.

It’s been a mammoth effort by owners, staff and contractors to get ready for reopening on Labour Weekend 2023 – 8 months after the storm’s fury knocked us down but not out -  to ensure we continue to provide a fantastic experience in our stunning setting to our visitors, along with our superb wines.

Our Team