Village Vineyards

Village Vineyards traces back to 1981, when Dai and Jenny Evans first established Village Orchard in Havelock North, Hawke's Bay, growing fruit on the property for more than two decades before the orchard was eventually uprooted in 2004. In 2019 the Evans family returned to their roots, planting a new vineyard just metres from the site of the old orchard on a small block of loam and clay soils sitting over free-draining limestone bedrock.

That two-hectare site has been certified organic since 2023, and the family focuses on a handful of classic varieties suited to the local terroir, among them Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah, alongside experimental small-batch styles made using minimal-intervention, low-additive winemaking techniques throughout. It remains a genuinely small, hands-on family operation to this day.