30 years of Hawke’s Bay winemaking ends as Marlborough takes over

The brand lives, the region loses

Booster Wine Group will close the Sileni Estates winery near Hastings at the end of 2026, ending nearly 30 years of production in Hawke’s Bay. The announcement came on 10 September 2026, with winemaking shifting to Booster’s Awatere River Winery in Marlborough and Gravity Winery in Tasman.

The Sileni brand itself is not going anywhere. Booster chief executive Craig Langley described it as ‘one of our most recognised and established brands’ and ‘a cornerstone of our portfolio’. It still exports to 36 countries. What is going is the physical winery, an unconfirmed number of winemaking and viticulture roles, and the region’s production footprint. The cellar door had already been quietly shut since July 2025, a signal the industry could read long before the formal call.

The tell is in where the production goes. It moves south, to where the scale exists and the economics work. That is the whole story in one relocation.

The market disappeared under everyone’s feet

Langley was blunt about the cause. The global wine sector faces ‘an oversupply of grapes and wine, alongside reduced consumer demand’, and New Zealand producers are not immune.

The domestic numbers are grim. Per capita wine sales sit at a 30-year low of 7.5 litres. Wine writer Michael Cooper told RNZ in February 2026 that Kiwis have ‘slashed our consumption of New Zealand wine by 50 percent’ over the past decade or so, calling it a crisis. Imported wine has walked into the vacuum, now accounting for 47.8% of domestic consumption, up from roughly a third ten years ago.

Exports look healthier at $2.10 billion in the year to June 2025, but the value story is soft. Volume rose 5% while value slipped slightly, meaning the industry is shipping more wine for the same money. The United States, the largest market at $762 million, fell 3% even before new tariffs landed in 2025. China and South Korea grew fast off small bases, but nowhere near enough to plug the gap.

Cost going up while price stays flat

At the same time, costs have climbed from every direction. Excise tax on a 750ml bottle rose from $2.33 to $2.84 over four years, a 25% increase. The oversupply is physical as much as financial: an estimated 100,000 tonnes of grapes were left unharvested in 2025/26, leaving growers with fruit they could not sell.

When your input costs rise, your selling price will not, and your domestic buyers are switching to imports, heritage does not save you. It just delays the maths.

Hawke’s Bay is fighting the wrong battle

Hawke’s Bay has 4,605 hectares under vine, 10% of the national total. Marlborough has 30,469 hectares, or 73%. That scale gap is fatal in a commodity fight, and New Zealand wine is largely a commodity fight: sauvignon blanc makes up 72% of production and 86% of exports. Hawke’s Bay, with its diverse varietals and premium ambitions, cannot win on sauvignon volume and has not yet built the pricing power to sidestep it.

The region also carries the lingering cost of Cyclone Gabrielle. The 2026 vintage was technically excellent, but good grapes do not fix broken economics. Hawke’s Bay Wine chief executive Brent Linn described growers mothballing vineyards while waiting for market signals, with few alternative land uses available.

Industry commentary in 2026 put the structural failure plainly: New Zealand wine has excelled at exporting volume ‘often at the expense of meaningfully shared returns’, and asked whether the dial has swung too far toward scale and low-margin markets. That is precisely the trap Sileni fell into.

The land question is the real warning

The winery and vineyards are leased from Private Land and Property Fund, a Booster vehicle, which says it is evaluating options including ‘partial or full sale, or redevelopment’. Redevelopment means the land could leave wine entirely, taking with it the viticulture contractors, packaging suppliers, logistics firms and hospitality operators that orbit an anchor winery.

NZ Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan acknowledged the ‘very, very significant’ current pain while arguing New Zealand’s wine styles align with where global taste is heading. That may be true at the national level. It offers nothing to a Hawke’s Bay producer who cannot survive long enough to reach the recovery. The uncomfortable question for every heritage exporter in the region is simple: how many more names are quietly running the same numbers, and how many will reach the same answer.

Sources

• Sileni: Hawke’s Bay winery to close after 30 years; job losses (2026-09-10)
• New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Report 2025 (2025-06-30)
• Vineyard Report 2026 (2026)
• The wine industry headache (2026-02-18)
• Hawke’s Bay winemakers plot their comeback as Kiwis drink less wine (2026-03-06)
• New Zealand Wine Vintage 2026: Regional Harvest Results and Industry Outlook (2026)
• Mastering Wine: Recalibrating New Zealand Wine (2026)