Black Barn Vineyards

Fourteen luxury Retreats make up the accommodation at Black Barn Vineyards, and only two of them sit on the estate itself. The vineyard lies in the hills above Havelock North in Hawke's Bay, close to Te Mata Peak. The other twelve are spread across the region, in settings that range from vineyard rows and views over the Tuki Tuki Valley to houses right on the beach. Black Barn calls them Retreats. Each one is a private villa rented as a whole rather than a room in a hotel, which suits couples who want a vineyard stay with nobody next door as much as families or friends travelling together. Off-peak nightly rates run from NZ$475 to NZ$3,500, a spread that reflects how different the properties are in size and setting. Choose the specific Retreat, not just the brand: whether you wake among the vines or beside the sea depends entirely on which one you book. Wine tasting here is a private affair. Black Barn arranges special private tastings with its winemaker, held either at the Cellar Door on the estate or inside your Retreat. There are no guided vineyard tours at present, so plan the visit around the tasting rather than a walk through the blocks. The Black Barn Bistro on the estate does not serve breakfast. Instead, the Retreats are stocked with breakfast provisions for guests to prepare themselves, which fits the self-contained rhythm of a house rental. Hawke's Bay is New Zealand's second-largest wine region and among its oldest, best known for Syrah, Bordeaux-style reds and Chardonnay. Napier's Art Deco centre is a short drive north, and the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers lies along the coast to the south-east. For a winery hotel in Hawke's Bay that doubles as a base for touring the whole region, the scattered layout is the point rather than a drawback.