Geology

New Zealand is located in the South Pacific, 1000 miles away from Australia.

It has been formed by the movement of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates. The movement of the plates is complex near New Zealand and has uplifted the country and its mountains from the surrounding sea. This major line of sliding between the two plates is known as the Alpine fault. The Wairau Valley where most Marlborough grapes are grown has arisen because of the zone of crushed rocks formed by the Alpine fault.

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Mountain building has occurred as a result of the vertical movements and mountains surround the Wairau Valley except the west North West coast. The Wairau plains are formed from post-glacial and last glaciation deposits derived from greywacke laid down by the Wairau River and it tributaries. These soils are extremely young. The soils near the Wairau River may have deposits from flood in the last 35 years. In the central part of the valley, such as middle Rapaura, the soils are up to a few hundred years old. The oldest soils in the valley such as the Brancott are up to 7000 years old. Even these are considered very young soils. A number of soil patterns are found throughout the valley, even within single vineyards, leading to significant variation in quality and style depending on the grape source. There are terraces of greywacke and silt running side by side over shingle in the central part of the valley. The older soils in the southern part of the valley have increasing amount of clay deposits the closer they are to the Wither Hills.

Huia is located in the Wairau Valley, in Marlborough, at the north eastern tip of the South Island.