Te Mata Estate, founded in 1896 and New Zealand's oldest winery, has been led by the Buck family since 1974 and marked its estate's 50th year under that stewardship in 2024. Awatea, a Bordeaux-style red named after the coastal steamer SS Awatea (Maori for 'eye of the dawn'), draws on cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc from the estate's Hawke's Bay vineyards, principally the warm gravels of the Bridge Pa Triangle and Havelock Hills. These free-draining, stony red-metal soils and Hawke's Bay's long, sunny autumns favour even ripening of Bordeaux varieties. The 2024 blend leans on merlot for flesh, with cabernet adding graphite structure and dark-fruit intensity.

The component varieties were picked separately at ripeness, fermented on skins to extract colour and the wine's supple, cocoa-like tannins, then blended to a 2024 mix of about 62% merlot, 27% cabernet sauvignon and 11% cabernet franc. Maturation followed in French oak, a portion new, to frame the fruit and build the wine's silky texture and length without dominating it. The style aims at approachability alongside structure: ripe, layered tannins, a long, caressing finish and cellaring potential. Oak and extraction are handled to keep the blend composed and Bordeaux-like in balance.