Maps, markets and Merlot: The making of an antipodean wine appellation

Rural places acquire value in different ways and geographers have adopted a range of approaches to understand the way value is created in land and place. This paper analyses the case of the Gimblett Gravels wine district in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand. This district has been transformed over the space of 20 years from a peri-urban wasteland to, now, one of the most sought-after and expensive winegrowing areas in the country. In this process of revaluation, several forces were evident. There was an economic–environmental process, by which grape growers and winemakers learned that the district possessed the ability to produce consistent harvests of high quality red grapes and, consequently, land was purchased at ever-increasing rates. There was then a deliberate attempt to ‘construct’ the Gimblett Gravels district in the market place, the result of concerted co-operative action by winegrowers in the district to promote the idea of a Gimblett Gravels terroir in a registered trademark. Finally, we can see that the revaluation of the district has also been related to the wider social acceptance of wine as a fashionable commodity. These processes have occurred in a virtual legislative vacuum in New Zealand regarding the protection and regulation of geographical indicators, though this may soon change. Thus, to understand the value of place, it is argued that we need a multi-faceted approach that incorporates environmental and economic processes alongside political regulation and social construction.