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The Canterbury wine region lies on the central east coast of the South Island, around the western fringes of Christchurch city and on the hills of Banks Peninsula. The region was first planted with grapevines in the 1970s.
Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and the vineyard sites are found mainly in the western suburbs of the city, Burnham in the south and Waipara in the north. Waipara, 39 miles (57km) north of Christchurch, is a more recently developed sub-region of Canterbury and can be significantly warmer than the Christchurch area due to the Teviotdale Hills sheltering it from the coast.
The region, like other South Island areas, experiences long, cool and dry growing conditions favoring the production of high-quality wines based on Pinot Noir, Riesling and Chardonnay. Canterbury has a maritime climate and the diurnal temperature variation of cool evenings after warm days is known to intensify flavor in the grapes. The free-draining, gravel sub-soils are rich in limestone, and the peninsula vineyards planted in valleys have favourable mesoclimates. This also adds to the character of the local wines.
Any mention of Canterbury as a wine region would be incomplete without acknowledging the contribution of Lincoln University in the research of vine varieties particularly suitable for the local growing conditions.
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