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In every issue we profile Hawke’s Bay Wine companies and personalities, wine from our region and associated sectors. We offer up a number of informed viewpoints, cover the news and present a range of wine-related feature stories.
Cook the garlic in the oil, add the prawns and cook until just pink. Toss in the spice mix and most of the parsley. Season, and sprinkle with the rest of the parsley.
The beer and wine aisle of a 365 by Whole Foods Market grocery store is pictured ahead of its opening day in Los Angeles. New Zealand sauvignon blanc has found a ready market in the US.
New Zealand’s wine export values continue to rise thanks to strong United States demand, reaching $1.66 billion for the year, up 6 per cent on the year before.
While the percentage increase is lower than the average yearly growth of 17 per cent for the last 20 years, the industry was still on track to reach $2b worth of exports by 2020, chairman of New Zealand Winegrowers Steve Green said.
The latest NZ Winegrowers annual report shows to the end of June this year, the US market is worth $517 million, up 12 per cent. New Zealand wine became the third most valuable wine import into the US, behind only France and Italy.
NZ wine, a 2017 snapshot.
Green forecast next year’s export volumes would be “more muted” because of the smaller harvest of 396,000 tonnes, down 9 per cent on 2016, but wineries were confident quality would remain high.
While the US provided the best returns, more litres of wine (74 million) were exported to the United Kingdom for a much smaller return of $389m. Traditionally more bulk wine has been sent into the UK market. Behind the US and the UK came Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and China.
Former US ambassador to New Zealand Mark Gilbert, along with many of his countrymen, has a nose for a good wine. He attended a tasting of New Zealand and French pinot noir last year.
The most exported variety was sauvignon blanc, followed by pinot noir and chardonnay.
The recently passed Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Act would offer improved protection of New Zealand’s regional identities. The industry had also launched the sustainable winegrowing New Zealand continuous improvement extension programme to enhance the reputation of wines.
Of a total growing area of 37,129 hectares, sauvignon dominates at 22,085 ha, an increase of 685 ha from the year before. The second most popular variety was pinot noir, with 5653 ha, followed by chardonnay at 3203 ha and pinot gris (2469 ha).
Marlborough is overwhelmingly the largest region with 25,135 ha planted in vines, followed by Hawke’s Bay (4694 ha), Central Otago (1896 ha) and Canterbury/Waipara (1425 ha).
The number of wineries was 677; they reached a peak of 703 in 2012.
New Zealanders drank 40 million litres of imported wine during the past year, most of it Australian (29m litres), with the next two most popular French and Chilean.
The November Kaikoura earthquake damaged an estimated 20 per cent of Marlborough’s tank capacity, but by harvest time all of the lost capacity had been restored or replaced.
Green said the industry consulted with members on possible changes to export tasting requirements, with responses suggesting a rethink of export requirements was needed.
“We continue to believe more needs to be done in our export legislation to ensure that the same standards apply to every bottle of New Zealand wine, no matter where it is bottled,” Green said.
NZ Winegrowers were concerned at the Ministry for Primary Industries’ plan to take part of New Zealand Winegrowers’ wine export certification service contract in-house.
“We fought hard to retain the status quo, which has served our members well, and are disappointed with the level of industry consultation in MPI’s decision making process. If the service changes, we will be seeking guarantees from the government that the current speedy issuance of export eligibility statements will be protected, at no additional cost to members,” Green said.
In June the New Zealand Grape Growers Council and the Wine Institute of New Zealand finished as entities, replaced by a unified New Zealand Winegrowers.
New Zealand is now the only major wine producing nation with a single industry body, representing and advocating for the interests of its entire grape and wine industry.
The industry and the Government are working through a Primary Growth Partnership on research into lighter wine production and marketing. Last year retail sales reached $33.5m. The programme runs through to 2021, by which time $16.97m would have been spent on the partnership.
Organic wine production continues to flourish with more than 60 New Zealand wineries now making fully certified organic wines, and more still in the organic conversion process.
Goodbye Winter. Can’t say we’re sorry to see the back of you, what with the wind and the rain and the flu; when all’s said and done, there’s only so much a warming glass of red wine will fix.
However, we turn our gaze and our palates to the more benign months with a glowing shimmer of anticipation. It’s reboot and refresh time, and what better way to kick things off than with a quick A-Z of things vinous for your general edification. From A for acidity to Z for Zinfandel, there’s bound to be a little bit of something in there to intrigue and interest many of you.
What else? We feature Zephyr wines, the appropriately-named vehicle for the impressive winemaking skills of Ben Glover. Bach Brewing, only three years old but already so weighted down with medals. An exciting new offering from Gisborne’s Matawhero winery, the Irwin Chardonnay. Belvedere vodka – Polish know-how 600 years in the making. The under-the-radar genius of Champagne Moutard.
A 13 strong judging team is gearing up to review over 500 wines entered in this year’s Bragato Wine Awards. The twist on this year’s Awards is that all wines entered must be single vineyard wines, a first in the competition’s 23 year history.
“We’ve worked hard in past few years to enable the Bragato Wine Awards to evolve into a single vineyard show”, says Ben Glover, Chair of Judges and Owner/Winemaker of Glover Family Vineyards. “The Bragato Awards are focused on recognising that exceptional grape growing is the foundation of making wines that express a true quality of place.”
“By making the shift to a single vineyard show we’re allowing our industry to express the Turangawaewae of their distinctive sites. This change highlights the Bragato Awards as being truly unique among New Zealand wine shows.”
Australian judge David Stevens-Castro will add an international perspective to the 2017 judging team. Mr Stevens-Castro is currently a stage two student in the Institute of Masters of Wine programme, the Wine & Beverage Manager at IHG’s Crowne Plaza Surfers Paradise, and owner of PAIRED Media.
Judging of the 2017 Bragato Wine Awards will take place over 16 and 17 August at Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland. Trophy winning wines will be revealed at the New Zealand Winegrowers National Romeo Bragato Conference in Marlborough, held from 30 to 31 August. Competition results can be viewed from 1 September on www.bragato.org.nz.
Additional information:
The Bragato Wine Awards are held each year as part of the New Zealand Winegrower’s National Romeo Bragato Conference.
The Awards recognise that exceptional grape growing is the foundation of making wines that express true quality of place.
Judging Team: Chair of Judges – Ben Glover Judges – Rod Easthope, Francis Hutt, Jeremy MacKenzie, James Millton, Helen Morrison, Simon Nunns, Barry Riwai, Liz Wheadon International Judge – David Stevens-Castro (Australia) Associate Judges – Hannah Burns, Jordon Hogg, Lauren Swift
For further information please contact:
Ben Glover Chair of Judges Bragato Wine Awards 029 520 8288 ben@zephyrwine.com
Or
Angela Willis Manager – Global Events New Zealand Winegrowers 021 552 071 angela@nzwine.com
Wine industry recognises viticultural excellence at 2017 Romeo Bragato Wine Awards
A Cabernet Franc from Canterbury has come out on top at this year’s Bragato Wine Awards.
Grown by Lindsay Hill, in the Waipara West vineyard located in Canterbury, The Boneline Cabernet Franc 2016 won the coveted Bragato Trophy for Champion Wine of the Show. The wine also picked up the O-I New Zealand Trophy for Champion Emerging Red Wine.
“This Cabernet Franc was a pleasure to judge, but equally an absolute joy to taste, savour and discuss,” said Chair of Judges Ben Glover. “This wine is certainly all about a single site… A real treat”.
Fourteen trophies in total were awarded and the geographical spread was diverse, with four going to Marlborough; three each going to Hawke’s Bay, Canterbury and Otago; and one going to Nelson.
The Bragato Wine Awards recognise the grower for viticultural excellence and acknowledges that growing excellent grapes is the foundation of making wines of true quality. For the first time in the competition’s 23 year history, all wines entered in 2017 had to be single vineyard wines.
“By making the shift to a single vineyard show, we’re allowing our industry to express the Turangawaewae of their distinctive sites,” said Mr Glover.
The Bragato Wine Awards are held each year as part of the New Zealand Winegrowers Romeo Bragato National Conference. The Champion Wine of the Show was announced at the Conference Dinner last night. For more information visit www.bragato.org.nz.
Glengarry’s Sunday ramblings of all things vinous, grain and glorious. A tour of Italy – Part 2 comes from The Sunday Sediment Issue 6.
Sicilia
The largest island in the Mediterranean, Sicily boasts the greatest number of wineries of any Italian region. Leading light on the island is the fortified DOC wine, Marsala; so brilliant for cooking and superb when served with a hard cheese like Pecorino. While there are some impressive DOC wines here, there is also great value being offered by top quality producers making very good IGT wines from native varieties.
The South
Dino Illuminati
Generally, the south of Italy is all about value and generous, forward wine styles. Abruzzo is located on the coast north and east of Rome, the region home to Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. Historically significant as the place the vine first arrived in Italy from Greece, Apulia (or Puglia) is located in the middle of the heel of Italy’s boot. Known as a large volume producer, there are now top-rated DOCG, an impressive 25 DOC zones and a chariot-full of great Italian foods.
Italian Sparkling
Produced largely in the north, Prosecco is the current high-flier of Italy’s respected sparkling wine industry. In 2009 it was awarded DOCG status, that important ‘G’ on the end adding a rock-solid guarantee to the quality of the wine. Franciacorta is both a highly-rated DOCG area and a sparkling wine with a huge reputation, produced a la champagne, but with even more stringent aging requirements than its French cousins.
Grappa
The Italians have been perfecting their heady spirit known as Grappa since the Middle Ages. A unique concoction produced from grape pomace (the skins, pulp, seeds and stems left over after the juice has been extracted for winemaking), Grappa began life as a coarse, home-made drink enjoyed by farmers after a hard day’s work. From these humble beginnings it has evolved into a highly refined spirit. By EU law, Grappa must be produced in Italy, without any added water, from fermented and distilled pomace. To produce it, the pomace is heated in a bain-marie (also known as a water bath or double boiler) to create steam, which is forced through a distillation column. The resulting colourless, filtered distillation can be enjoyed immediately, but the finest Grappas are aged in glass or wood, which changes the colour and adds complexity. Flavours, too, can vary considerably depending on the origin of the grape pomace, the blending and the aging process. Great post-prandial, or added to espresso.
Read more in the Glengarry Wineletter – #232 August 2017.
Glengarry’s Sunday ramblings of all things vinous, grain and glorious. Villa Maria and George’s cellar comes from The Sunday Sediment.
Sir George Fistonich
A true New Zealand original, Villa Maria Wine Estates, is over 55 years old, proudly displayed the Glengarry Wineletters from the early days, front and centre. You do have to appreciate what it has taken over the years to get this world-class, family-owned winery to its prestigious position, and you can put it down to the talent, attention to detail, and sheer determination of its founder Sir George Fistonich and his team.
Nick Picone
Consisting of Villa Maria itself, plus the Vidal, Esk Valley and Te Awa Collection, we tip our hats to the wonderful consistency of quality that exists across VMs entire portfolio. Nick Picone is Villa Marias Group Chief Winemaker and has been with the company for 18 years and counting. A multiple winner of Winemaker of the Year titles and listed as one of the worlds young winemakers to watch, he is an asset to the New Zealand wine industry.
VM Library release Cab Sauv & Merlot/Cab Sauv
The nowadays iconic George Fistonich (that’s ‘Sir George’ to you mere mortals) decided a while ago to start selecting wines from exceptional parcels with a thought to aging them and releasing them in very limited quantities via the cellar door and through selected retailers (that would be us). The wines are at the ultra-premium level, and having been already aged by Villa Maria themselves, they are good to go, and very favourably priced for what’s in the bottle. Villa Maria, then, at its finest. Read more in the Glengarry Wineletter – #232 August 2017.
Glengarry’s Sunday ramblings of all things vinous, grain and glorious. A tour of Italy – Part 1 comes from The Sunday Sediment Issue 5.
Veneto
Veneto is home to the glorious sinking city of Venice and the romantic jewel that is Verona. Here, you’ll find great value Soave, Valpolicella and Bardolino wines. Less than half of the wine produced in Veneto is able to be labelled with the Italian quality mark of DOC, with large quantities of IGT (table wine) produced there, making it an important region for quantity. It is also home to the superstar Amarone, and to the sparkling Prosecco wines made in Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. Read more in the Glengarry Wineletter – #232 August 2017.
Piemonte
Bruno Giacosca
Piemonte produces some of Italy’s most long-lived wines. A treasure trove of culinary delights, it is home to Barolo, Barbaresco, truffles and hazelnuts. The predominant red grapes are the indigenous Nebbiolo, Barbera and Dolcetto, the whites, Arneis and Moscato. The wines are distinctly regional and oozing with flair. Lovers of Pinot Noir will feel right at home with Nebbiolo, which is bottled in its own right as well as being the variety behind the famed Barolo wines. Read more in the Glengarry Wineletter – #232 August 2017.
Toscana
Cesare & Andrea Cecchi with La Signora Cecchi
A long with Piemonte, Toscana (Tuscany) has the highest percentage of top-tier DOCG wines, and is home to the scarlet giants Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. It is here that the new meets the old head-on, giving rise to the so-called Super Tuscans. The main variety in Tuscany is Sangiovese, used to make Chianti, with the variety’s greatest expression derived from the legendary Brunello clone developed by Montalcino’s Biondi-Santi family.
Read more in the Glengarry Wineletter – #232 August 2017.
In every issue we profile Hawke’s Bay Wine companies and personalities, wine from our region and associated sectors. We offer up a number of informed viewpoints, cover the news and present a range of wine-related feature stories.
Do you have news relating to Hawke’s Bay Wine Sector?
In breaking news (well, breaking for you, we’ve had it on hold for a couple of weeks now…), we can tell you that our little old Quarter Acre 2015 Syrah has just taken out the trophy for the Best International Syrah in London at the International Wine Challenge (IWC). Not only that, but it also went and won the trophies for best New Zealand Syrah, Best New Zealand Red and Best Hawke’s Bay Syrah. A magnificent four-trophy-haul, with the Best NZ Red and Best International being a particularly big deal by my way of thinking.
The IWC is as prestigious as it gets, it’s a truly international competition that’s meticulously judged blind by some of the best in the business. Apparently the Quarter Acre was up against 1200 plus other gold medal winning wines across the four categories, and it took out all four trophies. Hard to fathom.
This is the biggest award I’ve ever won and it’s a really big deal for us. But it’s also a big win for New Zealand on a vast international stage, so we’re all pretty stoked, proud, amazed and grateful. One person doesn’t make the wine alone, we all know that, and although it’s my name on the bottle we’ve a small bunch of committed wine people here at RMW who all work their butts off, taking risks, crafting, wrangling, organising and grafting away all towards the same goal of making the best bloody wine we can. As risky as it may seem at the time, these awards are a real-life confirmation that we’re doing something right and this is what people want to see more of…wines that have quality at their core, but have enough personality to shine in a room full of top notch wines.
Thanks to those of you who return to buy our wine time and time (and time!) again. You grease the machine and allow us to continue. Hand on heart, thank you.
That’s all for now. I’m in China at the moment on a New Zealand Wine and Hawke’s Bay Wine trade tour, heading home in a week, but for now I may just have to go and have a couple of impressively large beers to celebrate!
Rain is expected to mark a drop in overall volumes of grapes harvested this vintage.
The drought conditions of December through to mid-February had effectively “saved our bacon” in terms of how the grapes across Hawke’s Bay had weathered persistent and potentially damaging bouts of rain over the past six weeks.
However, there was likely to be a drop in overall volumes along with a drop in sugar levels and in individual cases a possible rise in the cost of harvesting, leading winemaker Rod McDonald said.
Bright, warm and dry days had seen the critical early development of grapes go extremely well, Mr McDonald said, adding that effectively created a good base for fruit protection when the rains did arrive.
“There was good early flavour development during the start of the season – they [grapes] may be down on sugars but the flavours are there.”
Location had been a factor in which vineyards saw reduced volumes, he said, although the overall drop was unlikely to be major.
Of the three vineyards which sourced Rod McDonald Wines one would be down on volumes as a result of the rain belts but the other two were actually slightly ahead of their initial estimates.
“It depends where you were to find the effects where rain hit.”
He said coastal areas like Te Awanga came through well.
“We’ve got some amazing chardonnay and perfect ripeness out of there.”
Rain often created extra costs due to stopping and starting of harvesting – “darting back and forth” – as well as the need for selected picking plans.
“But you’ve just got to suck it up.”
Mr McDonald said he was at a wine tasting in Auckland about a month ago and was asked what effect rain would have on the grape harvest and how damaging could it be.
He replied that despite Hawke’s Bay’s dry reputation everyone in the industry had a wet weather plan and were always prepared for such an eventuality.
“If you don’t then you’re dreaming.”
Part of his plan was to go with “discretion rather than valour” and carry out an earlier than usual harvest of some Syrah and Merlot so as not to put them through any more rain.
“You have to ask yourself ‘do I pull the pin now and bank it or push on through?”
But he still has some Syrah out, along with Cabernet “and they are in great shape”.
Having a damp end to the season was always a threat and simply “one of those things you have to deal with”.
Mission Estate winemaker Paul Mooney took the same stance.
“We have had a remarkable amount of rainfall over the past six or seven weeks and that is not ideal for grape growing but we have worked around it.”
Mr Mooney said there had been some grape loss.
“There have been one or two blocks we’ve had to leave.”
While volumes would be down it would not be major and he agreed with Mr MacDonald that the hot, dry start for the season had put things on the right path.
“It just hasn’t been ideal in the way it has finished,” he said.
He also agreed that while sugar levels were down flavours would still be very good.
