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Antonia presented us with some of the Babich wines, mainly from Marlborough, where their new winery is situated. Their base is still in the Henerson Valley, where the Babich family first settled.
Antonia regaled us with the Babich family members’ comings to New Zealand at an unsettled time for the world and why they turned to making wine, with their increasing presence here and their increasing knowledge base. An interesting evening for everyone.
The different labels certainly made for an interesting evening.
A reminder of the wines we tasted during the evening:
Sustainably Crafted New Zealand Wine – 100 years in the making
Wednesday 9th August, 8 pm Start Door Price: Members $14 / Guests $18
People thought Josip Babich was crazy back in 1912. Planting vines in West Auckland and then patiently making wine the difficult way – with great vision, graft, thoughtfulness, ingenuity, and true craft. That pioneering spirit is something that still runs deep in our veins today, and we’ll keep ‘paying it forward’ for as long as we exist.
Over 20 years ago, we registered our first sustainable vineyard – a New Zealand first. But we’re not content to look back because what you’ve done is not who you are. We’re more excited about our future than ever and applying 100 years and three generations of winemaking experience to sustainably craft the most drinkable wines from New Zealand to the world.
Sustainability is always better when shared. Babich’s iconic NZ wine regions: Marlborough is home to some of the world’s finest Sauvignon Blanc. And a second home to Babich since we established vineyards there in 1989. Hawkes Bay is internationally renowned for its soil profile – perfect for supple, robust and sophisticated reds.
Quartz Reef winery operations manager Montse Mondaca helps with the first harvest of the season at the Bendigo vineyard yesterday. Image: Julie Asher
A classic Central Otago harvest season began yesterday with the first fruit plucked from the vines at Bendigo. Quartz Reef winemaker Rudi Bauer said the harvest looked set to be a good one but would have its challenges as unsettled weather during flowering in early December resulted in uneven fruit set.
Daily decisions would be made about which fruit to pick, but overall the average yield looked very good, Mr Bauer said.
Harvest had started three to four days earlier than last year, so it was a normal season. The spring had been very good, with good rainfall until January, when it became very dry.
There was around 50mm of very welcome rain last week.
A forecast of cool nights and warm days was exactly what the winemaker wanted for the cool climate wines such as the Pino’s, Chardonnay, sparkling and Gewurtztraminer wines that did so well in Central Otago.
He had plenty of labour available and there was no sign of infection in the grapes so it promised a good solid season.
Last year’s white wines had been very well received and the Pino’s would be bottled after harvest.
More winemakers in Central Otago were expanding into organic production.
While Central Otago wine made up about 3.5% of the country’s total production, their reputation and quality meant they were highly regarded.
“We punch way above our weight,” Mr Bauer said.
All the winegrowers in the region were mindful of the losses suffered by their North Island counterparts following Cyclone Gabrielle.
All were donating what they could to the Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne winegrowers associations.
It would be some time before the scale of damage could be assessed but it would be massive and include machinery destroyed by having silt through it as well as vines which could take years to replace.
French wine producer Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines has bought Central Otago vineyard Akarua Estate, which it hopes will eventually produce 60,000 bottles a year of premium organic pinot noir.
Bordeaux-based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines received Overseas Investment Office approval to buy the 52-hectare estate, with 34.5ha of vines, in Central Otago’s Bannockburn, along with the Akarua Estate vineyard from New Zealand company the Skeggs Group.
Ariane de Rothschild, president of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which also owns Marlborough vineyard Rimapere, said the region’s soil was world-famous for its exceptional growing conditions for pinot noir.
She said that the terroir, or environment, at Bannockburn was on par with the Burgundy region in Eastern France.
“The addition of our second New Zealand winery is part of our wider strategy to develop a portfolio of premium international wines from exceptional terroirs.
“Central Otago’s international reputation for pinot noir provides a unique opportunity for us to complete our range and move into the production of organic wines – one of the fastest growing categories,” she said.
Winemaker Ann Escalle, who was technical director at Rimapere before moving to Akarua Estate, said the soil had all the elements they were looking for, and the slope was gentle enough for the vines to be able to develop well.
Akarua Estate vineyard in Central Otago has been sold to Bordeaux-based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines.
The region’s climate was known for its hot and cold extremes, but the site was not too harsh. At the same time, it was dry and windy enough to keep diseases away.
“We think that what we have here at Akarua is really top potential, and we can bring it to the world. We would like to produce some of the best pinot noirs in the world because it’s possible,” she said.
The vineyard, which produced about 80% pinot noir along with small amounts of chardonnay and riesling, was not organic yet, but work was starting on converting it immediately.
When fully converted and organically certified, the vineyard would produce more than 60,000 bottles of organic wines annually for the international and domestic markets.
The soil had all the elements required, and the slope was gentle enough for the vines to be able to develop well, said Ann Escalle.
The wines would continue to be produced under the Akarua brand. The Akarua Estate vineyard was founded in 1996 by former Dunedin mayor Sir Clifford Skeggs.
Skeggs Group managing director David Skeggs said the new owners had significant global influence and networks and would bring new opportunities for the Central Otago wine industry.
The Skeggs Group would continue to produce its Rua brand from its 90 hectares of established vineyards in the Bannockburn and Pisa sub-regions.
The nine vineyards owned by Edmond de Rothschild Heritage in France, Spain, South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand produced 3.5 million bottles of wine a year.
Weilong Grape Co, one of the biggest wine producers in China, has announced the sale of 320 hectares of Australian vineyards for AUS$143 million (RMB 660.6 million).
Weilong is China’s third largest wine producer and the country’s biggest organic winery.
The company announced plans to sell its vineyard holdings in Coomealla and Nyah in Murray, which account for 76% of its total wine production in Australia, as reported by Vino Joy.
According to a statement released by Weilong on 6 July, the sale will “alleviate its financial and managerial stress for its Australian subsidiary”.
But for Weilong Grape Co, punitive tariffs’ financial weight has proved too heavy.
This marks the first major selloff from a Chinese company heavily restricted by these tariffs from selling Australian wine back to the Chinese market.
The Shandong-based wine producer bought the vineyards between 2016 and 2018, when international relations were friendly, China was Australia’s most profitable export market.
Weilong purchased approximately 600 hectares of vineyards in Victoria and New South Wales, according to Vino Joy, building a 26,000-tonne capacity winery just south of Mildura.
As disclosed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the sale includes 167.6 ha of vineyards in Coomealla and 260.4 ha in Nyah, along with other associated assets, for AUS$26.6 million and AUS$44.4 million each.
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.
Stonecroft is a small, family owned winery making organic Gimblett Gravels wines in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand. The owners are Dermot McCollum and Andria Monin, who live on the Roy’s Hill vineyard with their two children Emer and Oscar, plus Jasper the cat and Stanley the chocolate lab.
At Stonecroft, they seek to express through their wines the unique character of their vineyards and each vintage. The intention is to make wines which are intense, full-bodied, elegant and fruit-driven, but capable of significant bottle development. The ability of the wines to improve in the bottle has been demonstrated over more than 20 years, with many of the early examples still drinking well. Their total production is very small; with around 3,500 cases produced annually. Both the vineyards and the winery are certified organic.
Andria will be presenting on the night. A tasting not to be missed. More next month.
June is always a challenging month for arranging a wine tasting as the weather can be adverse and once we get home, often means that we can be reluctant to leave again. Last month’s tasting was like that with a really unpleasant Wellington day.
Still, 28 hearty souls made it to our tasting that night and were rewarded with an excellent presentation from Richard Macdonald. Richard’s knowledge of Giesen and their product was insightful as he led us through 3 whites, 3 reds and a Rose.
This Rose was delightful, even on a cold wintery night with good fruit and a soft lingering taste. Interestingly it was also the wine most ordered on the night. Other wines enjoyed, if the orders are anything to go by, were the 2014 Brothers Gewürztraminer and 2013 Brothers Pinot Noir. This latter wine also provided a reminder that Marlborough vineyards with a touch of age are now beginning to provide pinots that a real value for money as their quality begins to match their cousins from Martinborough and Central Otago.
Another wine to surprise on the night was the Organic Sauvignon Blanc that was used as our meet and greet wine. This had great fruit flavour without that aggressive grassy nose that many other SBs from this region often have, well to me anyway, and consequently, I very much enjoyed it as our starter for the evening.
The whites ended with the much celebrated 2014 Fuder Clayvin Chardonnay. Fuder, refers to the type of barrel used. It’s much larger than what we normally see in NZ and its purpose to evolve the texture of the wine without overpowering it with oak. It certainly did this for me and with its full body and slightly citrus notes, it was a wine that I had been really looking forward to tasting, given it had won Elite Gold at the 2016 Air NZ Wine Awards. The only disappointment was that I could not afford the $50 order form cost, despite its discounted value, as I decided to purchase the 2012 Eight Songs Shiraz instead.
Giesens are also the NZ agent for a small range of Peter Lehman reds. Richard ended our tasting with two of these, the 2014 Hills & Valley Shiraz and the 2012 Eight Songs Shiraz. The latter, if I’m not wrong, was probably the most expensive Shiraz the club has tasted, although last year’s 2013 Elderton Neil Ashmead Grand Tourer Shiraz did come close.
The 2012 Eight Songs was named after one of Peter Lehman’s favourite vocal ensemble musical works, loved for its soft harmonies. Apparently, this inspired Peter Lehman to emulate that artistry in a wine and it has resulted in a very soft stylish wine that is quite foreboding with its very black core, yet elegant with its lovely integration of mocha chocolate and dark plum characteristics. A great tasting from Richard Macdonald and one that I think many would be sad that they missed.
Head to cellar doors to taste some of these great New Zealand chardonnays. Photograph: Alamy
Fictional chardonnay swillers, Bridget Jones, and Kath and Kim have a lot to answer for when it comes to one of the world’s noblest grapes, and why, for the past 10 years or so, many of us have stopped drinking it. Not only has it become uncool to drink chardonnay but the product itself has suffered due to the deluge of cheaply produced, homogenised and heavily oak-chipped versions of this most versatile Vinifera. The 1980s and 90s were awash with over-the-top, tropically scented, fat, blousy and nearly chewable renderings of the grape that Australian winemakers went on to conquer the world with.
Back in its hometown of Chablis, France, chardonnay has been revered for more than 500 years. Depending on where and how it’s grown, the grape’s versatility is unquestionable. Great examples can swing from lean, steeled, cold stream refreshment, to sweet late harvest wines of heady line and length, stopping at all stations, good, bad, and ugly, as it goes. Nowadays, a zippy glass of sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, is more popular with your average drinker than a glass of heavy, creamy, chardonnay. In fact, sav blanc accounts for 72% of the total wine produced by New Zealanders, with Aussies being the largest export market.
You could argue that if scenes from Kath and Kim were being written today, these reflective characters would, more than likely, be pouring themselves a glass of Sauvy Bee, instead of “Kar-don-ay”. But chardonnay is timeless, and its ability to match effortlessly with food means phrases like, “ABC; Anything But Chardonnay”, is something you will rarely ever hear spoken, by those in the know.
I love New Zealand chardonnay. In the warmer, sunnier climes of the north, in places such as Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, and Nelson (top of the South Island), chardonnay is scented with fresh tropical fruits and rounded textures, similar to the rolling hills that bound along the horizon. The further south you go, the cooler it gets, and chardonnay grown in the Marlborough, Waipara, and Central Otago regions, here, express their revitalising, snow peaked landscapes, as New Zealand’s alpine country pushes further up, into the sky.
Chardonnay – worth giving up your sauv blanc for. Photograph: Corbis
After a recent visit, here are my top picks of New Zealand chardonnay.
James and Annie Millton have been biodynamic before it was cool. Second tier, but by no means second rate, the Shotberry chardonnay is like a safe option gateway drug into the wonderful world of northern New Zealand chardy. A blend from two distinct estate owned sites, Riverpoint and Opou, this wine is like drinking Gisborne in a glass. Ripe yellow fruits and florals, cooled by ocean spray, ripple above a barely noticeable raft of oak, which seems only there for textual protection, rather than full-blown armament.
2013, Bilancia Chardonnay, Bilancia, Hawke’s Bay, 13%, $29
Winegrowers, Lorraine Leheny and Warren Gibson are all about balance. There are six letters in both of their last names, they are both Libran, and their wines taste as if Lady Justice had made them herself, hence the name; ‘”bi’lancia” (be-larn-cha), meaning balance, harmony and equilibrium in Italian. If their La Collina syrah is the rapture, then this chardonnay is like some kind of intense party beforehand. The smell of gunsmoke and soft white flowers mingle with the air inside the glass, carrying with it pear skin, white stone fruit and salted honey aromas, while flavours of crisp green apple, buttery shortbread, like baked apple pie with slices of white peach glazed on top, provide the formula for flavour in this divine example of chardonnay from Hawke’s Bay.
Andrew Greenhough is a man with a masters in art history, who gave up his ambitions of being an art gallery curator – a career which would have seen him showcasing other people’s artistic creations – and instead moved to Nelson with his wife Jenny, where they purchased a vineyard, in a place called Hope. There they set out to grow and create their very own works of art. This wine showcases the real strength of this region’s potential for making great chardy, à la the revered clays hills of the Moutere. Breathe deep, the golden sunlit liquid that possesses fleshy aromas of yellow nectarine, salted buttered popcorn, and green pineapple core. Luscious, not lean, curvaceous, never flabby. This wine is not distributed in Australia, and I have no idea why, but if you are travelling in the region it’s worth stocking up on.
2014, Chardonnay, Te Whare Ra (TWR), Marlborough, Certified Organic, 13.2%, $38
Anna and Jason Flowerday take winegrowing very seriously. After all, their livelihood depends on it. That’s why all their wines have a certain laser-guided precision about them, which is not to say that they lack soul, but rather, drinking a TWR white wine is like listening to a high-fidelity live performance of Daft Punk, circa 2007.
Last year was an outstanding year for the Flowerday’s, and it shows in this vitally brilliant single estate wine. Imagine, butter melting on hot river stones while cool glacial waters that smell like white linen flowers, citrus, crunchy nectarine and other stone fruits rush over them at pace, cleansing and cooling the stones, and leaving behind fine mineral traces of residual adrenaline and joy … well, that would be an understatement.
2014, Home Chardonnay, Black Estate, Waipara , 12.5%, $45
Located in North Canterbury, on New Zealand’s South Island, Waipara valley is home to a number of premium winegrowing estates, including Black Estate, where they grow chardonnay from 21-year-old vines that were last irrigated in 1998. Winegrower, Nick Brown’s meticulous attention to detail has resulted in a wine that is all torque, which is backed up with precise lines and sleek curves. In another life, Nick may have been an Italian carmaker.
Full secondary ferment provides a textual grip that seems to have done nothing to squash the racy acids this wine drives along on. Gunsmoked cheddar, lemon spritz and coconut shavings provide the perfect hook to open wide and drink deep all the angular richness of mango skins, lace, and green pineapple core that’s held inside the glass.
The Central Otago landscape was carved from hyperbole. The mountains, the ranges, the rivers and lakes, the snow, the dirt, and the green, then gold, then red leafed vines. From sunrise to sunset, Central Otago is proof that God is a wine drinker.
Felton Road might just be the most unimaginative name for a wine label, and yet they make some of the most captivating wines in the country. The Block 3 chardonnay is deeply golden in colour and smells like frozen tropical fruits; crisp melon, fleshy pineapple, mango skins – then, soft lime, nuts and spiced honey. Upon each element sits tiny frozen flakes of ice, providing razored tension. Like sails unfurling in the wind, this wine is supple, nimble, and graceful as it goes in a round, around your mouth, down past your heart to, at last, rest in your belly and shine sunlight on your soul.
Officials and wine growers have cut through red tape to make it easier for New Zealand organic wines to be sold in Europe. The European Commission has recognised New Zealand organic wine production methods as equivalent to its own, paving the way for exports. “The market potential in the EU is growing exponentially,” James Millton of Gisborne’s Millton Vineyards said. “The younger generation are focused on organic and even beyond into biodynamic, and a lot of conventional producers in Europe are changing to these types of growing systems.”
Jonathan Hamlet, chairman of Organic Winegrowers New Zealand
Jonathan Hamlet, chairman of Organic Winegrowers New Zealand, said up till now many producers had not bothered to market their wine as organic because the process was too difficult. “We used to have a lot of red tape, it involved getting an individual importing licence for an individual market, not one for the whole of the EU, but in last two years the Ministry for Primary Industries and NZ Wine have been working towards getting equivalence,” Hamlet said.
In 2013, almost 2000 hectares (5.6 per cent) of New Zealand’s 35,700ha wine-producing area were under organic certification. The total value of organic wine exported is estimated to be $44 million. The organic wine industry has a goal to reach 20 per cent of New Zealand production by 2020. Millton said it was an achievable goal because many producers already practised as organic but did not undergo the certification process. “It’s just a question whether these growers are prepared to undergo certification. If they do I’m confident we’ll get to 20 per cent by 2020.” He said his main wine varieties were chenin blanc, viognier, riesling and chardonnay.
One of New Zealand’s biggest wine producers, Villa Maria, was just under 30 per cent certified organic. Hamlet said there was a three-year conversion process from non-organic to certified organic and an annual audit which ensured a grower complied with organic standards. Organic manufacturers could use sulphites, which are natural preservatives, to stop wine oxidising, although they are used at lower concentrations in organic wines.
New Zealand has similar organic equivalence agreements with Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and the US.
This meeting was excellent with Jonathan (Jono) Hamlet being an interesting and enthusiastic speaker concentrating on the organic viticulture rather than the wine. It was a very informative balanced presentation, leading to a good level of orders. A good follow up with the newspaper item included in the newsletter.
To recap, the wines presented included; a Gerwurtz quaffer, then two wines from the Private Bin range, two Cellar Selections and two single vineyard wines, all organic offerings. In order to show some more ‘interesting’ varieties, Jono arranged for some barrel samples of wines produced from grapes from their organic vineyards ie Chenin Blanc.
A good tasting, could be interesting to follow up at a later date to follow the development of organic wines.
