Want to try something new, and not already a member? Come on your own, grab a friend, workmate or partner and join us for our next tasting. Take a look and see who's presenting. Scroll down to view the website.
The Committee has been able to arrange for another top-flight Hawke’s Bay winemaker to present to the Club on Wednesday 14th September. This time it is Peter Robertson of Brookfields Winery, one of the doyens of winemaking in Hawke’s Bay.
A top selection of eight wines will be on offer. The wines will be available for purchase on the night at very good prices.
Founded in 1937, Brookfields is Hawke’s Bay’s oldest winery. It is located alongside the Tutaekuri River at Meeanee (between Napier and Hastings). The winery was purchased by its current owner and winemaker, Peter Robertson, in 1977, who transformed it into a leading winery for premium wines. The history of Brookfields is revealed in the handmade 25cm concrete blocks used to build the winery and cellar in the 1930s. These blocks create the perfect environment for ageing great wines and keeping the cellar cool during Hawke’s Bay’s hot summers. Peter creates classic wines with grapes that are only grown in specific locations and have strict growing policies.
Brookfield’s reputation has been built on stunning red wines. For example, the 1989 Gold Label cabernet/merlot on release stunned the critics and trade with its excellence. Subsequent vintages have firmly placed Brookfields as one of the best red winemakers.
Producing between 8,000 and 10,000 cases of wine each year, Brookfields has no desire to push up volumes when there is always the challenge of creating even more dramatic wine. Peter has been crafting exquisite wines from his vineyards in and around Meeanee since he bought the winery in 1977. He is often referred to as a quiet achiever, diligently going about his business, shunning the spotlight, and letting his wines speak for themselves. Showing the meticulous attention to detail that characterises the man himself, the depth, excellence and brilliance of all varietals remind you of his adept talent.
As he himself says, “It is my belief that superior wine comes from superior fruit; great wines are made in the vineyard. Much of the winemaking at Brookfields is traditional. The “Bergman” chardonnay is barrel fermented. The “Reserve” reds are hand-plunged and then aged in French oak barrels for at least a year. Time is a winemaker’s friend.”
The Te Mata evening last month was a great success, with Keith Tibble and Brett Newell from EuroVintage filling in for Te Mata’s Reps. They were both informative and interesting about the vintages, the people who own and work the vineyards and the different classes of wine that Te Mata produces and sells. There was a good level of orders from members.
The vertical tasting of the two Cabernet Merlots was also interesting, as these helped educate us on the different processes that are used on the different classes of grapes the Winery handles. The taste of these two wines was an eye-opener.
NB: Don’t forget Brett Newell’s tip that you don’t decant older wines too early before you want to drink them, as their taste will not be the best by the time you drink them. ‘Old’ is anything older than ten years.
Update on Te Mata orders
The orders are in hand if a little delayed. Keith Tibble from EuroVintage has been ill and given the orders are compiled in Auckland and then shipped as a single order to Wellington, there has been a delay. The orders are due to Murray by the end of this week and as soon as received will be delivered to you or arrangements made. The charges at this point have not gone on to your credit cards. Apologies for the delay.
Established in 1896, Te Mata Estate remains family-owned, producing internationally recognised wines exclusively from its Hawkes Bay vineyards. The Chambers family, the original owners, sold the property in 1919.
TMV Te Mata Vineyards was established, and the property had two other owners until it was acquired by the Buck and Morris Families in 1974 – the two families behind the modern interpretation of this historic NZ estate.
Te Mata Estate is committed to improving its performance in terms of environmental, social and economic sustainability through the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) programme, established in 1995 as an industry-initiated programme directed by NZ Winegrowers. Te Mata Estate’s vineyards were amongst the first to be accredited in 1995, as was the winery in 2005.
This evening was going to be presented by Te Mata vineyard but is now being covered by Eurovintage with Keith Tibble and Brett Newell hosting the evening for us.
Indictive wines for the evening, still being worked on at the time this newsletter went out:
Starting with Estate Range Sauvignon Blanc
Premium Sauvignon Blanc
Two premium reds – Awatea and Bullnose ranges
Estate Range – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon
The above selection is indicative only as it will depend on the availability of stock at this time.
This will be both a surprising and informative evening with great wines to taste across Te Mata’s different wine ranges and looks to be an experience that you wouldn’t normally get anywhere else.
Without a doubt, this would be one of the most prestigious tastings in the 40 years of the club’s existence.
And who better to present these wines, than one of our life members, Alan Evans.
Alan joined the club in 1987 and has held the roles of Editor [10 years] and President [8 years]. He was made a life member in 2010 and still attends our dinners and the occasional tasting.
He is also a Past President of the Magnum Society that was a Wellington-based wine group founded in 1972 and currently is the Cellar Master of the Tinakori branch of the international Beefsteak and Burgundy Club.
Alan’s love of wine was a natural progression, he says, from an interest in ciders in the 1960s to the wines of Henderson in the mid-1970s. He has an extensive temperature-controlled cellar and over the years has developed a love of European wines which he augments with premium NZ and Australian varietals.
2001 Penfolds 389
The committee approached Alan to see if he would be prepared to present some of his premium cellared wines as one of our marquee events to celebrate our 40 years of tastings and he has not disappointed. The following list of wines is stunning.
2016 Ogier Cote du Rhone White [Introductory wine]
2016 Askerne Semillon
Loire Chenin Blanc
2011 Penfolds 389 [from our own cellar]
2001 Penfolds 389
1991 Coleraine
2017 Troplong Mondot [St Emilion Grand Cru]
1991 Te Mata Estate Coleraine
The ’91 Coleraine was rated by a group of wine experts three years ago as the 5th best Coleraine ever made and is a personal favourite of John Buck, winemaker and Chairman of Te Mata Estate Winery. It was also rated by Geoff Kelly, alongside the 1987 Stonyridge Larose, as “one of the few great achievements in the first 26 years or so of cabernet and cabernet/merlot wine styles, in the modern phase of New Zealand viticulture”.
And if that isn’t enough to wet your taste buds, go and google our last wine.
As I said at the outset, this is a prestigious tasting of premium wines which I suspect, many of us have never tasted before. We are indeed lucky to have that opportunity this month.
These words were uttered by the French-born English wine merchant and author André Simon in 1964 when tasting Hawke’s Bay winery Te Mata’s 1912 red blend. More than half a century after it was first made – the same year as the sinking of the Titanic – the red wine was still very much alive, so why has New Zealand not developed a reputation for making age worthy wines?
Two words: Sauvignon Blanc.
The New Zealand wine industry is dominated by a grape variety that is typically fermented and put into bottle within months – or even weeks – of being harvested. ‘Picked, pressed and pissed before Christmas’ is the life cycle of Sauvignon Blanc in some winemakers’ view. Why wait for Christmas when you can drink the wine before Easter? Moana Park winery has released a Sauvignon Blanc on April 1 and that was no April Fools. If the previous vintage has been small and stocks are running low, a few blocks might be picked early to produce a wine to bridge the gap between vintages, such as Villa Maria’s Early Release Sauvignon Blanc.
However, there are a growing number of smaller, quality focused producers that are holding back their Sauvignon Blancs before releasing, giving them time on lees and time in bottle. Having tasted some of Marlborough’s finest Sauvignon Blancs at seven or eight years old, drinkers need not be in such a hurry. Putting the brakes on wineries releasing wines doesn’t help their cash flow and with grape growers to pay and bank repayments due, accountants can overrule winemakers, putting the onus on drinkers to put the wines in their usually non-existent cellars.
It is partly a matter of wine culture: New Zealand does not have a long-standing tradition of making and drinking wine. Having rejected Prohibition in 1919, the country continued to operate under a cloud of abstemiousness, promoted by restrictive licensing laws. Until 1961, New Zealanders couldn’t enjoy a glass of wine with a meal in a restaurant. The 1960s brought licensing change with more and more restaurant licences granted, a rise in the number of wine shops while a rise in tax on beer and spirits in the 1958 ‘Black Budget’ gave wine an encouraging bump.
The 1950s witnessed the birth of aspirational winemakers and pioneers seeking to move away from fortified wine and hybrids to quality table wine made from vitis vinifera, which gained increasing momentum, culminating in legislation outlawing a sugar and water culture and a state-sponsored vine pull in the 1980s. In the 1970s, regular wine columns had appeared in several newspapers, catering for an educated population who had done their ‘OE’ (overseas experience), travelling around Europe, experiencing wine and food culture. From just 174ml of wine per capita in the early 1960s, wine consumption increased to 5.3 litres by the end of the 1970s. In 2016, the figure stood at 20.2 litres but has remained stagnant for a decade. (Come on team, get drinking, we have to lift this again – Ed)
Red wines in New Zealand, like whites, are all too often released early and consumed early, meaning there are few older vintages available to purchase and enjoy. There are relatively few wine collectors and fine dining restaurants with cellars and mature stocks of New Zealand wine and thus some wineries are starting to take responsibility for ageing their wines until they approach their drinking window. Judy Fowler, owner of Puriri Hills Vineyard in Clevedon, Auckland, which specialises in Bordeaux blends, has a Brunello di Montalcino approach to releasing her reds. “My late release policy is based on the fact that we attempt to produce Bordeaux-blended wines made in the longstanding traditions of Bordeaux. The great Bordeaux generally benefit from ageing five to 10 years or longer. Our wines are built to age well. However, we are a small, newer vineyard [established 1998] with perhaps another 300 years to earn the reputation for quality that the grands crus of Bordeaux have. As such, we do not expect our customers all to want to wait for five or more years to taste our wines at their best, so we do the ageing here at the vineyard before release.” While Fowler is not alone, most wineries don’t apply the release-when-ready-to-drink policy across the entire range, as it can leave suppliers wine-less and raise the prospect of delisting.
It is difficult to judge the ageability of New Zealand wines with so little precedent. In the past decade, young vines have matured, viticulture has evolved, winemaking has become more refined: a Pinot Noir produced 10 years ago from young vines by winemakers that were still getting to know their site will be quite different today than a current vintage opened in a decade’s time. When asked to provide drinking windows for a recent Central Otago Pinot Noir or Hawke’s Bay Cabernet Sauvignon, it is a case of pinning the tail on the donkey.
However, there’s no doubting the country’s best wines have the components to age gracefully: intensity of fruit, richness of ripe tannins, acidity (and pH), alcohol and magic all play their part in the development of a red wine. In whites, high levels of acidity and flavour precursors elongate their shelf life.
There’s also a small matter of the closure: screwcaps are omnipotent in New Zealand. Although a small but significant number of producers continue to seal their top Bordeaux blends under cork (while putting the rest of their range under screwcap), it is likely that the wines will age more slowly, because of the lower rate of oxygen ingress compared with a natural cork.
What is clear, is that far too many New Zealand wines are being consumed before they are out of nappies. It’s time to let them grow up.
