vintuba.com

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An Article by CatherineS

It takes a lot of sheep to make good wine in New Zealand.  Sheeps milk, to be more exact.

Not that beer is losing ground as a favorite drink for the winemaking set during harvest; and these winemakers are not necessarily guzzling back tall glasses of the white milky stuff.  But if it weren’t for all of the sheep in the country, who knows how long it would have taken New Zealand to get into the international winemaking game.  New Zealand is pretty isolated, and delivering winemaking equipment there is very expensive. One day, however, the wine-thirsty people of New Zealand looked around at all of the stainless steel tanks they had for processing their sheep’s milk, and thought, hmmm, we could use this equipment to make wine.

Make wine they did – and sauvignon blanc wine that stopped the world.  What is most fascinating about New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc is that it was not even planted there just 30 years ago. But once they started, it was all fireworks and grammy shows; the wines were wildly popular with critics and consumers.

New Zealand is currently working on putting more eggs in its basket.  The country knows that putting all of its energy into one grape—its star sauvignon blanc grape–is a very near-sighted thing to do.  Wine consumers are as fickle as any other type of consumer and varietals go in and out of fashion, especially in new world countries like the United States. The U.S., along with the U.K. and Australia—and Japan for the higher end wines– are the biggest markets for New Zealand wine. So the Bordeaux style wines of Hawkes Bay, and the Pinots of Martinborough and Central Otago, among others, are being held up for world review.

In general, what is really cool about winemaking in New Zealand is that they grow the most southerly grapes in the world.  The two islands have a general Maritime climate, but the range from the tip of the North island to the bottom of the South ranges from subtropical to continental.  It rains more in the West, so many of the vineyards are planted on the East. The East Coast vineyards are protected from some of the bad weather by a series of mountains that run down the country, roughly North to South.

Let’s take our own look around the country and see what they are up to.  Today, we will concentrate on the North Island.

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Auckland : Mostly red wine is made here; the best known ones are from Henderson, Kumeu,  Huapai, Waiheke Island, Matakana, and Clevedon

Climate:  Warmest region of New Zealand ; subtropical; cloud-cover moderates the sun here and provides a steady winegrowing season

Soil:  clay which can be quite heavy, with a lighter clay topsoil

Viticulture:  the whole country is a leader in canopy management and trellising ; rain and rot are a problem here at harvest

Grapes:   Most popular are chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot ; also planted: sauvignon blanc and semillon

Styles: Waiheke Island is known for its wines from the Bordeaux varietals: cab sauv, merlot and cab franc (it is less rainy here so the Bordeaux varietals ripen well); Matakana is known for its cabernet sauvignon in particular

Northland: a tiny region, but historical in that New Zealand winemaking started here.  The first grapes on the island were stuck in the ground in 1819.  It is a particularly wet region, especially on the west coast, and so it is not easy to make great wine here.  But great wine can be made. Using careful canopy management and trellising, among other viticultural practices, and being smart about where they plant, several producers are making really good wine, especially cabernet sauvignon and syrah. Since this area is on the most northern tip of the North island, it is the warmest, and therefore ripens Bordeaux varietals well.

Gisbourne: The third most important region in the country after Marlborough and Hawkes Bay

Location: on the East coast of the North Island. Its vineyards get the title of “most easterly vineyards in the world.”

Climate:  The area gets high sun hours, and it is sheltered from much of the nasty weather coming from the west by mountains to its west, but it still gets more rain than Hawkes Bay.

Soils: Fertile : alluvial over sand

Viticulture: canopy management and trellising techniques used

Grapes:  Chardonnay is most important

Production:  More white than red here, an almost 90-10% split.

Hawkes Bay: The second largest winegrowing area in the country; producing noteworthy wines from the Bordeaux varietals.

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Location: South of Gisbourne, on the East Coast

Climate:  Maritime, warm.  Sheltered from the westerlies by the mountains. Rain is low here with high temperatures (still lower than Bordeaux) along the Gimblett Gravel area, but cooler in the higher altitude vineyards of central Hawkes Bay.

Soils:  Wide range, but good free-draining.  There are outcroppings of gravel, called Gimblett Gravels, which are great for cabernet and merlot. They run deep and provide a warm environment for late ripeners such as cab sauv, merlot, cab franc and syrah.

Viticulture:  canopy management and trellising techniques; the wide range of soils create the need for many different vineyard practices

Grapes: Chardonnay is most important to production, cabernet sauvignon and merlot get lots of attention, but good pinot noir is also grown here.  There is also cabernet franc and syrah.

Martinborough – has boutique wineries with a great reputation; a very dynamic area. It is only 6^th in size but very important to the country in terms of quality

Location:  In the Wairapara region which is in Wellington.

Climate:  More like Marlborough on the South Island, than its northern counterparts: it is sunny and pretty dry

Soils:  loam and gravelly terraces

Viticulture: low cropping with a long ripening period

Grapes: Pinot Noir has been a success, as well as sauvignon blanc

Style:  Full-bodied, rich pinots

All this talk about North Island New Zealand certainly doesn’t make me want to go get a big cold glass of milk. I think it’s sauvignon blanc time at my house.

Cheers,

CatherineS