The whiter side of Hawkes Bay
Monday 28 December
White varieties in New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay cover more than half of the region’s vineyard land despite being better known for its reds internationally. This statistic was a bit of a shock to me, coming from the UK. Isn’t Hawkes Bay dominated by Cabernet, Merlot and Syrah? Clearly not.
In fact, Chardonnay is the most planted variety with Sauvignon Blanc only beaten into third spot by Merlot.
I tried some really classy Chardonnays from here as well as some decent Viognier. But Sauvignon and Riesling? I understand that the world wants to drink New Zealand Sauvignon and there are distributors looking for anything but Marlborough SB but with prices falling faster than the Titanic, Hawkes Bay should focus on what it’s good at. The days are gone when Hawkes Bay could produce Sauvignon at an attractive price compared to Marlborough. In my opinion, this is the time to focus on its warmer climate whites and reds.
With the heat degree day summation in the Gimblett Gravels area exceeding that of Valence in the Rhone valley, Tony Bish, winemaker at Sacred Hill said: “We have to break the paradigm that all of New Zealand is cool climate.”
“Hawkes Bay Sauvignon Blanc is not as varietally intense because we don’t have the cool nights that Marlborough does, so we get riper wines with lower acids.” If the region is going to have a go at Sauvignon, why not throw in a bit of Semillon, a little bit of French oak and make a Graves/Pessac Leognan style? It would fit with the region’s Bordeaux blend reds.
The Chardonnays from producers including Clearview Estate, Sacred Hill’s Rifleman’s Chardonnay and Mission Estate’s Reserve all impressed. They’ve all got white stone fruit and citrus with some nicely balanced new french oak but the warmer climate in Hawkes Bay is definitely reflected by the 14% alcohol levels.
As well as doing a pretty good northern Rhone-style red, Gimblett producers are also doing some promising Rhone-style whites, including Craggy Range. Many other producers showed some lovely peach and apricotty character with decent concentration and typical Viognier structure but there was often too much oak covering that lovely Viognier fragrance.
There are some interesting spots in Hawkes Bay on the coast for whites - take German-owned Elephant Hill. It’s a newcomer to the region but already its whites are showing a delicacy and nimbleness that is surely a reflection of the cooler site - and perhaps its Germanic ownership. Clearview Estate, also situated on the coast, also shows a freshness that those further inland could not emulate. As always, it’s always about location, location, location.
Nelson’s “tiddlywinks” need to shout louder
Sunday 20 December
So, I’m in Nelson – a 90-minute drive from Marlborough. It’s very different to Marlborough with most wineries less than 6km from the sea, 50% more rainfall and less diurnal temperature difference. Everyone you meet here will tell you that it is the wine region with the most sunshine hours too – apparently Marlborough tries to make that claim in the same way as Australia and New Zealand fight over who invented the pavlova, but Mike Brown, GM of Waimea Estates and chairman of Nelson Wineart (the regional winegrowers’ association) set the record straight: “In the last seven out of eight years we had had the most sunshine.” I’ll let you fight it out amongst yourselves.
The region is pretty small, making up just 4% of the country’s total production and boasting only 24 wineries. Most producers are small too. Seifried who produces 130,000 cases each year and Waimea Estate are the major players and even that pales in comparison to other major wineries, says Chris Seifried: “We are tiddlywinks compared to Kim Crawford, Wither Hills, Cloudy Bay and the likes.”
With all these small players, making a greater push internationally has been a hard task. Seifried added, “We have not been as loud as other regions. Many wineries sell all their production locally so they don’t need to go to the international wine shows. Nelson needs more people telling our story.”
Its story is currently focused on aromatic white varieties. But, you could argue so is Waipara’s and Marlborough’s, so I’m not sure how that’s a point of difference. Nevertheless, it isn’t Marlborough and, according to Brown that’s a big positive. “Where there’s a swathe of Marlborough wine on offer, people want something different. Many distributors are taking us on because we can offer that.”
Even though they aren’t Marlborough, Sauvignon Blanc leads the charge for the region, followed by Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. However sales of SB haven’t been without difficulty this year, says Lars Jensen, director of sales and marketing at Te Mania Wines. “There’s huge demand for Sauvignon but small companies can’t compete with the big boys. Our distributors are looking for something else to sell. We sold everything but Sauvignon to our US distributor and we had to really work on him to take a pallet of it on consignment.” There’s always two sides to the story.
Tomorrow: did I set my expectations too high in Nelson?
Kekerengu: Marlborough’s new grape source
Thursday 17 December
While many parts of Marlborough are planted out to the max, drive 50 minutes down the coast from Blenheim towards the whale-watching hub of Kaikoura. You’ll hit a small place called Kekerengu. It’s still technically Marlborough but this place is quite different to the two main Marlborough valleys: the Awatere and Wairau.
The vineyards sit right on the coast and some isolated grape growers are producing fruit for wineries including Montana and Astrolabe. There’s likely to be more vintage variation here compared to the Awatere and Wairau and arriving at the vineyard just two hours after 120km/hr winds swept through it, there’s certainly tough conditions to fight. A few of the vines looked a bit sorry for themselves after the gusts.
There are pockets of limestone soils on the terraces where Pinot Noir is planted while the Sauvignon Blanc is planted on gravels down on the flats by the river. Sitting right by the ocean, there are also plans to plant Albarino (the real stuff, not the Savignan imposter) and Astrolabe is high up on the waiting list for vine material. The climate’s not too far away from the home of Albarino (Rias Baixas and Vinho Verde on Spain and Portugal’s Atlantic coast). In theory, it’s a great idea to try it out.
Fruit from its Kekerengu vineyard has been bottled as a single vineyard wine by Astrolabe under its Discovery Range. The 2009 Sauvignon Blanc is lean with lots of elderflower and citrus rather than peapod or passion fruit although the acid’s a little eye-watering. The Pinot Gris is also minerally and lean with balanced alcohol (13.5%) but I think the vines need a bit more time for both whites to achieve more structure and length. I’ll be interested to try the Pinot Noir when it’s ready.
Marlborough’s discount derby
Wednesday 16 December
Marlborough was riding high until the 2008 vintage. They couldn’t make Sauvignon Blanc quickly enough. Then, a record crop coupled with an economic downturn suddenly saw an oversupply situation, which it is still struggling to pull itself out of.
Along came the cut price deals to get rid of stock: £3.99 for a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc was previously unheard of; the shelves have since been full of discounted SB. Surely this has damaged the industry’s once premium image? Off the record, producers will admit that it has been a kick in the teeth and the region as a whole will suffer but they won’t be quoted on it.
Everyone you speak to here is positive that the supply-demand balance will come back within the not-too distant future since the global recession will sort the wheat from the chaff.
Ivan Sutherland, winemaker at Dog Point says, “There were many plantings in the Boondocks that should not have – with climates and soils that were unsuitable and the market will force them to drop out of the industry.”
There isn’t much more room left to plant in the current wine growing regions of the Wairau and Awatere Valleys and what is left isn’t particularly attractive. Stuart Smith, owner of Fairhill Downs and also chairman of New Zealand Winegrowers took time out from his staff Christmas barbecue to chat to me about the situation. “Marlborough is almost completely planted and we have little room. What is left is on the margins and it’s likely that the won’t be able to have consistent yields.”
It will take another year or so to get over the overhang from 2008, according to Smith and he believes the days of cheap bulk Sauvignon from Marlborough, lapped up by the supermarkets for cheap own label brands, are numbered – mainly because there’s no profit to be had.
I hope it’s true that Marlborough’s discount derby will come to an end soon. I suspect that it will be some time before that happens. Meanwhile, top quality producers like Framingham and Huia, who are doing great things, will have to fight harder to distance themselves from the Marlborough that many supermarket shoppers have come to know.