The Rosie’s Block vineyards. Neudorf Vineyards

Devotees of Neudorf wines will recall a sweeter version of Moutere Riesling which sat alongside their Moutere Dry Riesling. It hasn’t been made for a number of years—a scan through our tasting note archive reveals a long gap in reviews. When it was in production, that wine regularly earned top scores of gold level (95 points), balancing a medium-dry level of sweetness with lower alcohol in classic German fashion.

Another change over the years is that Neudorf has adopted vineyard naming for their main estate wines in Moutere so the Home Block is now labelled Home Block (planted in chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot gris); Tom’s Block is all pinot noir and Rosie’s Block is planted in chardonnay, riesling and albariño. Owners, the Finn family, also work closely with growers Stuart and Patricia Anderson in the Flaxmore Valley whose vineyard provides chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot gris for the non-estate wines.

Their riesling program now falls under the Rosie’s Block Moutere moniker as that’s the estate source for the variety. Rosie’s Block is named after Rosie Finn, daughter of founders Tim and Judy, who is now the international marketing and brand manager for the winery. The vineyard itself sits at 90m above sea level, overlooking the Home Block, with a north-facing aspect. The soils are sandy loams and Moutere clay gravels, similar to the Home Block but with less gravel and about 19% clay content. It is also dry-farmed and certified organic with Biogro, just like the older (1978) Home Block.

Rosie’s Block Moutere Dry Riesling has been in production for long enough to earn One Merit in The Real Review Wine Classification of New Zealand. Our earliest review on record is 2011; the land itself was purchased in 1999 from the Beuke family, also descendants of the German settlers in the area (and coincidentally, I flatted with their daughter when I was at university!). Plantings span from 1999 through to 2003, 2009 and most recently, 2013. The Dry Riesling is traditionally balanced at the 12.5% alcohol level and almost bone-dry in most years.

2025 sees the return of the sweeter style, a spiritual successor to the Moutere Riesling of yesteryear, under the new name of Rosie’s Block Moutere Riesling 2025. It is a spectacular wine, earning a top score for its debut (or return, depending on how one views it).

The fruit was entirely hand-harvested on the 30th March, gently whole-bunch pressed and settled for 48 hours. It was then racked to stainless steel where fermentation started spontaneously. It did not undergo malolactic conversion and reached its final balance at high acidity with a well-hidden, luscious 46 grams per litre of residual sugar and 9.5% alcohol. This sits somewhere between a German spätlese in weight and a kabinett in sweetness. These light and racy rieslings are versatile with both sweeter and salty food but are traditionally enjoyed on their own, too.

It is a very thoughtful and frankly brilliant way of responding to the larger cropping 2025 vintage, creating a wine of immediate appeal yet supporting it with great acidity and purity so it can be enjoyed over many years if cellared. Will this cuvée continue now that it’s back or will this be a one-off opportunity? Either way, it is a welcome re-emergence and perfectly timed for summer.

Emma and Rod Easthope. Easthope Family Winegrowers

Long-time readers of The Real Review will already be familiar with the name Easthope Family Winegrowers, because Rod Easthope was the chief winemaker at Craggy Range until he departed (to start his own wine brand) after the 2012 vintage.

They didn’t officially launch Easthope Family Winegrowers until the 2014 vintage was released. The intervening years saw Rod work with Naked Wines while establishing his own wine brand. The Family in the name refers to Rod and Emma Easthope as well as their three children who feature prominently in cameo on the label.

Both Rod and Emma are from local Hawke’s Bay wine families and prior to their own family label, Emma worked at Stonyridge and Martinborough Vineyard. Their first releases were from special sites in Hawke’s Bay but they found a 20ha site of their own in Mangatahi district, 165m above sea level, perched above the windswept cliffs on the south side of the Ngaruroro River. This is what they call the Home Block and it has been progressively planted since 2014 (their 2014 vintage was not from these vines, clearly). To supplement the fruit from their own vineyard, they also source from Ian and Linda Quinn’s famed Two Terraces Vineyard, which lies a few kilometres further down the river.

They live on site, close to the cliffs and the 3ha which they’ve planted stretch in small parcels on gentle slopes up from the house. Syrah was the first variety to go into the ground in 2014, then chardonnay in 2015 and 2019, as well as riesling, gamay and pinot noir. The syrah and earlier plantings of chardonnay became productive in 2019 with syrah being released as a single-vineyard wine from 2020. Chardonnay joined the family with the 2023 vintage. The Easthopes chose to plant the Baileys clone of syrah and 548 chardonnay, both at 4,000 vines/ha density.

The farming is entirely done by hand and the vines are dry-grown, which can be challenging on a windy site like the home block. As a result, yields are naturally low with the 2024 syrah coming in at a tiny 2 tonnes/ha.

The winemaking for the Home Block Syrah is marked by the choice of utilising 100% whole bunches with careful extraction. The fermentation is hand-plunged and cuvaison lasts two weeks before going into only used Chassin French oak puncheons. After 14 months, it is bottled unfined with no temperature stabilisation. It is always a perfumed syrah but 2024 takes it up another notch in elegance and definition. For those who appreciate a lighter, floral and exotic expression of syrah, this is very good.

They also made a rosé from the syrah grown here for the first time in 2024, a pale-coloured beauty which has mineral restraint and beguiling floral characters set against the complex fruit and salinity wound around its core. No rush to drink this either as it will develop in bottle.

After the difficulty of the 2023 vintage, the Home Block Chardonnay 2024 is a triumph, highlighting the mineral, saline and floral aspects of their site in a different form than the rosé; more slate than chalk and sweeter apple blossoms. Underneath is a gorgeously nutty palate with just-ripe stone-fruit and long salinity, culminating in a classy glass of chardonnay which will have no trouble developing in bottle.

It was whole-bunch pressed as cloudy juice directly into Chassin oak barrels for fermentation and ageing (20% of which were new). It was left on lees and completed malolactic conversion in the spring. After 10 months in barrel, the wine was bottled.

This is a remarkably singular site and in the skilled hands of the Easthope family, a new star joins the constellation of Hawke’s Bay’s bright future. I eagerly await their upcoming releases from the Home Block.

The Rymill winery in Coonawarra. Rymill Wines

Attention all cabernet lovers! There’s something going on down at the Rymill winery in Coonawarra. I confess to having been less than totally impressed with some of the Rymill reds in the past, but the latest crop of cabernets to come my way had me sitting up and taking serious notice.

There were six bottles, ranging from AUD $19 The Yearling to AUD $120 The Surveyor.

What is different about them? To generalise, there’s much less of the herbal, crushed-leafy, sometimes minty characters of past vintages and more of the riper, richer, more satisfying characteristics of good Coonawarra cabernet. Fleshier structure, more balanced acidity.

Of course the cheaper wines were lighter, simpler and more approachable young, with less tannin and less oak—not that oak was overdone in any of the wines. It wasn’t.

I would say all of the lower priced wines were good value in their price-band, while the two expensive wines (Sandstone and The Surveyor) were competitive at the high end.

These two wines, especially The Surveyor 2022, can take their place alongside the flagship Coonawarra cabernets, the likes of Wynns John Riddoch and Balnaves The Tally.

What’s changed on the ground at Rymill?

Nine years ago, in 2016, the founding Rymill family sold the business to Landbridge, the Chinese company that currently holds the 99-year lease on the Port of Darwin. Landbridge is a private company owned by billionaire Ye Cheng.

A few personnel changes followed, and today a young man named Lewis White is the winemaker. There have been fewer changes in vineyard management. Lewis has been at Rymill for just over seven years, succeeding longtime winemaker Sandrine Gimon and intermediate winemaker Shannon Sutherland.

The Rymill winery has deep roots in the Coonawarra region. Peter Rymill, who founded the vineyard and winery in 1974, is the great grandson of John Riddoch, the Scottish-born ‘father’ of Coonawarra. Riddoch arrived in Australia in 1852 during the Gold Rush, and founded Coonawarra in 1890. He built the grand three-gabled stone winery that later became Wynns Coonawarra Estate.

John Riddoch’s daughter Mary grew up at Yallum, a farming property just outside Penola, and married Robert Rymill, the neighbouring farmer. Their son, John Riddoch Rymill, was a distinguished polar explorer who led the 1934-37 British Graham Land Expedition to the Antarctic and surveyed the Antarctic Peninsula.
Rymill The Surveyor Cabernet Sauvignon is named in homage to him.

Since Peter Rymill sold the business, the Rymill family have no further involvement.

Today, Rymill Wines has 140ha of vines, 50% of them cabernet sauvignon—a serious vote of confidence in the variety’s suitability to the region.

The main vineyard and winery are at the northern extremity of the Coonawarra cigar-shaped strip of terra rossa soil. A second, younger vineyard is at the opposite end of the region, just south of the Penola township. This is where the Sandstone cabernet comes from.

Rymill The Surveyor Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

A barrel selection of the best parcels of cabernet from vines planted in 1979.

Rymill Sandstone Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

Made from a 2ha block of vines with exposed sandstone rocks, located at the southern end of the Coonawarra region.

Rymill ‘Coonawarra Cab’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Good value at AUD $30 and 92 points.

Rymill The Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Good value at AUD $26 and 90 points. They are very horsey at Rymill, and this wine commemorates a famously high-spirited Coonawarra horse that triumphed at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games.

Te Kairanga is the most established estate on the list. Te Kairanga Wines

The Wairarapa has long held a special place in Aotearoa’s wine world. With its cool climate, deep diurnal swings, persistent yield-reducing wind, and a culture that prizes small scale, site-specific wines, it’s a region where passion, patience, and terroir converge.

It is home to the unique Abel clone and some of New Zealand’s best wines, from established greats like Ata Rangi, Dry River, Palliser Estate, Escarpment and Martinborough Vineyard. In our most recent tastings, Jane Skilton and I found 12 producers who are doing exciting things. Not all are new names but each is worth seeking out and learning more about. These are Huntress, Halite, Home Fields, Nga Pari, Coney, Te Kairanga, Alexia, The Good Way, Grava, Poppies, Oraterra and Schubert. Below are the first six producers named and next week, we’ll explore the second half of the dozen.

Huntress

Jannine Rickards’ star has been on the ascendant for most of this decade, both as winemaker for Urlar Winery until recently, and now for her own label Huntress. Jannine is part of the Matiti Collective and is one of its two wāhine winemakers who whakapapa Māori (the other being Greywacke’s Richelle Tyney whose interview you can watch here)

She is crafting wines which exist comfortably in both the traditional wine sphere for structure and power, as well as in the New Wave arena with category-bending creative blends of chilled reds, skin ferments and pét nat. Her latest releases of Matiti Pet Nat Riesling 2024, Kuratea 2023 (the pinot gris-dominant version) and seriously structured Pawero Pinot Noir 2024 are all great examples of her work.

Halite

Haidee Johnson (and partner Ben Osborne) recently moved to the Wairarapa full-time rather than commuting from Wellington and she is doing very exciting things with her New Wave brand. In full disclosure, two of Halite’s most exciting current releases include sangiovese fruit from Osawa in Hawke’s Bay, grown by her friend, Amy Hopkinson-Styles of Halcyon Days.

The wines are minimal intervention yet pure and precise; with a very light hand in winemaking flavours. The Light Dry Red 2025 (pinot noir dominant), Ruby 2025 (50/50 sangiovese and pinot noir) and Sel de Terre 2025 (sauvignon blanc) are all worth your attention.

Home Fields

A brand with a fascinating legacy in the region, it includes land resulting from the breakup of the historic Waipipi Homestead Vineyard in Ōpaki, northern Wairarapa. The homestead itself dates to 1903 and was held by the Bunny family (whose name was given to the street across the Wellington Central Train Station) shortly thereafter. The current vineyards date to 1993 plantings and are now 30+ years old.

Owners Caroline and Brent Eddy pride themselves on their heritage vineyards, including the Home Fields, Waipipi and Moss Oaks (planted 1996) vineyards. The 2024 Chardonnay is a modern, sleek example but the 2024 Single Vineyard Pinot Noir is fantastic, capturing the special quality of the 2024 pinots and well worth seeking out.

The Home Fields vineyard and winery. Home Fields Wines Facebook

Ngā Pari

Formerly Cottier Estate, Ngā Pari (which translates to The Cliffs) sits on the Ruamāhanga River terraces further along Dakins Road from Urlar. Owned by Pete Mason and Karen Delehanty since 2016, the re-naming to te reo Māori reflects both their whakapapa to Ngāi Tahu to acknowledge the traditional name of the area for the local iwi.

Jon McNabb makes the wine here and the estate works collaboratively with the community in search of a sustainable future for wine in Gladstone. Both current releases of chardonnay and pinot noir (2021) display a classical build which will delight drinkers seeking a more traditional style of wine.

Coney

An established name. Tim and Margaret Coney founded the winery in 1996 when they planted the 6.5 ha of bare land. In 2022, it passed down to their daughter Lisa Coney and her husband Rusty. Lisa had been making the wines here for many years but the most recent spate of releases caught our eye at the Wairarapa Regional Tasting, in particular the Rabbit Chardonnay 2022, Que Cera Syrah 2021 and Ragtime Riesling 2023.

Te Kairanga

This is certainly the most established estate and one of the ‘larger’ wineries on the list, though still only owning between 100 and 130 ha of vineyards (not large in the big scheme of things).

Winemaker John Kavanagh has quietly been refining the style of wines here for years and the winery’s performance across the difficult 2023 vintage and the exuberant 2024s demonstrates how much finesse is now part of Te Kairanga wines. The John Martin flagship range is remarkable value for a region whose top wines are often twice the price of these, or more.

Tune in next week to learn about Alexia, The Good Way, Grava, Poppies, Oraterra and Schubert Wines!

Wines to showcase:
Huntress Pawero Pinot Noir 2024
Halite Ruby 2025
Home Fields Single Vineyard Pinot Noir 2024
Nga Pari Chardonnay 2021
Coney Rabbit Chardonnay 2022
Te Kairanga John Martin Pinot Noir 2024

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra entertains the room at Bennelong. House of Arras

The change of ownership of the House of Arras is one very good news story for an Australian wine industry that desperately needs some good news.

Arras celebrated its 30th anniversary recently with a party the likes of which reminded me of the way our wineries used to party but haven’t done since last century. Arras’s owner Handpicked Wines booked out the entire Bennelong restaurant. Ball gowns and dinner suits, poet and MC Rupert McCall reciting an original ode in homage to bubbles and Arras, a string quartet from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra playing music by Haydn and Dvorak, and of course a splendiferous Bennelong meal. All in the most iconic building in Australia, looking out across Circular Quay while rain hammered on the windows.

Chief winemaker since the inception of Arras 30 years ago, Ed Carr, reminded us that time is the essence with Arras. Time is central to the style.

We drank the 2017 vintages of Grand Vintage, Vintage Blanc de Blancs, and Vintage Rosé all from 2017, the new releases after between six and seven years maturing on their lees. Also the E.J. Carr Late Disgorged 2008 from magnums (14 years on lees), and finally the pièce de résistance, the Special Release E.J. Carr Late Disgorged 2006 (16 years on lees), dressed in superb new deep-green livery as the 30th anniversary celebration wine. This was the third iteration of this wine, as it has been released first as a Grand Vintage, then as an E.J. Carr Late Disgorged, and now in its ‘third plenitude’, said Carr, cheekily channelling Krug.

Winemaker Ed Carr delivers his speech. House Of Arras

“It’s a statement of what long-term ageing does for sparkling wine,” he said.

The new owner of the House of Arras is DMG, the drinks company of William Dong, a Chinese Australian resident in Sydney, whose main vinous gig is Handpicked Wines, which has vineyards in Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. DMG distributes the world’s most valuable spirits brand, China’s Moutai baiju, so he has deep pockets, which will be useful in taking Arras to the wider world.

Late in the evening, William reluctantly made a speech, and was disarming in his praise for Carr and for the wine. “I’ve only been on this journey for two years, but you have been on it much longer,” he said. Handpicked bought Arras from Accolade Wines in October 2023.

He continued:

“The thing that brought me to Arras was the quality. To be honest I didn’t drink much sparkling wine before this, but now I drink Arras for breakfast, lunch and dinner!”

Loud and heartfelt applause.

Michael Brajkovich MW. Kumeu River Wines

Michael Brajkovich was one of those guys everybody envied at Roseworthy Agricultural College in the early 1980s. Good at rugby, unbeatable at tennis, an academic whizz who duxed the oenology course… was there anything this guy could not do well?

Of course the next thing he did well was to make fabulous wine, at his family’s little winery at Kumeu, just to the north-west of Auckland. In his spare time he passed the Master of Wine exam and earned the right to put the initials MW after his name.

About the time Michael left Roseworthy and went home to make the wine at what was called San Marino—where his father and grandfather had produced fortified and table wines using vinifera and hybrid varieties—it was the beginning of the decline of the Northland region. About that time many of the earliest established wineries in the region started looking elsewhere to grow grapes and make wine. Kumeu was just too wet and humid.

Selak’s, Nobilo, Babich, Corbans, Matua Valley, etc all eventually deserted the region. But the Brajkovichs held firm. And we should all be glad they stayed, because Kumeu River is one of New Zealand’s greatest wine producers, especially noted for chardonnay. Until recently all of their Kumeu River chardonnays came from their own vineyards in the Kumeu district (the sole exception is Ray’s Road, from Hawke’s Bay, a more recent addition to the family’s land holdings).

What magic did the Brajkovich family weave to be able to stay on at Kumeu and produce wonderful wines? It’s largely a vineyard story. Intelligent selection of the grape varieties, clones and rootstocks that best suited the area, as well as appropriate viticultural techniques including trellising systems, but also site selection and re-planting vineyards that were virus-affected. The use of indigenous yeast fermentations and full malolactic conversions on the chardonnays were also part of the formula.

Early on, Michael continued making cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot, malbec, sauvignon blanc, semillon, pinot noir and pinot gris and as well as chardonnay, but today the portfolio has been refined down to just three: pinot gris, pinot noir and chardonnay—with chardonnay the brightly shining star.

Michael also makes sparkling wines from chardonnay and pinot noir.

The Kumeu still chardonnays are five: in ascending order of price, they are Village, Estate, Coddington, Hunting Hill and Maté’s Vineyard‚ the last three being single-vineyard bottlings. The 2024 vintage was “small and perfectly formed” according to the website.

“The chardonnay wines, particularly the single vineyards, are shining examples of the Kumeu style. The terroir differences between various parcels are very distinct, really highlighting their individual personalities.”

2024 followed the very wet and difficult 2023 season, and turned out spectacular wines. Wet weather at flowering reduced the yields, but from then on the season was excellent, with warm, dry conditions. I have heard Michael say that Kumeu temperatures never go above 30 degrees, and in 2024 the peak was 29—although the rest of the country experienced some high temperatures.

“The harvest period itself was relatively free of rainfall, with only two small rain events interrupting the flow of vintage. The picking crews had very little damage to sort through and the grapes arriving at the cellar were beautifully pristine. Hand harvesting is a very expensive process, but well worth the cost and effort for the quality it brings.”

Yields at Kumeu were down 30% but the quality across the board was ‘outstanding’.

These are stunningly good chardonnays, the single vineyard wines great as we might expect, but I was especially amazed at the quality of the 2024 Estate chardonnay: an outstanding value if ever there was one.

The Palliser vineyards in the Wairarapa. NZ Wine

The Wairarapa has long been associated with pinot noir, with Martinborough in particular being the source of some of Aotearoa’s finest examples of the variety.

Across the years, chardonnay has also had its time in the sun, though arguably never to the same level of greatness as its red cousin. However, one of the stand-out styles from tastings in the past month has been sparkling wines from the Wairarapa, covering a range of styles and methods (see last week’s articles on sparkling wine methods for a primer). This should not come as a surprise, given the prevalence of pinot noir and chardonnay plantings in the region, but there are also some newer wines which explore outside the box with other varieties.

Palliser Estate will be no stranger to those who have dined and sipped in Te Whanganui a Tara/Wellington’s vibrant hospitality scene before. This is the regions’ most likely méthode traditionnelle to be poured in the city’s restaurants and wine bars and it absolutely deserves its reputation and long-held standing. The Griffin (featured prominently in the winery’s crest and logo) is the vintage sparkling flagbearer, accompanied by a vintage rosé called The Rose. Please note that before 2015, the Griffin was simply called Palliser Estate Méthode Traditionnelle Vintage.

Urlar, in Gladstone, is newer to the sparkling wine game but the 2019 is a very impressive example of a nicely matured, complex and rich méthode traditionnelle made in a classical style with layers of autolytic development. The winery also makes some easier-drinking sparkling wine, including a soft, vintage sparkling rosé.

Also from the northern Wairarapa are two different sparkling wine producers: Matahiwi in the Opaki and Gladstone areas, and Alexia which draws fruit from Manuka Flats Vineyard in West Taratahi. Matahiwi winemaker Miles Dineen uses méthode traditionnelle for the Holly range of wines, and the less labour-intensive tank method to produce the very affordable, friendly non-vintage brut rosé and blanc de blancs. Urban winery Alexia’s co-owners, married couple Jane Cooper and Lesley Reidy, go the other route with hand-disgorged and ultra-dry sparkling, including the stunning Alexia Blanc de Blancs Vintage and its softer partner, the non-vintage méthode traditionnelle rosé.

Speaking of rosé, Ata Rangi surprised everyone in 2023 when Helen Masters declassified all of her pinot noir single vineyards into the Crimson and in turn used the fruit which normally goes into that wine to produce a fabulous Charmat rosé.

Pétillant Naturel is another style to watch from the Wairarapa. Cambridge Road‘s Lance Redgwell has been making pet nats from various varieties for years, and it’s always a voyage of discovery tasting his latest range. He has recently focused his attention on two ancient Totara wood casks which are occupying his imagination (more on this another time, perhaps!).

The most exciting new pet nat to emerge from the region is Jannine Rickard’s Huntress Matiti Pétillant Naturel Riesling 2024, the first Hua Parakore Certified wine—organic wine made under a Māori framework of connecting tangata (people) and respecting whenua (land), awa (water) and oneone (soil). This pet nat is also the first wine released by the Matiti Collective, which encompasses six wāhine Māori (winemakers Jannine and Richelle Tyney, growers Jessica Hutchings and Mariana Te Rangi and kaupapa storyteller Jo Smith); and beverage and tea expert Timmy Smith. The riesling for this pet nat was grown in Martinborough by Alistair Gardner and Karla Falloon at their vineyard, Grava.

The Wairarapa might be a small region with limited production volumes, but the wines are worth seeking out and the sparkling wines emerging from this part of the Motu punch above their weight.

Dalrymple chief winemaker Pete Caldwell. South World Wines

Pete Caldwell is a Tasmanian native who knows his way around the island state. The chief winemaker at Dalrymple, in the Pipers River subregion, he has worked in New Zealand at Te Kairanga, in Martinborough, and then Josef Chromy in Tasmania before coming to Dalrymple 15 years ago. He is in charge of both winemaking and viticulture.

Dalrymple was founded by Bert and Anne Sundstrup in 1987 and acquired by Hill-Smith Family Vineyards (owner of Yalumba, Jansz, Pewsey Vale and other brands) in 2007.

Like other leading makers in Tassie, Pete Caldwell is focusing on small-production, terroir-focused pinot noirs for the top-end Dalrymple pinots. These are labelled Dalrymple Single Site Pinot Noir. From the 2023 vintage there’s Pipers River, Coal River Valley and Ouse. (In 2022 there was also an East Coast pinot from Swansea, but not in 2023.)

“I make 40 pinot noirs, and they all stay in their own barrels till the end,” he explains.

Everything is standardised so that terroir and clone are the only variables between the different wines. To that end, the single site pinots are all given 35 to 40% new oak and around 15% whole-bunch fermentation. They’re all priced at AUD $70.

At the top of the pyramid is a single-block wine: Mt Lord, which is AUD $130. It’s the only wine that is cork sealed (with a Diam), all the others being screw capped.

Dalrymple Single Site Pipers River Pinot Noir 2023

Made from D5V12 clone, with a little 115.

Dalrymple Single Site Coal River Valley Pinot Noir 2023

Made from clones 114 and 115. The vineyard has been managed with “mostly organic practices” for six years, but not certified.

Dalrymple Single Site Ouse Pinot Noir 2023

A grower’s vineyard. Made from the MV6 clone.

Dalrymple Mt Lord Pinot Noir 2023

A special part of the company’s Coal River Valley vineyard, 60 metres higher than the main vineyard, steep and rocky.

“It took a lot of effort to get this working,” says Pete.

“It’s a hard site, exposed to the wind and elements, and late ripening. It’s D5V12 clone, on dolerite soil on the slope of Mt Lord itself. Small yields of small berries.”

This is the former Frogmore Creek vineyard, organic, experimental, planted by Tony Scherer at an altitude of 134 to 156 metres. The wine has very good concentration and density, stuffing, and is quite muscular, and promises to have a long life.

“It’s probably only 500 metres from one vineyard to the other but it’s harvested about two weeks later than the rest.”

Aerial view of Carrick Winery and restaurant in Bannockburn. Carrick Winery

Carrick Winery, sitting in the sun-soaked Cairnmuir Terraces of Bannockburn, Central Otago, has an established tradition of organic farming since 2008. The winery only hand harvests, using organic-certified fruit from its estate vineyards, employing wild fermentation and minimal intervention.

Now owned by Alison and Tony Cleland, the vineyard continues to develop and refine its portfolio. Rosie Menzies has been making the wine across three owners and one of her personal projects at Carrick is the development of the natural wine range, one of which started with the previous winemaker, Francis Hutt.

There are two new pinot noir releases in this range, which take it to the next level, eschewing any additions at all, including sulfur. This pair are always fascinating to revisit as they capture different elements of each vintage and have a track record for stability and developing well in bottle. Billet Doux was the first wine to emerge in this range, though the expression created initially by Francis in 2015 was from a different clone (Abel) and had a different label.

Today, Rosie makes it from a parcel called Arthur’s Vineyard, across Cairnmuir Road from the main vineyard. It is from clones 5, 6 and 13 planted on their own roots (not grafted to rootstocks) to explore the purest expression possible. Destemmed, hand-picked and sorted fruit is pressed after 22 days of maceration and aged for nine months in neutral oak barrels. The label is was initially a collaboration between Leonofsky and then partner Margarita Vovna. The current label is by artist and designer Elana Marie.

Pot de Fleur is an entirely different creature, coming from a plot in the home vineyard, entirely clone 115, growing on schist and sand. The hand-picked grapes are fermented with 100% whole bunches with no adjustments made at any stage.

First made in 2018, its name derives from the small, flower-pot shaped fermenters used for this wine. The first eight days of fermentation occur under a cloud of CO2 to encourage carbonic maceration; after that it receives a light daily punchdown until it finishes fermentation and is moved to neutral oak barrels for eight months ageing.

The Margarita Vovna label reflects the winemaking philosophy, including a reproduction of the texture of upcycled Guadalupe County ranchers flannel which Vovna used in the original artwork.

They could not be more different from each other: Billet Doux is dense, compact and even glossy with dark fruit and serious structure. Pot de Fleur is incredibly aromatic and expressive with a very fine spicy framework of tannin and intriguing flow across the palate. The pair would make a fascinating blind tasting.

The Two Terraces vineyard on the Mangatahi Terraces. Two Terraces Facebook

Two Terraces Vineyard sits on the Mangatahi Terraces of inland Hawke’s Bay and since first planting (as recently as 2016), it has established itself not only as a serious grower but also a new model for the next generation of Aotearoa’s wine evolution.

As of 2025, Ian and Linda Quinn’s 24 ha estate (about 20 ha planted) is divided into 61 separate parcels of fruit, farmed ‘to spec’. About a third is conventional agro-chem, the rest is either certified or in conversion as regenerative or BioGro organic with some given biodynamic treatments (mainly by Amy Farnsworth of Amoise). The couple are moving towards converting all of the parcels in time. These parcels now go to 19 different producers representing the entire spectrum of wine philosophies in Hawke’s Bay.

Ian and Linda Quinn first conceived of the idea shortly after returning from a few years working in Hong Kong. They purchased the bare land in 2015, started planting the lower terrace in 2016 with chardonnay, chenin blanc, gamay and syrah; followed by the upper terrace in 2018 with more chardonnay and gamay as well as a sizable plot of albariño. In total, approximately half of the vineyard is planted to chardonnay and due to the gamay/pinot noir confusion, there is also a very small amount of pinot noir here.

The land itself is inland and higher (~120m elevation) than the Heretaunga Plains where most of Hawke’s Bay’s vignobles reside. It sits on the southern side of the Ngaruroro River and the terraces in question were formed after the last ice age about 15,000 years ago. It comprises of silt and sandy loam sitting over older alluvial ‘red metal’ gravels with some layers of windblown loess and volcanic ash from the Central Plateau. This soil ranges from 20cm thick on the lower terrace to a depth of 40m in parts of the upper terrace.

Traditionally drier in summer than the easterly regions closer to the ocean, Two Terraces escaped the worst of 2023’s devastating Cyclone Gabrielle weather. It has warm days and cool nights with the diurnal range responsible for its trademark fresh acidity married to a wide flavour ripeness spectrum.

The diverse and frankly forward-looking selection of grape varieties and the sympathetic, carefully planned parcels with quality-focused farming has been a treasure trove of top-notch fruit for the region’s best producers. It has also allowed the next generation of winemakers—who are mostly unable to afford their own vineyards—to make astounding wine from great fruit. It has also allowed other producers to supplement the production from their own estates and in the process, rapidly created a reputation for Two Terraces Vineyard.

The list of wines made from the fruit grown here reads like a Who’s Who of Hawke’s Bay wine. Gordon Russell’s Esk Valley chenin blanc and early albariños; early bottlings of Villa Maria Reserve Albariño; Easthope Family Winegrowers Two Terraces Chenin Blanc and Gamay (gamay-pinot field blend); Tony Bish Two Terraces Chardonnay; Smith & Sheth with several wines including the Cru Albariño, Heretaunga Chardonnay and Quinn Chardonnay; all the wines made by Amoise (gamay, albariño, syrah and chenin blanc); Organised Chaos Chenin Blanc and Gamay; Bilancia Two Terraces Chardonnay; Halcyon Days Big Little Things; as well as selected wines from Three Fates, Helio, Tawhiti, Radburnd Cellars, Decibel and more!