Jen Parr. Valli Wines

Jen Parr, Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine’s New Zealand Winemaker of the Year 2020 and winemaker at Valli Wines in Central Otago reveals what it is like to win this prestigious award, how she learned her craft, people who have inspired her, the most exciting aspects of her work and where she is going to from here.

Bob Campbell MW: Congratulations on being chosen as the Gourmet Traveller WINE New Zealand Winemaker of the Year 2020. What does the award mean to you?

Jen Parr: Winning this award is a huge and humbling honour and to be honest, it is still hard to believe. Above all, for me, it confirms that anything is possible if you commit to following your dreams and surrounding yourself with people who inspire you and help you do your best work.

BC: You have no academic winemaking qualifications. How did you learn your craft?

JP: I made a conscious decision to learn by apprenticing; travelling the globe to work with winemakers who I wanted to learn from. The wine styles I am inspired to make are really about people and places more than science, so I chose humans over textbooks and it was a pathway that has been extremely rewarding for me.

BC: Do you have a mentor or mentors?

JP: This phase in my career is now more about mentoring than being mentored, but I still need advice and reassurance from time to time. I am lucky to work with Grant Taylor at Valli and we enjoying bouncing ideas off each other. I also have Dean Shaw from Central Otago Wine Company on speed dial. Dean always makes time for me and I love his intellectual and thought-provoking approach to winemaking. Both these gentleman are caring and nurturing in different ways.

BC: What aspect of winemaking do you find most satisfying and exciting?

JP: Crafting single-vineyard wines is very exciting because it isn’t necessarily about making the best wine, but rather it is about best capturing the true essence of a place in a season. I also love the seasonality of what we do and how no two vintages are the same. My two favourite times of the winemaking year are harvest and in particular, walking the vines to make picking decisions, and blending when we see the pieces of the puzzle come together.

BC: Future goals?

JP: It seems like having your own brand is a rite of passage these days and while I believe that is admirable, it has never been on my radar. Instead, I consider myself an “enabler” and my ongoing goal is to help Valli and all my consultant brands flourish and make great wines that are interesting and honest. Equally as important, I want to continue to learn and to have fun on this journey. Oh, and before I turn 50, I’d like to ski fresh powder in the French Alps. I better get working on that goal!

Dry River winemaker Wilco Lam. Supplied

Dry River winemaker, Wilco Lam, talks about fruit exposure, organic viticulture, reduced extraction, the importance of dry farming and refinements in both vineyard and winery in his endless quest to build better wines at this iconic Martinborough winery.

Bob Campbell MW: Dry River founder Dr Neil McCallum, believed in the controversial technique of stripping the leaves off the fruiting area of the vine for maximum light exposure. Some called him the exposure extremist. Have you continued the practice since you took over?

Wilco Lam: We have continued with the practice, though a little less extreme. We see major benefits with this practice in fruit quality regarding the development of certain tannins, strength and stability of acidity (mainly malic acid) and disease control. Besides the high exposure through leaf removal, Neil used to also have white reflective mulch underneath the vines (pinot noir, syrah and some riesling) to further increase the (UV-B) exposure. The mulch was removed after the 2014 vintage due to conflicts with both organic management and in my eyes an over-exposure impacting aromatic development. We also have delayed the timing of leaf pluck by about 10 days to avoid taking too much photosynthetic capacity away from the vine from the end of flowering to set.

BC: Any other changes in the vineyard and winery since Neil left?

WL: Yes, plenty. This is ongoing and with slow steps, as we would like to continue to learn, improve and never stay static in our developments. However, we cannot lose sight of our heritage and kudos, which has been carefully built up over the last 35 to 40 years. The vineyard has been moved into an organic management regime and is in Biogro certification. Furthermore, we are learning to “farm” with our land, judiciously working with soil and cover crops for nutrient recycling, carbon sequestration and increasing the insect population. Gone are the days of mowing a grass strip. We would like to think we are increasing diversity, resilience and life in our vineyards.

In the winery the handling of the fruit is like in the vineyard; an open view to each vintage, relying on vineyard health and strength and the decisions we have made in the last few years. Since 2013 we have started to work with spontaneous fermentation, adopted fully since 2016 on all varieties. The white varieties now generally see extended lees contact and longer fermentation times. For the red wines, we have reduced the extraction techniques during ferment, which are now mostly pump-overs (depending on the year). This is also because the fermentation and skin times are longer. Less is more. I think the results have really started to show since the 2017 and 2018 vintage.

BC: How important is no irrigation, old vines and low cropping levels to wine quality and the Dry River style?

WL: Dry farming is fundamental to our wine style and at the root of our philosophies. It brings an inherent quality and depth to the wines. We, I, do not believe in the irrigation of (cropping) vines. The practice has one reason only: to sustain a certain yield. For us, it is not the main concern, it is reflection and individuality. We meet our targets of 30hl/ha for pinot noir in most years, given there is no frost or adverse flowering conditions. However, we certainly feel the effects of cumulative drought (eg consecutive years like 13, 14, 15 and 16, with the latter two showing the effects more noticeably).

The principle of no irrigation is that there is no way to ameliorate the conditions of the vintage, the vines will express the impact of the environment in its purest form, the challenge for us is to farm sensibly every year to maintain vine longevity. The most difficult part in New Zealand is having access to drought resistance rootstocks. For many years they did not exist here, it is only recently that they started to come through. With water becoming a luxury item, surely this is on the front of the industry’s mind?

Old vines and low cropping is a more contentious debate. We do not crop for the first four years (of establishment), we then slowly start cropping our vines, often not to full Dry River standards until year 10. Thus, cropping levels, vine age, irrigation, vine material and plant spacing are instrumental to achieve our goals. In the end, everything we grow and produce in the vineyard must be at a standard we set for ourselves. We will not allow for inferior quality and then introduce a label to cope with the drop in standards.

BC: Tempranillo came and went after four vintages and has now found a home in your unconventional blended red The Twelve Spies. What was the inspiration behind that label?

WL: Mas de Daumas Gassac. This wine changed my view on unconventional blends. We have been thinking about ways to keep our winemaking spirit keen through experimentation, pushing our own boundaries and expressing a pioneering attitude. In my short experience, Martinborough tempranillo lacks the extra dimension and it lacks consistent heat to ripen a full-bodied wine, so I prefer to see it as a component of something.

With new pinot noir plantings in our vineyard and an overcrowded second-tier pinot noir market, we were also interested to find new ways to include and arouse our followers’ wine cravings by producing a new individualistic wine, not bound by convention or historical precedent. After a few brainstorm sessions, we decided to highlight our company crest, depicted on this label, from an image called the Twelve Spies of Canaan. It shows Caleb and Joshua carrying a large bunch of grapes, as two of twelve spies who were set out by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. With the concept of wine and label more or less formed, we started experimenting with blends, and this is the outcome. The blend proportion is likely to change from year to year. It is exclusively distributed by Negociants New Zealand for on-premise only.

BC: Any other planned additions to the vineyard area or product range?

WL: No new land or product additions are on the horizon currently. However, we have started a re-planting regime to increase our pinot noir production. We currently farm three hectares of pinot noir (a third of our production, 700 to 900 cases). We are aiming to increase this by 40%. To do so, we are using vine cuttings from our own Dry River Estate vineyard, and growing these up in the nursery, on drought-tolerant rootstocks, in order to continue the Dry River story through the eyes of our own vines.

Kirsty Harkness with the hemp crop. Supplied

Kirsty Harkness is a grape-grower researching industrial hemp as a vineyard cover crop.

Kirsty is one year into a four-year trial using hemp as a cover crop in her Marlborough vineyards. Hemp seems to attract insect life, can suppress weed growth, and helps retain soil moisture. It can also provide an additional income stream. In the long-term, she hopes to understand the impact, if any, on vine health, productivity and ultimately wine quality.

Bob Campbell MW: Was it difficult to obtain a license to trial hemp production? What hurdles did you face?

Kirsty Harkness: Yes, initially. I said all the wrong things on my first application including the word ‘medical’ and had to start again. We also found that because it was new to the Ministry of Health (MOH), and they had a ton of applications, it was long delays. We had to do police checks, security camera’s, be over 5km from a school, not visible from a road, just to name a few. The community and the local police were very helpful through the process, and we would not have got this license last year without the help from members of the New Zealand Hemp Industries Association (NZHIA) either. So I am very thankful to be a year ahead because of everyone’s kind assistance.

BC: How do you plan to derive income from hemp production?

KH: At this stage, we have a license to sell the hemp seed as a food product. It is an exciting seed as it has Omega 3,6 & 9 (better than fish oil) and it’s high in protein. Similar to the protein amounts in beef & sheep. Here is more information on the seed.

Due to my allergies to chemicals, I am also in the process of launching two body product ranges that are all-natural, using the hemp seed oil as moisturisers and skincare.

The plant material (other than green leaf) can be sold for fibre, however, we want to use this component in the vineyard as it’s a great mulch. It holds 4-times its body-weight in water, it insulates the ground, and because of the high resins, we found weeds did not grow through it under the vines. We also believe that there are great nutritional benefits in the leaf for food, but this is a future product plan for when legislation changes. The root can also be used as a poultice for gout and arthritis, however again, it’s not a product that is allowed yet. In the meantime, the root is a tap root, therefore great at breaking up compaction in the soil, bringing up nutrients, and being an organic matter pathway once the plant is cut.

BC: Studies by the Australian Wine Research Institute clearly show that grapes can pick up eucalypt characters from the essential oils generated by gum trees. Given the strong oils produced by hemp, is it possible that the grapes and wine will become tainted?

KH: This was one of our first concerns, hence the small area plantings of 4-hectares last year over four vineyard areas. We have involved all the wine companies we supply in these discussions from the beginningand they have been very supportive. One of these wine companies produce 25,000 litres of wine from the best growing hemp area and were so excited about the results, that they plan to increase that to 100,000 litres in the coming vintage. There are some other trials going on in this wine space too, which I am eager to share but the winemakers would prefer to prove two years in a row first so watch this space.

BC: You have experienced one vintage with hemp as a cover crop. Were there any differences between the resulting wine and that of wine made without a hemp cover crop?

KH: This is a question for the winemaker… and they don’t want to talk just yet… but it’s definitely not negative. Please note we have only grown this in sauvignon blanc so far, and not red varietals.

From a growers’ point of view, I want to ensure it does not take nutrients from our vines & grapes first and foremost. You can tell I am a wee bit excited about the possibilities, so I have brought in an independent. The trial areas are being assessed by Dr Mark Krasnow over the next three years. The results he finds will be published, so everyone can find out if it’s positive or negative for us to continue.

The bees and bumblebees are so heavy-laden in pollens they sound like tractor engines, and there are more beneficial insects in the hemp area than anywhere else in the vineyard.

BC: I understand that it is impossible to get high from hemp, but the very fact that a wine has been made from grapes that used hemp as a ground cover has a certain novelty. Are you able to legally promote the wine and hemp association?

KH: It is not legal to put the picture of a hemp leaf on a food or drink product, and obviously it is not right to infuse anything into the wine. However from a novelty point of view, absolutely! Everyone keeps asking me where they can buy the wine. We are growers, so we would rather support our buyers in this space, but who knows what the future holds.

Chef Casey McDonald. Supplied. Photographer: Richard Brimer

Kiwi-born Casey McDonald recently joined Craggy Range as head chef after a distinguished international career that started in Wellington at Citron restaurant before joining Restaurant Gary Danko in San Francisco then, at 25 years of age, moved to The Square, a two-star Michelin restaurant in Mayfair, London. Next was a stint at Andrew McConnell’s Melbourne restaurant, then to Cumulus Up and Cumulus Inc. as Head Chef in charge of six kitchens.

McDonald spent his first weeks at Craggy Range Restaurant exploring farmers and food suppliers in the Bay to develop a menu that must surely be the envy of all winery restaurants.

Bob Campbell MW: I recently dined at your restaurant and was interested to note that the Craggy Range wines I enjoyed with my meal tasted even better than the same wines on my tasting bench. Any idea why that might be?

Casey McDonald: Lovely to hear. I know the winemakers often talk of our style of wine working better with food, but for me, I do think everything is better when you are in a nice environment with friends and hopefully good food!

BC: When you design a dish do you have a specific wine in mind?

CM: Yes, that is certainly a major part of my thinking. Obviously the season dictates the initial balance of the menu and then how it will go with the wine. So summer might be more suited to a crisp white wine and some raw fish with a crème fraiche. The acidity in the wine cuts through the texture of the fish and creaminess of the crème fraiche. In winter we have the fire on in the restaurant, we will think about one of our Craggy Range reds – syrah or a Bordeaux blend and then from there, the menu takes a protein focus utilising our coal grill

BC: What’s the most popular dish on your menu?

CM: Our fish dishes always really popular, the fish is always right off the boat and everything is whole so always so fresh. We often have Flounder, which is always filleted and cooked so it has a crispy skin and then served with romesco sauce and pickled clams. I think Flounder can be tricky and often eaten whole, so to see it filleted means we sell a huge amount of it!

Or our five-spice fried Shiitake mushrooms, which have been taken off the menu but they are so popular, we just have them almost as a secret menu item for customers who know to ask for them!

BC: Do you choose a dish to meet a customer’s tastes or to lure them out of their comfort zone?

CM: I think the perfect place to be when designing a dish is to make sure it is delicious and doesn’t require too much thinking from the guest! It must have that comfort appeal, but a difficulty slightly above what is achievable in the home kitchen. That’s where I like the dishes on the menu to be. Examples would be roast duck with great crispy skin, rich beef short rib that falls off the bone, clean and fresh raw fish dishes are great examples of what you can do at home, but it’s so much easier to go and order it!

BC: What’s the greatest food and wine combination you can think of?

CM: When cooking at home I love simple, and while it might sound a little boring, a stuffed roast chicken with heaps of lemon and thyme matched with chardonnay is pretty special and hard to beat. Something with some acid, obviously a Craggy Range chardonnay, Les Beaux Cailloux or a white Burgundy (if it is someone else’s shout!). Pierre Yves Colin Morey Saint-Aubin is a favourite.

Michael Jemison. Supplied

Michael Jemison is the founder of wine and wine glass distribution company Macvine, an antiquarian, gourmand, bon vivant and great cook.

Bob Campbell MW: Before you joined the wine industry you had a varying range of interesting positions from the police force to senior roles in insurance companies. What got you into wine?

Michael Jemison: My love of food is what developed my interest in wine from around the age of 17 when I moved to West Auckland from Christchurch. This started me on a love of wine with food, while cooking has always been a passion. Since then, I have seriously enjoyed trying new and exciting different wines. I really enjoy collecting wine and tasting wine and I realise how much the wine scene is changing and that I am still in love with great Burgundy white and red and cannot believe also how far New Zealand has come in terms of wine quality.

BC: Greatest wine you’ve tasted? Greatest NZ wine you’ve tasted?

MJ: There are 2 wines that share that honour – both pinot noir. The first was 2002 Akarua Pinot Noir from Central Otago – in screwcap. It was perfection in a bottle, simply stunning. The second was a 2001 Fromm Vineyard Reserve Pinot Noir that I have always loved. Even though under cork, the last bottle I tasted was still great.

BC: You have to cook for some wine enthusiast friends. Do you have a favourite dish?

MJ: It has to be scallop and prawn quenelles with a bisque sauce. I love the flavours and the lightness of the dish. The Bisque sauce with roasted prawn shells, tomato paste, cognac and cream makes it rich with a lingering flavour. I like the fact that you can have it with pinot noir or white wine, particularly Chablis.

BC: I know you are keen on decanting wine. What and when do you decant?

MJ: Yes, I do use decanters. I like aged wine, which I normally only decant for perhaps 30 minutes before serving. White or red wine that has been matured in oak benefits from decanting which gives the wine a better fruit expression. Good glasses also make a difference. I detest small glasses. Bordeaux glasses for big reds and Burgundy glasses for chardonnay.

BC: Do you have a favourite antiquarian object?

MJ: It’s hard to single one as all are special in different ways. I have a favourite small terracotta Telaf Mother Goddess from the late Halaf Period (late 5th millennium BC). It is so well preserved and at 7,000 years old is the oldest pottery I own by a good millennium. It is simple and still has colour pigments on the face. It’s on a sideboard next to the dining table so I see it every day. I love being surrounded by interesting things. I seriously love old pottery.

James and Annie Millton. Bob Campbell MW

James Millton, organic godfather and founder of Millton Vineyards and Winery, Gisborne.

Bob Campbell MW: You planted the country’s first organic vineyard. When was that and what made you do it?

James Millton: We started our wine business in time for the 1984 harvest. While adopting organic and biodynamic activity from that time we worked with the Integrated Pest Management process as the term organic was not very well understood at the time, in fact ridiculed by the commanding body of the New Zealand industry. Oh! That’s right, in those days there were winemakers and grape-growers, much like cowboys and farmers and I wasn’t allowed to use the word winegrower! How times have changed.

BC: To me, your role in the organic and biodynamic wine movement is a major part of your identity and yet you play it down on your website. Are you concerned about being stereotyped as “weird hippies”?

JM: Well, we are very lucky and fortunate to be doing an activity from the beginning of our lives which we really love and get pleasure and enjoyment from. Our website might downplay our nursery rhyme due to the knowledge, I am told, that people seem to spend only a short while on a website such is the power of social media these days. If someone wants to stereotype us, then they should look at themselves first. Afterall, when you point at someone in a critical manner you should not use the index finger as the three other fingers are pointing back towards yourself, exemplifying the negative energy. You may wish to use your open hand instead!

BC: If you discovered that you could increase wine quality by abandoning organic and biodynamic techniques, would you do it?

JM: Without being dogmatic, the short answer is no. Quite frankly, however, the acceptance of biodynamic winegrowing these days by some of the most famous wine estates in the world tells me volumes. Quality is no longer about chemical correctness but rather a more voluminous biological expression producing wines of immense interest, enjoyment and drinkability. To look at increased quality by increasing the science and technology is so last year, like climate change. Much talk, science and bureaucracy yet very little meaningful action. An onward direction would be in mindfulness embracing not only social, environmental and financial sustainability but mostly the cultural, fourth quadrant.

BC: In my view, the word organic adds value to wine but there was a time when it reduced the value of a bottle of time. Can you recall the moment it crossed the line?

JM: We are entitled to our own views. We were one of the first New Zealand producers to sell certified organic wine into the UK in 1989. We are one of the oldest biodynamic winegrowers in the southern hemisphere and within the oldest 10 in the world. We were young, motivated and opinionated, but still young. When Chernobyl occurred our sales increased tenfold. When mad cow disease took hold our sales increased, so we have never looked for the added value. Even these days our wines are conservatively priced, which is taxing, especially when our growing costs can be as much as 30% greater than “chemical practice”.

What is interesting now is that even the corporations are changing somewhat to growing vines organically such is the demand of the gatekeepers from the commodity traders. Thank heavens for the explosion in funky natural wine bars in the hipster centres of the major cities in the world, where people are happy, healthy, and opinionated!.

BC: Should I pay more for a bottle of biodynamically-produced wine than a bottle of conventionally produced wine?

JM: Yes of course, if you value your health, digestion and wellbeing, as well as understanding the profound positive attributes of naturally formed polyphenols and their effect on your blood flow, and ability to think clearly.

Dr Richard Smart. International Wine Challenge YouTube

Dr Richard Smart, one of the world’s most distinguished viticulturists and the recipient of 15 awards for services to viticulture, including four from New Zealand, recently sent me a provocative and very timely document headed “Are wineries environmental vandals?” I responded with the following five questions.

Bob Campbell MW: You pose the question “Are wineries environmental vandals?” The answer must be “yes” because they, in your words, “treat the atmosphere as a sewer for CO2.” But isn’t the wine industry a small potato polluter next to, say, farting cows or brewing beer?

Richard Smart: I question the environmental credibility of wineries because they happily release great volumes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere during winemaking. Previously they released untreated winery wastewater until this has been stopped by environmental regulation. When might they be regulated for atmospheric pollution?

I do not have information at hand to comment on potato size, farting cows and brewing beer. What I can say is that fermentation of grapes juice in winemaking produces carbon dioxide in one of the most pure forms known in industry (more than 90% CO2). The concentration of carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired power plants and automobile exhaust is much more dilute, making it difficult to capture and conserve.

Yes, the grape and wine-producing sector is a small player compared to all of society’s activities in the problem of rising atmospheric CO2 levels. But does that mean that they have no responsibility to reduce emissions where they can. I doubt it.

BC: I was interested to learn from your paper that CO2 emissions from fermentation can be captured and cleaned before being reused, saved as bicarbonate of soda and/or sold. Any idea of the cost to install and run such a machine in, say, a 500-tonne winery?

RS: Google recently found for me three companies with commercial solutions to fermentation- CO2 polluting the atmosphere, all were in Europe. They can answer your question. Two companies using the technology are leading Bordeaux chateaux, Smith Lafitte and Montrose.

Undoubtedly Europe leads the New World in environmental concern about grape and wine production. So much for the much-touted New World technological superiority.

Here is a question for you Bob. What will be the cost of ongoing climate change if we fail to halt increasing levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases?

BC: You reveal that winemaking only contributes 17% to wine’s carbon footprint and that glass production transport and bottling of bulk wine in its destination make up the bulk of the footprint. You describe bottles as “environmentally undesirable” but what are the alternatives? Surely not bag-in-the-box?

RS: Let us face it Bob. There are three dinosaurs in the wine industry, barrels (for transport), corks for closures, and, yet to go extinct are 750 ml wine bottles. (Someone in the audience when I was presenting this idea said there are four dinosaurs, and that I was the fourth. No respect for age).

Wine bottles being round and tapered are difficult to package, can weigh as much as their contents, and are CO2/energy expensive to manufacture, transport and recycle. Alternatives like 1L cardboard tetrapacks and cans are available now, and why not for cheaper wine. Other packages will follow. Bring back decanters for the dining table I say.

Take a walk around a large grocery supermarket to see the range of containers available for liquids, all better options than glass. Why does the wine and liquor section contain so much carbon-intensive and environmentally damaging packaging? Because the manufacturers do not care about the environment. Shame on them.

BC: Viticulture contributes an estimated 15% to wine’s carbon footprint a figure that might be reduced by “use of biofuels, improved irrigation efficiency and electricity savings, and reductions in agricultural chemical use,” all of which are already being encouraged through sustainable viticulture. You mention that combustion of pomace, stalks and prunings could generate electricity. Is that already being practiced in other wine-producing countries?

RS: Yes, including New Zealand. Yealands in Marlborough use baled prunings for heating maybe electricity, though smaller air-dried bales would work better. There are many examples in Europe, ask Google, of using prunings, bunch stalks, and pomace. Biomass conversion to biochar is a form of carbon sequestration favoured by some, and can be a useful sandy soil ameliorant.

BC: You conclude with a question: “How long before an environmentally sensitive wine consumer is able to purchase a cardboard package of wine bearing the label ‘During the fermentation of this wine no carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere.’ What’s your guess?

RS: My answer is in two parts, firstly concerning the role of environmentally-aware wine consumers. One hears little of them now. As they realise what carbon vandalism is being now committed by wineries, their voice may be heard more. Within society, there is growing recognition that climate mitigation is everyone’s responsibility, and this sentiment is sure to increase and to reflect in purchase decisions.

For now, I know of no wine product being labelled as I describe. But it is only a matter of time. My guess is the first such label will not be in English, but Spanish. And my guess is the Familia Torres will be among the first. To understand just how much one company can achieve, go to Miguel Torres contribution in Session 1 at the Porto Solutions for the Wine Industry Conference on the climatechange-porto.com website.

I wonder Bob if any of your readers are in wine company management and how they are reacting to this message? Any Australasian wine companies to challenge Greta Thunberg?

Nigel Greening of Felton Road. Supplied

Nigel Greening – terroirist, lateral-thinker and owner of rockstar Central Otago winery, Felton Road.

Bob Campbell MW: It’s rather ironic that Felton Road was established in an ancient gold mining field because, in wine quality terms at least, you appear to have struck pay dirt. Do you credit careful prospecting, dumb luck or perhaps a combination of both?

Nigel Greening: When I started to think about getting involved back in 1998, I viewed the challenge as having a blank treasure map: the great Grand Cru’s of the future would be out there somewhere, but how to decipher where they might be hiding? So, I was a terroirist from the start and I still am. You view site as a glass ceiling to quality. You get everything else perfect and you can reach that ceiling, but the site determines the ceiling height.

My main guiding principle in geology was Claude Bourguignon and his concept that the higher the surface area of a given volume of soil particles, the better it would be for red wines. So fine particles make for great reds (he thought the opposite applied to whites). That took me to loess because a windblown soil would be the finest and have no stones to bring down the surface area.

Interestingly, Stewart Elms also believed that loess was the choice when planting Felton Road’s early pinot blocks, saving the coarser soils for chardonnay and the even coarser schist gravels for riesling, but I don’t think he got that from Claude. I didn’t know that our loess soils were calcareous, which would have probably clinched it; ironically it was Claude who first showed us the calcium seams when we dug holes for him in Block 3 many years later.

But it isn’t just geology. The most important other clue to buying Cornish Point was that the local farmer’s wives all said that Cornish Point apricots were the best tasting. If it works for one fruit, then it probably does the same for others.

BC: I recall you telling me that growth is by its own definition unsustainable. Does that mean you have no plans to increase production?

NG: We have a formal zero-growth policy, instigated in 2001, reached full production in 2006 (about 12000 cases in total) and stayed there ever since. There will be no further land purchases for viticulture. Blair determined the size at 400 barrels of pinot noir (plus whites): “I can hold that in my head, any bigger and I’m a winemaker working off a laptop.”

BC: Which is more important, making wines that express vineyard character or making the best wines possible?

NG: I have never believed in the idea of a best wine; it is a 2-dimensional scale for a multi-dimensional thing. Blair was always, and still is, disarmingly honest about his inability to predict greatness and where it might come from. But, the pressure to please the critic, (and therefore stay in business) probably pushes all wineries down the “how do we make the best wine” path in their early days.

Part of our growing up was learning to cast that cloak aside and let go of “better”. Since we aren’t fit judges, then expression of site is all we have to fall back on. Of course that only works if the site expression is pleasurable, and works best when it is profound. Which takes you back to question 1.

BC: The 2003 Block 5 Pinot Noir had a retail price of NZD $65 while the current vintage sells for nzd $109. On the surface of it that looks like quite a solid increase, but adjusting for the CPI index the price has only gone up by a modest 21% in 13 years. I’d say that in that time the quality has gone up by a significantly greater margin while your reputation has increased by larger margin. Block 3 is also heavily allocated. Are you underselling it? I should add that I began number-crunching with the expectation I would be taking you to task for overcharging.

NG: Ah, now that is an interesting one and one that occupies us in much debate. As you quite rightly note, we have kept pricing broadly in line with inflation over the past 20 years (in Kiwi dollar terms, it has been rather higher elsewhere, especially in the UK where the pound now has parity with the Matabele gumbo bead). The rush to what I regard as offensive pricing by a substantial hunk of Burgundy has led me to a determination to avoid the investigation of “what the market will bear”.

There is no question that we could have taken Block 3 and Block 5 and ridden the train to silly money, making them New Zealand’s most expensive red wines, but I am content that we didn’t take that path. The challenge now is that these wines, (and our single vineyard pinots and single block chardonnays), sit well down the price band in terms of NZ pinot pricing and people may infer there is a quality reason for this. So, do people prefer a wine to be “reassuringly expensive”? In Asia, that may well be the case, perhaps in all markets?

So, yes, probably a little too cheap at the moment, but I don’t want our customer base to move from enthusiasts to traders.

BC: What’s the next challenge?

NG: Climate change. For everybody.

Dr Andrew Hedley Supplied

Framingham Wines was rated top winery in The Real Review’s Top Wineries of New Zealand in 2018 and 2019. While the team at Framingham deserve to share the credit for that result, there is little doubt that winemaker Dr Andrew Hedley deserves the biggest pat on the back. When he’s not making wine in Marlborough, Andrew is scouting around for vinous oddities to import and distribute, mostly to his wine enthusiast mates.

Bob Campbell MW: Framingham was rated top winery in The Real Review’s Top Wineries of NZ in 2018 and 2019. That’s quite an achievement. How does it make you feel?

Andrew Hedley: You know, I am pretty sanguine about this kind of thing and tend not to get carried away by the good or the bad things that people say about my work! For everyone that gets it, there are always more who don’t, so you learn to take the rough (lots of that) with the smooth (a little bit of that).

I’m much closer to the end of my time at Framingham than the beginning. I’m quite comfortable in my own skin and I generally know when we have achieved what I want to with any particular wine, which may not be what the market or the norm expects, so I don’t worry too much about other peoples’ opinions, and the wines are certainly not made with wine shows in mind! It’s amazing how many wines are sh—t one day then amazing the next, just ‘cos of a few words or a little sticker. That said, it is nice when someone can see merit in what you are doing on a daily basis!

BC: It’s probably not coincidental that riesling is the star as well as being your personal passion. What is it about riesling that you find so appealing?

AH: Yes, well riesling may be the star in some sense of the word, but not in others. While I do enjoy the feeling of riesling flowing through my veins and sustaining me, that really isn’t the case for many wine drinkers at large, is it?; I think that’s well established.

Riesling’s strengths are also its weaknesses; the myriad of styles it is able to successfully support just confuses most people and presents an unnecessary challenge for the same group that just a tiny little bit of interest could solve, and the grape’s ability to transmit some site-specific textures and flavours is also a well-established concept to enthusiasts, but the reality is most punters don’t care one little bit about any of that stuff. In my experience, riesling is getting harder to sell, not easier, despite the fact that it is generally fantastic value compared to many other wines.

For Framingham, you can say it is a strong suit, but I think all of the wines I make here are up to scratch and the same care and attention has gone into all of them, not just riesling. Of course, people like pigeon holes and sticking things in boxes, so it becomes “yeah, well riesling is the only thing worth looking at with Framingham, where else should we go?” So advantages and disadvantages, economically it is relatively unimportant here.

However, consumption in my kitchen remains at optimum levels and, you know, I am still learning so much stuff that can be brought into play with other wines because of that. I am hopeful of getting to my version of Himmel as a result. Gimme danger in the meantime.

BC: Framingham has a vineyard with Marlborough’s oldest riesling vines. How important is vine age to the quality of riesling?

AH: In fact, it is not true that Framingham has the oldest riesling vines in Marlborough, that’s disinformation peddled by those who would prefer it to be true, but I think there is at least one plot that is a couple of years older than our vineyard, so not the oldest and it’s probably annoying for the guys who do have the oldest vines! But for sure our vineyard is 38 years of age, which is old for New Zealand, and it is a relatively significant planting at 18 acres or so.

I was in Germany at the International Riesling Symposium in 2017 and one of the sessions involved a presentation by an academic from Geisenheim, which suggested that there were no physical attributes that could be scientifically found in wines made from older vines that would distinguish them sensorily from wines made from younger vines. That guy was brave! Uproar ensued from the floor, insults were hurled and skirmishing broke out. I can remember Erni Loosen being especially animated by some of the claims made. Highly entertaining!

I also recall a quote, maybe from an Australian winemaker, saying that old vines are vital (if you have them) or are not important at all (if you don’t have them). When I go to Germany to visit and talk with producers, they generally start a tasting with their entry and mid-tier level wines and say,

“These wines come from our younger vines.”

“How old are they? say I.”

“Up to 40 years old,” invariably comes the reply.

There seems to be a view for sure that once vines get to 40 years or so then they will start to consider them to be included in the top, higher price (but still incredible value by the way) wines. In my mind, older vines seem to maybe behave a bit more predictably/less variably year on year, maybe due to the better-developed root systems etc, and I think that maybe if the same people are working with those vines for a long time, it is important not to underestimate the importance of experience and knowing your vineyard’s foibles to the process of turning those grapes into good wine.

BC: Rank in order of importance; wine, punk rock, golf and photography.

AH: Can’t really. For too long wine has been further up that list than it should be, so let’s put that last. The music and the attitude from my formative years has turned me into what I am, too late to do anything about that, but it has given me the freedom to think for myself and not give a f—k what anyone else thinks, so it has been important but is generally just on in the car these days, though I do still get to gigs but it’s very expensive to do so when you live in Marlborough. Don’t seem to have much time for golf or cricket these days, same with my cameras, that needs addressing as soon as possible! Maybe the camera comes top. Today.

BC: Where to from here?

AH: Somewhere else I guess, I’m open to all and any offers!! Really.

Michael Brajkovich MW of Kumeu River. Kumeu River Wines

Wine drinkers may argue about whether a wine deserves iconic status but few would dispute that Michael Brajkovich MW is a truly iconic winemaker. Michael graduated from Roseworthy College as Dux in 1981.

Returning to his family’s winery, Kumeu River, he rapidly developed an enviable international reputation for his wines, particularly the quality of his Kumeu Chardonnay. In 1989 Michael became the first New Zealander to earn the Master of Wine qualification. Michael has a distinguished record as a wine show judge both nationally and internationally.

Bob Campbell MW: A number of people have said to me over the years, “If Michael can make such good chardonnay from Kumeu grapes imagine what he could do with top fruit from Hawke’s Bay”. You recently purchased a high-altitude vineyard in Hawke’s Bay, so I guess we’ll soon find out. Where will the new chardonnay sit in your product range?

Michael Brajkovich MW: For many years all of our wines came from vineyards in Kumeu. That changed in 2015 when we started purchasing chardonnay grapes in Hawke’s Bay for our increasingly popular Kumeu Village Chardonnay. We looked to expand our own vineyard holdings in chardonnay, but that proved impossible to do in Kumeu because land prices have become ridiculous for grape-growing. So we looked elsewhere and were very fortunate that our search coincided with a unique property in Hawke’s Bay coming onto the market.

We learnt that a hill-country vineyard in Rays Road, Raukawa, owned by Trinity Hill, was up for sale. We knew a little of the history of this property already in that it was originally developed in conjunction with Pascal Jolivet, a winemaker from Sancerre in France, who was particularly enthusiastic about the potential for growing sauvignon blanc there. With its limestone base and wind-blown clay loess topsoil, it seemed an ideal location not only for the flinty style of sauvignon blanc that the Loire is famous for, but also for pinot noir and chardonnay. Trinity Hill planted all three varieties, but with a heavy emphasis on sauvignon blanc, and the early results were very good indeed.

We completed the vineyard purchase in April 2017. Since then we have had two harvests, and are very excited with the wines we have produced so far, and also with the future potential for quality wines, particularly from chardonnay and pinot noir.

This site is far from the mainstream areas of vine-growing in Hawke’s Bay. At an altitude of 180-200m, it is considerably more elevated than the rest of the Heretaunga plains geographical region that makes up the bulk of the Hawke’s Bay’s vineyards. It is slightly cooler and later-ripening, and the limestone subsoil really gives the wines a zesty character that we don’t find elsewhere. It is also very well-suited to the early-ripening varieties such as chardonnay and pinot noir, rather than the late-season red varieties like syrah and cabernet sauvignon which require much more heat to ripen them.

The 2018 Kumeu River Rays Road Chardonnay is quite a departure from our Kumeu wines. The limestone soil gives this wine a unique fingerprint that we haven’t experienced before. The final blend consists of two picking dates, 10 days apart, has given a wine of youthful vibrancy, but also with richness and texture. It is a single vineyard wine of quality and unique personality, and we have priced it at NZD $40.00. The 2018 Kumeu River Rays Road Pinot Noir is also priced at NZD $40.00, and the 2018 Kumeu River Sauvignon Blanc (sourced from Rays Road but not labelled as such) is NZD $25.00.

BC: There has been quite a shift in the style of New Zealand chardonnay over the past decade or so. Has the Kumeu style changed in that time and do you lead or follow the market?

MB: There has certainly been a shift in chardonnay style, and we like to think we have been at the leading edge of that gradual change. One of the main differences these days has been much less apparent malolactic character. In about 2004 we became aware of how the diacetyl by-product, which causes butteriness, can decline in wine due to yeast activity. Not only will the yeast fermentation remove the diacetyl, but dead yeast cells are also capable of consuming it. We changed our procedures to allow extended maturation on the yeast lees in barrel, well past the end of malolactic, and in so doing diminished the butter character almost completely.

Our chardonnay wines have always been slightly reductive in character (especially Hunting Hill) because of how we clarify the juice by simple racking and taking some of the grape solids into the fermentation. This technique became very popular with winemakers both here and in Australia. But, true to the new world adage that if a little bit of something is good, then a whole lot must be great, things went to extremes. Our wines have not changed in this regard, they have the same low-level reduction that they have had for many years. We have certainly not pursued the technique of full-solids fermentation, which maximises this effect, because we believe it also unbalances the wine.

BC: Your highly publicised success against a strong field of top white burgundies in the UK formed the central theme of the recently released film A Seat at the Table. Has the tasting at Farr Vintners had a positive effect on sales?

MB: It was in May 2015 that my brother Paul went to London for a unique tasting at Farr Vintners, one of our greatest supporters over the last 25 years. Having often served our wines blind to top tasters over the years only to be identified as coming from Burgundy, they thought it would be interesting to show a range of our wines against some top-flight White Burgundy, and to taste them blind.

In the four flights of wine tasted (5 wines each) our wine came outright winner in three of the flights, and first equal in the fourth. The publicity generated was amazing, and the sales that ensued in that year, and for every vintage since, have been outstanding. The Estate Chardonnay, and the Coddington, Hunting Hill and Maté’s Vineyard single-vineyard wines now all have to be allocated to the various international markets.