Graeme Gee
Graeme Gee
2008: Rotters in New Zealand
September 9
The only good thing about arriving at Sydney airport at 5am is the discovery that with no traffic, and a modicum of traffic light co-ordination, it is possible to get around Sydney quite quickly. That aside, there are few benefits; yes check-in is quick. But everything else is closed. Even the exchange counters, with their usurious fees and hysterical exchange rates are desolate until 5.30. But I am not alone in my wait to depart on this commemorative trip, the 20th anniversary weekend away of the Noble Rotters monthly wine dinner group. Fellow Rotters Greg and Gordon & Sheli share my inhuman timetable as we wait for the immigration desks to open. Ah, the Department of Immigration. For years I have wanted to complete the nosily irrelevant field headed Occupation on their departure card with the word Celebrity, just to see the reaction, but given the lack of humour displayed by immigration officials (a requirement for the job apparently), I again suppress these anarchist tendencies and dutifully write Accountant. The trans-Tasman flight is smooth enough, but does confirm that Western civilisation is seen at its lowest ebb in the form of an economy seat airline breakfast.
Air New Zealand in Auckland display remarkable flexibility in their operations by agreeing to move me to the hour-earlier Wellington flight, in spite of the seventeen pages of rigorous conditions attached to my purchased e-ticket which state this is either impossible, or should have been done a week ago, but in any case will cost me four times my original paid price. This simple-but-generous act fails to melt-down their entire computer system (surprise!), and keeps our little travelling party together. The alfresco walk between international and domestic terminals finds us, Wizard-of-Oz-like, following the blue painted line in the brisk morning air. Such a contrast with Sydney, where the rapacious bandits who run the (necessary) shuttle bus have the gall to charge you for the service. Now, sitting at gate 30 we grow by the addition of Bruce, and as the departure becomes ever more delayed, Gordon charms the business class lounge staff into admitting all four of us as his guests so we can reduce their excess food supplies.
As we finally queue by the large window to board the plane, only an somnambulist could fail to notice the two ground crew busy changing the front wheels of the aircraft. In another departure from standard procedure, the pilot actually explains exactly what was happening. Surely rules are being broken here? Customarily waiting for paperwork covers everything from a drunken steward to triple engine failure.
In the end, the plane flies, the famously rough descent into Wellington wouldnt even spill a martini, and were en route to the hotel. It has apparently been raining, but the ground is dry; in this windiest city in the world I assume that the water never actually hits the earth but just flies sideways until something else intervenes. I wouldnt be surprised to learn that the citys fresh water reservoir is located on a hillside somewhere. Still, it is pretty calm for the duration of our stay.
With a bit of time to spare before the pre-dinner rendezvous, roomie Greg and I embark on matching shopping quests; I am trying to locate Michael Coopers annual Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines, a book which proves rather difficult to procure due to its impending new vintage re-issue, and Greg has the only marginally easier task of buying enough golf balls to see him through a round at Cape Kidnappers later in the week (his luggage allowance presumably proving insufficient to allow supplies brought from home). In the end, we are both successful, and return after a harbourside pre-dinner drink (notes not taken, but it didnt auger well) in time to meet the rest of the Rotters in the lobby of the Duxton.
Here also awaits our host for the week Terry TJ Peabody, director of Craggy Range, who promises us a week not to be forgotten. With him is wife Kim, and Craggy marketer Rachael, part-guardian angel, part-shepherdess, who will see us through the nitty-gritty of the next days events.
The walkable dinner venue is the Matterhorn restaurant, which has picked up the most recent Cuisine> magazine gong for Best Restaurant in New Zealand. Over tasty but marginally unauthentic tapas, decent mains, and an excellent cheese plate, we sampled, from a seemingly endless number of bottles, the first of many highlights from the Craggy Range range.
2008 Craggy Range Avery Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) {screwcap, 13%}
A faintly candied and distinctly tropical nose. The palate is lavishly fruited, with a dash of residual sugar, surely. The acid is soft, the fruit blossoms richly in the mouth on the front palate, but fades quickly. The sweetness helps give it plenty of body, but theres little complexity here. An easy drinker.
2006 Craggy Range Calvert Vineyard Pinot Noir (Bannockburn/Central Otago) {screwcap, 14%
From a vineyard managed in a joint venture with Felton Rd. A youthful nose of supercharged cherry fruit, with a dark, nutty, almost bitter undertone, and a whiff of some molasses-like sweetness. Despite the florid fruitiness on the palate, theres an undercurrent of earthy structure. Ripe, with medium chalky tannins, and medium-weight and length, its a mostly front-palate wine that should develop some more interest with a few more years age.
2006 Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Sophia Merlot-Cab Franc (Hawkes Bay) {cork, 14%, NZ$60}
This is Craggys spiritual flagship, even if its not their priciest wine. The nose is fruity, with ripe, slightly sour raspberries, and little detectable oak. The dry, medium-weight palate combines fine powdery tannins with gawky fruit its clearly very young, but theres still a silky feel to the wine that suggests it will integrate beautifully. Its not a blockbuster (as youd expect from a wine taking Cheval Blanc as stylistic mentor), but still has plenty of length on the finish and depth right to the back of the palate. A long ager, surely. TJ very quickly decides one of the bottles is a bit scalped in nose and palate, and we have the inevitable discussion about cork and TCA. When theres enough solid evidence for the appropriate aging of reds under screwcap, Craggy will consider changing, but not before, thats the gist of it. Risks of reductiveness are an issue, along with the attitudes of consumers (especially given Craggys proportion of foreign on-premise sales of their top wines).
2004 Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Le Sol Syrah (Hawkes Bay) {cork, 14.5%, NZ$90}
Red-black. Spicy warm-climate shiraz fruit, vanilla oak. Lots of chalky tannins on the palate, with ripe, almost caramel-rich fruit. Powerful, brazen even, but not grotesque at all. Beginning to integrate nicely, but actual evolution still seems a fair way off. Try it aged ten. Meanwhile, continue your weights training to lift that bottle!
2006 Craggy Range Aroha Vineyard Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$90}
This wine is made from selected plots of Craggys Te Muna Road vineyard. Dark, with a silky nose of earth and strawberry but overall an impression of depth. Rich yet reticent (de-stemmed) pinot fruit is framed by the finest chalky tannins, medium acidity and rich sophisticated mouthfeel. It is the structure which is most memorable, the fruit being only a component of this wine, rather than a feature. Tremendous length and depth. A privilege to taste.
September 10
At a respectably civilised hour on Wednesday morning, we board the bus for the trip to Martinborough. The view from the windows becomes ever more spectacular as we climb into the Rimutaka range. At times it seems as though the ever-narrowing road itself struggles to cling to the steep hillsides, massively thick with dense vegetation. To Australian eyes it appears incredibly lush, the bushes and trees piled high on the precipitous slopes, threatening to overwhelm the road at any moment.
Pretty much every house in Martinborough, it seems, has a vineyard attached. And plenty have anti-frost windmills as well. Its certainly a town that shows evidence of the affluence that selling in-demand wine brings. Our destination is Craggy Ranges Te Muna Road Vineyard, where vineyard manager Charles Simon awaits us, along with lunch. As we dawdle along the road through the vineyard, TJ gives us the word. The empty spaces near the gate are earmarked for the noble Alsatian varieties, with plans for an Edelzwicker-style field blend in the offing. The lower terrace of the vineyard is entirely sauvignon, the upper contains a little more sauvignon, but is mostly pinot vines, including those forming last nights Aroha cuvee as well as the standard Te Muna Road offering. There are also rows of Chardonnay, and Riesling laid out with stones beneath the vines. Altogether, were looking at nearly 100ha of vineyard, planted at 1.5 metre spacing, giving around 5000 vines per hectare.
At Charles stunningly-sited house, on a little outcrop jutting over the lower terrace with expansive views over the neat vine rows, the distant ribbon-river and the verdant hills behind (claimed by TJ to be unusually green at present), we got stuck into a picnic lunch, and a couple more wines.
2007 Craggy Range Ara Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
Nearly clear in colour. Always difficult to assess wine outdoors. This has enough aromas to cope. Tight gooseberries and lime. Dash of kiwi-fruit. Avoids overly tropical-fruit aspects. Theres plenty of acid on the light-bodied palate. Tart and interesting fruit with some classic pungency. Softened a little as it warmed up. Better than last nights wine. As ever, best drunk young.
2006 Craggy Range Te Muna Vineyard Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$60}
Always fun to drink a wine while standing in the middle of its source vineyard.* Classic new world pinot nose, with clean cherry-like fruits, although theres a little dark-chocolate element lurking underneath, promising more than just a fruit drink. On the palate, unexpected but welcome smoky-bacon flavours emerge in addition to the classic red fruits. Nicely dry, with soft chalky/silky tannins, a medium cut of acidity, medium weight body and even, persistent palate length. All to scale, and rather beguiling. Given that it was tasted outdoors as well, a very competent wine indeed. Has all the elements to suggest it should improve for 5 years at least.
*Theres a danger element too, if the wine disappoints
Just think, here we are drinking a wine that was grown only a few hundred yards over there.(gesturing)
Hmmm, yes. What a pity it doesnt travel
After lunch, Charles filled us in with a few mind-pummelling facts. The main threat to the vineyard is, predictably, frost. In the year before the frost-prevention spraying system was installed, he spent $230,000 hiring helicopters in attempts to prevent grape losses. Nowadays, the vineyard has a comprehensive, complicated, computer-controlled weather-warning programme. The anti-frost system sprays located throughout the vines consumes 400 litres of water per second, which means the near 100 megalitre dam can manage two consecutive nights of frost. Springtime is not for the faint-hearted. There were 9 frosts in 2007.
It wouldnt be a trip to New Zealand without a spot of unusual leisure activity. So, not counting a casual nearest-the-bucket informal golf competition Rons freak winning shot bested my chip by a mere metre or two it was left to nearby neighbour Lachie McLeod of McLeods Quad Adventures to provide two left-field activities.
The secret to successful clay pigeon-shooting is dont think to hard according to Lachie . Obviously, this will afford some Rotters a distinct natural advantage. Cover him with the sight and let him have it. So we blaze away. After our two rounds of five shots, Stephen and I have eight hits each; proud beneficiaries of non-functioning brains? I win the shoot-off by a single bird, but the subsequent group harbours a dark horse. Clearly demonstrating the effects of a misspent youth in arcade game parlours, Andrew blazes a near-perfect nine discs straight off to take the trophy. Our group then takes a turn on the quad bikes. The forty-five minute tour has us leaving the vineyard, briefly flirting with the public road, before entering the nearby McLeod property for some up-hill, down-dale bike work. It might seem like a noisy, smelly way to experience nature; although your feet get a lot wetter theyre easier to tame than a horse, and the views are just as good.
With smiles still on our faces, we head off to
Palliser Estate
a long time high flyer in Martinborough. 2008 is their 21st vintage, and proprietor Richard Riddiford hosts us before handing over to assistant winemaker Pip Goodwin for an in-depth look at the wines. The second label is called Pencarrow; we alternate through the tasting depending on variety. The wines came at a clip, so some notes are pretty cursory.
2007 Pencarrow Sauvignon Blanc (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13%, NZ$16}
Slightly sweaty, gooseberry-like/straw/asparagus nose. A near-dry (or seems so due to the high acidity) palate is fresh and tart, light-medium in body, and simple undemanding drinking. Saw this on sale in a Havelock bottle shop for NZ$12.
2007 Palliser Sauvignon Blanc (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
Theres greater depth to the nose of the estate wine. A riper green, if you like. Again, plenty of acidity offsets the imperceptible 3g/l of RS. The palate is quite flinty, though its still mostly fruit rather than earth. Theres some leesy complexity, a practice which is far less successful down in Marlborough than here in the north.
2007 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {screwcap, 12%, NZ$16}
Sweetly apple-like fruit on the nose, with a touch of sherbert. Its a very light fruity style, but even with 6g/l of RS I find the acid a bit soft, and the wine consequently a bit flabby in the way a true Kabinett is not.
2007 Palliser Pinot Gris (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$19}
Yellow-green. Moderate nose of typical soft pear-like aromas. The few grams of residual sugar here serve to thicken the texture, rather than add obvious sweetness. Why does so much pinot gris seem to resemble sewing machine oil? Low acid, light medium body. Somewhat nebulous. Drink up.
2006 Pencarrow Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13%, NZ$11}
This seemed to me to be quite developed for such a young wine. Anonymous white fruit aromas dominated by secondary barrel ferment characters (20% saw wild yeast), which made it taste a bit bilgey to me. A flat palate, a little grapefruit, then a short finish. Did something go wrong here? .
2007 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$28}
This is much better. Youthful and classy. Lovely oak notes, ripe chardy fruit. Dry palate, powdery tannins. Medium body and intensity, fresh cut of acid, creamy texture pretty much textbook cool-climate chardonnay.. Might age a couple of years, but see below
2000 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) {cork, 13.5%, NZ$40}
2002 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$40}
So, some older chardonnays are being cleared through the cellar door. But its not looking good. Cabbage-like aromas, vegetative flavours, funky and over-developed. Flat palates, non-existent finishes. The 2002 has the better palate, but a worse nose. Pass on both. In fairness, Richard did say that the vintage quality variation in Martinborough was as high as 50%, suggesting highly variable wines. A point to note; despite the different closures, you wouldnt say the aging profile of these two wines was significantly different.
2004 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$40}
All of which made this wine such a surprise. The pick of the chardonnays. Nose at peak of development. Nuts and figs, integrated oak, all bottle aged to perfection. No malo in this wine. A medium-length, medium bodied white, with sustaining acid and a moderately complex dry finish. Needless to say, drink now!
2007 Pencarrow Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$22}
This wine is about in line with the price. Youthful, with sappy, stalky cherry fruit, its not unripe on the palate but lacks polish and refinement, with gritty tannins and a short, abrupt finish. Not hot, though, but hardly a wine worth seeking out.
2006 Palliser Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$35}
Youthful smoky strawberry and earth aromas. Fruity but not exuberant. On the palate theres a touch of not-distracting stalkiness, ripe pinot fruit, subtle oak, and a generally silky texture. Powdery tannins contribute to the medium-bodied weight and nicely balanced finish. Attractive wine, and although hardly a benchmark is certainly worth the 50% price premium over the Pencarrow. Of Pallisers typical 50,000-case production, about 15,000 is pinot of some kind.
After the tasting, and an inspection of the new 10,000 bottle cellar under construction on the property, we head off to Richards tasteful country manor for a couple of back vintages.
1997 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {cork, 12.5%}
Super aged Riesling nose of honey and citrus, with no hint of petroleum. Acid is balanced with sweetness, and the palate manages to remain aged yet fresh at the same time. So, the ugly duckling does become a swan! A second bottle was retrieved to prolong the enjoyment, but due to the romance of cork (TCA) it was undrinkable.
1999 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {cork, 12%}
2000 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {cork, 13.5%}
The results are not quite so delightful here. In fact the 99 is a little fresher than the 2000, and both do hint at the glories of the 97, but theres just enough creeping oxidative character to mute the enjoyment. Neither the acid nor sweetness is a problem, and the balance is good, its just that the whole package is beginning to tire a little. In isolation, theyd be fine, but beside the 97 Well chalk it up to the vintage, I guess.
We check in at the Martinborough Hotel, a four-star venue attempting to fit old-style accommodation into the Peppers-chain format. How cold does it get? there are heated bathroom floors At any rate, its enough to attract David, who finally makes his appearance, thus completing the Rotters roll-call.
Dinner tonight is at Wendy Crawfords The French Bistro, winner of the Cuisine Magazines Best Regional Restaurant award. Were ticking off the categories here, as the last evenings dinner will be at the winner of the Best Winery Restaurant Additional guests tonight include Charles and his wife, and Richard from Palliser, bearing a special bottle. Dinner is degustation style:
Smoked eel Rillettes to spread on local olive oil toast
2007 Palliser Estate Sauvignon Blanc (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
OK, technically a re-taste of this afternoons wine. Here the nose radiates gooseberry, lychee and a touch of asparagus. The light-medium weight palate is nicely built with ripe fruit, well-judged acid, moderately intense in its flavours, and with a quite persistent finish. The non-exaggerated style is a hit with the food as well, and shows very well in these circumstances. One of the best sauvignons of the trip.
Nelson Bay Crabcake
2007 Ata Rangi Craighall Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
Only the palest of straw-greens, this limpid wine presents a youthful nose of nuts, stones, and fine-grained French oak. The chalkily tannic palate offers a smoky, almost dusty mineral-like take on a Burgundian theme. Stone fruit flavours play second fiddle to structure, which impresses by its length and sense of scale. A noble, elegant wine of great distinction.
New Zealand Paua in risotto
2006 Martinborough Vineyard Jackson Block (Martinborough) {screwcap, 12.5%}
Well, the Rieslings are getting better. This has a steely, minerally, almost metallic nose, with a dash of glazed honey fruit. On the palate, the steeliness takes a backseat and citric flavours are predominant. With minimal sugar, theres an acidic austerity about this wine that verges on the powerful. Seems not to budge at all even as it warms up in the glass a lovely wine with a persistent finish. Im not brave enough to predict an aging curve, sorry.
Poussin et canard. Wendys duck and baby chicken springtime stew
2006 Palliser The Great Harry Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {magnum, cork, 14.5%, NZ$84/750ml}
This is the top-of-the-tree Palliser pinot, named after a special dog. Dont ask. For the technocrats, its a blend of clones 667 and 777, and spends 16 months in oak, one-third of it new. Its a mid-garnet colour, with perfumed, silky red berry fruit on the nose. The palate, despite a distinct tartness, nevertheless manages some rich plummy fruit flavours. Chalky tannins are pronounced but dont dominate the finish. Overall, the wine is a little raw and disjointed, but it doesnt seem to be anything time wont fix. So, a very good wine, but at such a price premium over the regular release that it becomes a non-starter for me.
2006 Kusuda Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {cork, 14%}
This has a tough act to follow, and it shows. Garnet, with a pungent medieval nose harbouring a hint of mustiness. Quite light on the palate, with soft powdery tannins. Acid is a bit spiky and the warm, almost hot finish all piles up on the front palate before collapsing quickly. A simple, even coarse wine for unthinking drinking.
2006 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$65}
A ring-in. Id bemoaned the fact the scheduled trip to Ata Rangi was cancelled this afternoon due to time constraints. Rotters around the table conspired to buy this wine from the restaurant list, then pass a glass of it down to me, with the advice it was a complimentary house wine assembled by tonights providors. That was a dirty trick. Early last year, the Washington Post did an experiment to see whether art can transcend context. They had the famous virtuoso Joshua Bell, in jeans and T-shirt, play violin masterpieces Bach, and so forth on his multi-million dollar Stradivarius in a Washington metro station at 8am on a Friday morning to observe the result. Not a good one for cultural awareness, it has to be said, as he was routinely ignored by dozens of people. Rather shamefacedly, I have to report a similar oenological result. I judged the nose to be clean, with fairly simple, but ripe, red fruits. The palate I called monolithic, mainly because of the strong, if fine, tannins. As a house red it didnt seem so great. More fool me. Coming back to it half an hour later (and with no previous vintage experience of the wine), I can easily enough see why it might be a great wine in time. All the ingredients are there, but tightly bound; the general air of reticence disguises the potential well. The length of finish is there, even if its hard to pin it down precisely. I think I need to try an older vintage now. And stop making value judgements influenced by external factors
Profiterole chocolate clairs with French vanilla ice-cream
2006 Schubert Dolce Muller-Thurgau (Wairarapa) {375ml, cork, 9%}
A moderate gold colour. There are vaguely-confected, floury, pastry-like aromas here, which show bubble-gum notes in time. Thick on the palate not much acid but without depth. Its like a sponge-cake that didnt quite work, in all rather superficial. Sweet, yes, but without freshness. A gentle, short-term sweetie of no great note.
The restaurant is small but excellent. The food wasnt tricked up or over the top. When the room is full, the noise is overwhelming, but that seems to be the fashion in fine dining today, sadly. Despite that, its no-brainer choice (good for shooters, then) if you want to eat in Martinborough.
The Martinborough Hotel being within walking distance, we all made it safely home, I believe. Sleep is needed theres a long ride to the Gravels tomorrow.
September 11
At about 9.30, we farewell Martinborough, and board a coach for the northerly 3-hour ride to Hawkes Bay and the Gimblett Gravels. On the road again, Im still stunned by the vivid greenery of the New Zealand landscape. There are no shoulders to the road here; lush grass grows right to the very edge of the bitumen. You could easily image that after a few weeks with no traffic the road would disappear altogether, lost under a rich green carpet. The contrast with Australia physically so near could hardly be more vivid. Here, the vegetation normally seems perpetually exhausted, and gives up the creeping struggle while still metres away from the road. But New Zealand, with its generous rainfall, volcanic discharges, and collapsing hillsides at every turn, seems to be a land still in formation, or at the very least engaged in a constant process of evolution.
The bus driver interrupts my ruminations to announce that we are passing Peter Jacksons house. Far over to the left, remotely set against the backdrop of the majestic Ruahine Range, a distant festival of fantasy turrets protrudes above the trees. The mountains beyond are heavily draped with stormy clouds whose blackness is worthy of Mordor itself. It is as theatrical a setting as you could imagine. There is no sign of the Chief Hobbit himself, however. Further along the road, another drama is being acted out. We pass a police car pulled over with lights flashing. As we brake, then pass innocently by, we recognise the civilian car and find that TJ himself is the target of the officers fund-raising diligence / road safety enforcement.
After a pitstop in the culturally-confused town of Dannevirke, which seems uncertain whether it is located in New Zealand or Scandinavia, we take the road less travelled and leave Highway 2 for the more westerly and less populated Highway 50. In this way we bypass the main drag through Hastings, and instead arrive directly at Craggy Ranges bulk processing winery, located in the middle of their 100ha Gimblett Gravel vineyard.
His spirit and enthusiasm undimmed by his encounter with New Zealands finest, TJ is there to greet us and tell us about the Gimblett Gravels, the 700-ha plain of seemingly-useless stony earth revealed when a vast 1870 flood changed the course of the Ngaruroro River. The recent recognition that this district has received for its ability to successfully ripen Bordeaux varieties is reflected in the value of the soil; Craggy purchased land at NZ$5000/acre ten years ago, the same sells for NZ$190,000 today.
Craggys vineyard is not totally flat as you might expect; there are gentle contours among the rows, highlighted by the crushed oyster shells beneath every row. The combination of the poor stone soils and the warm climate (indeed the hills around the Gravels are the nearest thing to brown we will see in the New Zealand topography while here) is reckoned to take about 4 weeks off the ripening times, a factor which has a significant bearing on the consistency of the grapes produced from year to year. The vineyard is virtually organic; Craggy evidently have no intention of doing the paperwork required to obtain formal certification. More remarkably, this particular vineyard (about 80ha of which is planted) contained 86 blocks which are each harvested and fermented separately. Even more remarkably, and perhaps the most staggering thing I learnt on the entire trip was that, weather permitting, Craggy Range hand-harvest their entire 250haworth of New Zealand vineyards. That must be a near-unique achievement in the world of wine; maybe only Yquem, who may make up to 5 or 6 passes through their 100-ha Sauternes vineyard (to produce their A$800 bottles) would run it close. This, combined with the absolute commitment to bottling single vineyard wines under the Craggy Range label might be 70,000 cases of wine in a year, but they will be spread over nearly 40 labels must surely make them close to unmatched in the wine world. I could imagine the odd German producer coming close to that sort of production mix, but its extreme in every way.
We return to the winery complex in the middle of the vineyard. Here there are a series of plain, free standing buildings. There are no giant outdoor tanks, no bridges of stainless steel or PVC pipes filling the sky above our heads. Nothing. Just a series of non-related-looking grey buildings, clustered around a large, covered assembly of immaculate crushers and presses. A bit gobsmacked by all this (well, at least I am), we sit down for lunch in one of the winery buildings and, over a delicious cold repast ferried over from the Giants Winery Terrir restaurant, tuck into a couple of luncheon wines.
2007 Craggy Range C3 Kidnappers Vineyard Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$19}
If this needs a foreign lookalike, then you could say its aimed at Chablis. The C3 is a reference to the three clones making up the wine. Clean, youthful aromas, rather flinty. Dry and lightish-bodied, theres plenty of acid, the barest minimum of oak, and stony fruits and nuts on the palate. Does finish a little warm though I would drink within 2-3 years.
2006 Craggy Range Gimblet Gravels Merlot (Hawkes Bay) {cork, 13.5%, NZ$40}
This is the kind of wine no-one seems to make in Australia certainly not from merlot, anyway. Ruby-coloured inky darkness, with refined plummy vanilla aromas. On the palate, chalky tannins frame well-proportioned muscular merlot fruit. The oak is understated, and the wine feels quite round and soft in the mouth, without ever becoming flabby or harsh. Medium-bodied in the end, with a moderate length finish, it just needs a little time to build some harmony.
After lunch, we embark on en eye-opening tour, hosted by winemaker Adrian Baker, who delivers his talk with wit drier than a 70s Chablis. The 2002-built winery was designed by architect John Blair, and comprises six separate wineries, each set up to deal with a particular style of grape, wine, or winemaking technique. This enables the winemaking team, led by Craggy Range co-founder and Master of Wine Steve Smith to focus their attention as much as possible on the wines, and devote less energy to winery administration. As all Craggys production (except the Sophia merlot blend) is made here, they are receiving grapes from Te Muna in Martinborough as well as from further afield in the South Island. Thus, the pinot cellar is set up for plunging of the cap, whereas the bordeaux cellar facilitates pumping over, in accordance with Craggys preferred winemaking approach. Theres a mix of equipment, including in the pinot cellar larges cuves assembled by the Burgundian suppliers to Romanee Conti. Barrel aging post-fermentation takes place in a series of cellar rooms, all independently temperature-controllable. Adrian reveals, staggeringly, that the average batch size of wines they make is only twelve barrels a function, no doubt, of all those vineyard blocks. The absence of pipes, cables and all the usual paraphernalia that accompanies even the neatest winery is largely explained by all the utilities being located in a single central facility, and running to each of the cellars underground. Inside the winery, spaced every few tanks, stands a stainless sentinel, into which hoses for water, gas, etc can be plugged. The attention to detail is phenomenal.
Yesterday, TJ told us that wed be visiting the worlds most advanced winery. At the time I thought he was gilding the lily a bit, but having seen all this, he may just have a point. This is micro-winemaking writ large, and as far from an industrial tank farm factory as you could expect to find. As Craggys own production steadily increases (and remember, most of their production is from fairly young vines) they are gradually reducing the amount of contract winemaking and bottling they are doing. Yes, of course theres an on-site bottling plant.
With our minds all comfortably bent out of shape by what we have just seen, we sit down to the afternoons blending exercise. Adrian has pulled five pinot samples from various barrels around the place, and set us the task working in pairs of blending up the best possible wine we can (as judged by his pinot-making team), with the selected wine to be served at the final dinner tomorrow night, and the winners each to receive a magnum of their own blend.
In addition to the usual near-incomprehensible series of letters and numbers specifically identifying each pinot sample neatly arranged on the table in front of us in 375ml screwcap bottles Adrian has craftily given each bottle a photo-label and a name. Teachers instructions and the names themselves gave a bit of a decent clue as to the quantities of each wine we should or shouldnt be including. So, the five wines, with broad hints as to their character as supplied by Adrian, were:
Sonny Bill Williams seemingly powerful but possibly a bit flighty?
Robbie Deans represents Old New Zealand, perhaps; the wines that were?
Gandhi apparently frail and aging, or is it ethereal and intellectual?
Michael Phelps something fundamental and extraordinary a backbone?
Stephanie Rice perfumed and gorgeous, but is it enough?
And so we reacquainted ourselves with beakers and pipettes, some for the first time since high school, and attempted to make a wine greater than the sum of its parts. For whats its worth, I found the Sonny Bill powerful but a bit blocky a palate wine rather than offering much nose. Deans was overwhelmingly spritzy to me bordering on faulty. It didnt seem to matter how little we blended in, it was the only thing I tasted. Gandhi was duller in colour, very earthy and apparently burgundy-like, but didnt seem to pair well with anything else. The Phelps was big and clean, with a fruity nose, solid palate and decent finish; perhaps the best all-rounder. Rice had an exotic nose, but needed something to beef it up a bit.
Glenn and I eventually assembled a 100ml sample comprising 30ml each of Sonny, Phelps & Rice, with 10ml Gandhi thrown in for complexity. We couldnt get Deans to work at all (a problem sporadically affecting the Wallabies too).
Dinner is at Pipis Pizzeria in Havelock North, a ten minute walk from our accommodation. The building itself is such a elephants-breath shade of vivid pink I briefly review my alcohol consumption for the day to check whether someone had poured a barrique of merlot into me without my noticing. But, no. This is definitely the colour. Tasty thin crust pizzas accompanied:
2007 Craggy Range Glasnevin Vineyard Riesling (Waipara) {screwcap, 9%, NZ$20}
The nose is very light, all floral and musk notes. It even smells worryingly sweet. The palate offers gently honeyed fruit and sweet white flower flavours. But still it remains all fruit and sugar (34g/l of sugar), I just dont find it has the acid to be convincing. A decent chill helps a cold bottle was more palatable; chilled down with asian food it would work. But Im not really convinced. Needs acid, man!
2006 Corte Giara Pinot Gris IGT (Delle Venezie) {screwcap, 12%}
The only foreign interloper of the weekend, which we wouldnt have ordered had the winelist been a bit more forthcoming about origin. Light matchstick aromas with tropical fruit. On the palate, theres some grey wet-stone flavours, but again this wine seems to have more sugar than the acid can handle. Good to see an Italian wine under a screwcap, even if it may have cost it the DOC moniker; but the wine itself is hardly a great advertisement for anything very much; an undemanding quaffer for a hot day at best.
2007 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) {screwcap, 13%}
Among all the many-named sauvignons Crawford makes, this is simply labelled Marlborough. The nose is all asparagus and gooseberry right in the mold. It does smell balanced and controlled it shouldnt put too many people off! The palate avoids the tinned-pea character that I often find; this has lively greenish fruits supported by plenty of acid, and if the back palate is pretty soft the wine still manages a decently persistent finish. An acceptable face of a sometimes extreme style.
2007 Alpha Domes Barrique-Fermented Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 14%}
A flinty stone and grapefruit nose. Oak aromas are pretty subtle for a wine that was both fermented and aged in the stuff. A dry palate, with very soft tannins. Defined by a crisp cut of acid and decent weight of mid-palate fruit, though lacks the depth to suggests its got any great aging future ahead of it. But its very good as a young un.
2005 Redmetal Vineyards Basket Press Merlot/Cab Franc (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 13%}
Lots of jammy, chewing gum aromas. All jubey and sweet-smelling. The palate does a little better, with supple red fruits, soft powdery tannins and minimal oak. Its still fairly light-bodied, although theres no suggestion of unripe or green fruit. The finish is pretty short, and overall its a slightly underwhelming experience. Drink now.
2008 Te Mata Woodthorpe Vineyard Gamay Noir (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 12%}
Given the Rotters group attitude to Beaujolais, this wine was always going to meet with a mixed reception. A light sour-cherry nose, with some of the bubble-gum characters you might expect. The palate is light and tight, smoky and tart, with an attractive stalkiness and acidity that suggests its a ideal match to tomato-based dishes. Although light-bodied, it still manages a decent length of finish. I enjoyed it others at the table were not so enthusiastic.
After a few cleansing ales nearby, most of us settled for an early night. Its a 9am start tomorrow, and there are wineries waiting.
See part 2 for September 12 & conclusions
September 9
The only good thing about arriving at Sydney airport at 5am is the discovery that with no traffic, and a modicum of traffic light co-ordination, it is possible to get around Sydney quite quickly. That aside, there are few benefits; yes check-in is quick. But everything else is closed. Even the exchange counters, with their usurious fees and hysterical exchange rates are desolate until 5.30. But I am not alone in my wait to depart on this commemorative trip, the 20th anniversary weekend away of the Noble Rotters monthly wine dinner group. Fellow Rotters Greg and Gordon & Sheli share my inhuman timetable as we wait for the immigration desks to open. Ah, the Department of Immigration. For years I have wanted to complete the nosily irrelevant field headed Occupation on their departure card with the word Celebrity, just to see the reaction, but given the lack of humour displayed by immigration officials (a requirement for the job apparently), I again suppress these anarchist tendencies and dutifully write Accountant. The trans-Tasman flight is smooth enough, but does confirm that Western civilisation is seen at its lowest ebb in the form of an economy seat airline breakfast.
Air New Zealand in Auckland display remarkable flexibility in their operations by agreeing to move me to the hour-earlier Wellington flight, in spite of the seventeen pages of rigorous conditions attached to my purchased e-ticket which state this is either impossible, or should have been done a week ago, but in any case will cost me four times my original paid price. This simple-but-generous act fails to melt-down their entire computer system (surprise!), and keeps our little travelling party together. The alfresco walk between international and domestic terminals finds us, Wizard-of-Oz-like, following the blue painted line in the brisk morning air. Such a contrast with Sydney, where the rapacious bandits who run the (necessary) shuttle bus have the gall to charge you for the service. Now, sitting at gate 30 we grow by the addition of Bruce, and as the departure becomes ever more delayed, Gordon charms the business class lounge staff into admitting all four of us as his guests so we can reduce their excess food supplies.
As we finally queue by the large window to board the plane, only an somnambulist could fail to notice the two ground crew busy changing the front wheels of the aircraft. In another departure from standard procedure, the pilot actually explains exactly what was happening. Surely rules are being broken here? Customarily waiting for paperwork covers everything from a drunken steward to triple engine failure.
In the end, the plane flies, the famously rough descent into Wellington wouldnt even spill a martini, and were en route to the hotel. It has apparently been raining, but the ground is dry; in this windiest city in the world I assume that the water never actually hits the earth but just flies sideways until something else intervenes. I wouldnt be surprised to learn that the citys fresh water reservoir is located on a hillside somewhere. Still, it is pretty calm for the duration of our stay.
With a bit of time to spare before the pre-dinner rendezvous, roomie Greg and I embark on matching shopping quests; I am trying to locate Michael Coopers annual Buyers Guide to New Zealand Wines, a book which proves rather difficult to procure due to its impending new vintage re-issue, and Greg has the only marginally easier task of buying enough golf balls to see him through a round at Cape Kidnappers later in the week (his luggage allowance presumably proving insufficient to allow supplies brought from home). In the end, we are both successful, and return after a harbourside pre-dinner drink (notes not taken, but it didnt auger well) in time to meet the rest of the Rotters in the lobby of the Duxton.
Here also awaits our host for the week Terry TJ Peabody, director of Craggy Range, who promises us a week not to be forgotten. With him is wife Kim, and Craggy marketer Rachael, part-guardian angel, part-shepherdess, who will see us through the nitty-gritty of the next days events.
The walkable dinner venue is the Matterhorn restaurant, which has picked up the most recent Cuisine> magazine gong for Best Restaurant in New Zealand. Over tasty but marginally unauthentic tapas, decent mains, and an excellent cheese plate, we sampled, from a seemingly endless number of bottles, the first of many highlights from the Craggy Range range.
2008 Craggy Range Avery Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) {screwcap, 13%}
A faintly candied and distinctly tropical nose. The palate is lavishly fruited, with a dash of residual sugar, surely. The acid is soft, the fruit blossoms richly in the mouth on the front palate, but fades quickly. The sweetness helps give it plenty of body, but theres little complexity here. An easy drinker.
2006 Craggy Range Calvert Vineyard Pinot Noir (Bannockburn/Central Otago) {screwcap, 14%
From a vineyard managed in a joint venture with Felton Rd. A youthful nose of supercharged cherry fruit, with a dark, nutty, almost bitter undertone, and a whiff of some molasses-like sweetness. Despite the florid fruitiness on the palate, theres an undercurrent of earthy structure. Ripe, with medium chalky tannins, and medium-weight and length, its a mostly front-palate wine that should develop some more interest with a few more years age.
2006 Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Sophia Merlot-Cab Franc (Hawkes Bay) {cork, 14%, NZ$60}
This is Craggys spiritual flagship, even if its not their priciest wine. The nose is fruity, with ripe, slightly sour raspberries, and little detectable oak. The dry, medium-weight palate combines fine powdery tannins with gawky fruit its clearly very young, but theres still a silky feel to the wine that suggests it will integrate beautifully. Its not a blockbuster (as youd expect from a wine taking Cheval Blanc as stylistic mentor), but still has plenty of length on the finish and depth right to the back of the palate. A long ager, surely. TJ very quickly decides one of the bottles is a bit scalped in nose and palate, and we have the inevitable discussion about cork and TCA. When theres enough solid evidence for the appropriate aging of reds under screwcap, Craggy will consider changing, but not before, thats the gist of it. Risks of reductiveness are an issue, along with the attitudes of consumers (especially given Craggys proportion of foreign on-premise sales of their top wines).
2004 Craggy Range Gimblett Gravels Le Sol Syrah (Hawkes Bay) {cork, 14.5%, NZ$90}
Red-black. Spicy warm-climate shiraz fruit, vanilla oak. Lots of chalky tannins on the palate, with ripe, almost caramel-rich fruit. Powerful, brazen even, but not grotesque at all. Beginning to integrate nicely, but actual evolution still seems a fair way off. Try it aged ten. Meanwhile, continue your weights training to lift that bottle!
2006 Craggy Range Aroha Vineyard Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$90}
This wine is made from selected plots of Craggys Te Muna Road vineyard. Dark, with a silky nose of earth and strawberry but overall an impression of depth. Rich yet reticent (de-stemmed) pinot fruit is framed by the finest chalky tannins, medium acidity and rich sophisticated mouthfeel. It is the structure which is most memorable, the fruit being only a component of this wine, rather than a feature. Tremendous length and depth. A privilege to taste.
September 10
At a respectably civilised hour on Wednesday morning, we board the bus for the trip to Martinborough. The view from the windows becomes ever more spectacular as we climb into the Rimutaka range. At times it seems as though the ever-narrowing road itself struggles to cling to the steep hillsides, massively thick with dense vegetation. To Australian eyes it appears incredibly lush, the bushes and trees piled high on the precipitous slopes, threatening to overwhelm the road at any moment.
Pretty much every house in Martinborough, it seems, has a vineyard attached. And plenty have anti-frost windmills as well. Its certainly a town that shows evidence of the affluence that selling in-demand wine brings. Our destination is Craggy Ranges Te Muna Road Vineyard, where vineyard manager Charles Simon awaits us, along with lunch. As we dawdle along the road through the vineyard, TJ gives us the word. The empty spaces near the gate are earmarked for the noble Alsatian varieties, with plans for an Edelzwicker-style field blend in the offing. The lower terrace of the vineyard is entirely sauvignon, the upper contains a little more sauvignon, but is mostly pinot vines, including those forming last nights Aroha cuvee as well as the standard Te Muna Road offering. There are also rows of Chardonnay, and Riesling laid out with stones beneath the vines. Altogether, were looking at nearly 100ha of vineyard, planted at 1.5 metre spacing, giving around 5000 vines per hectare.
At Charles stunningly-sited house, on a little outcrop jutting over the lower terrace with expansive views over the neat vine rows, the distant ribbon-river and the verdant hills behind (claimed by TJ to be unusually green at present), we got stuck into a picnic lunch, and a couple more wines.
2007 Craggy Range Ara Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
Nearly clear in colour. Always difficult to assess wine outdoors. This has enough aromas to cope. Tight gooseberries and lime. Dash of kiwi-fruit. Avoids overly tropical-fruit aspects. Theres plenty of acid on the light-bodied palate. Tart and interesting fruit with some classic pungency. Softened a little as it warmed up. Better than last nights wine. As ever, best drunk young.
2006 Craggy Range Te Muna Vineyard Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$60}
Always fun to drink a wine while standing in the middle of its source vineyard.* Classic new world pinot nose, with clean cherry-like fruits, although theres a little dark-chocolate element lurking underneath, promising more than just a fruit drink. On the palate, unexpected but welcome smoky-bacon flavours emerge in addition to the classic red fruits. Nicely dry, with soft chalky/silky tannins, a medium cut of acidity, medium weight body and even, persistent palate length. All to scale, and rather beguiling. Given that it was tasted outdoors as well, a very competent wine indeed. Has all the elements to suggest it should improve for 5 years at least.
*Theres a danger element too, if the wine disappoints
Just think, here we are drinking a wine that was grown only a few hundred yards over there.(gesturing)
Hmmm, yes. What a pity it doesnt travel
After lunch, Charles filled us in with a few mind-pummelling facts. The main threat to the vineyard is, predictably, frost. In the year before the frost-prevention spraying system was installed, he spent $230,000 hiring helicopters in attempts to prevent grape losses. Nowadays, the vineyard has a comprehensive, complicated, computer-controlled weather-warning programme. The anti-frost system sprays located throughout the vines consumes 400 litres of water per second, which means the near 100 megalitre dam can manage two consecutive nights of frost. Springtime is not for the faint-hearted. There were 9 frosts in 2007.
It wouldnt be a trip to New Zealand without a spot of unusual leisure activity. So, not counting a casual nearest-the-bucket informal golf competition Rons freak winning shot bested my chip by a mere metre or two it was left to nearby neighbour Lachie McLeod of McLeods Quad Adventures to provide two left-field activities.
The secret to successful clay pigeon-shooting is dont think to hard according to Lachie . Obviously, this will afford some Rotters a distinct natural advantage. Cover him with the sight and let him have it. So we blaze away. After our two rounds of five shots, Stephen and I have eight hits each; proud beneficiaries of non-functioning brains? I win the shoot-off by a single bird, but the subsequent group harbours a dark horse. Clearly demonstrating the effects of a misspent youth in arcade game parlours, Andrew blazes a near-perfect nine discs straight off to take the trophy. Our group then takes a turn on the quad bikes. The forty-five minute tour has us leaving the vineyard, briefly flirting with the public road, before entering the nearby McLeod property for some up-hill, down-dale bike work. It might seem like a noisy, smelly way to experience nature; although your feet get a lot wetter theyre easier to tame than a horse, and the views are just as good.
With smiles still on our faces, we head off to
Palliser Estate
a long time high flyer in Martinborough. 2008 is their 21st vintage, and proprietor Richard Riddiford hosts us before handing over to assistant winemaker Pip Goodwin for an in-depth look at the wines. The second label is called Pencarrow; we alternate through the tasting depending on variety. The wines came at a clip, so some notes are pretty cursory.
2007 Pencarrow Sauvignon Blanc (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13%, NZ$16}
Slightly sweaty, gooseberry-like/straw/asparagus nose. A near-dry (or seems so due to the high acidity) palate is fresh and tart, light-medium in body, and simple undemanding drinking. Saw this on sale in a Havelock bottle shop for NZ$12.
2007 Palliser Sauvignon Blanc (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
Theres greater depth to the nose of the estate wine. A riper green, if you like. Again, plenty of acidity offsets the imperceptible 3g/l of RS. The palate is quite flinty, though its still mostly fruit rather than earth. Theres some leesy complexity, a practice which is far less successful down in Marlborough than here in the north.
2007 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {screwcap, 12%, NZ$16}
Sweetly apple-like fruit on the nose, with a touch of sherbert. Its a very light fruity style, but even with 6g/l of RS I find the acid a bit soft, and the wine consequently a bit flabby in the way a true Kabinett is not.
2007 Palliser Pinot Gris (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$19}
Yellow-green. Moderate nose of typical soft pear-like aromas. The few grams of residual sugar here serve to thicken the texture, rather than add obvious sweetness. Why does so much pinot gris seem to resemble sewing machine oil? Low acid, light medium body. Somewhat nebulous. Drink up.
2006 Pencarrow Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13%, NZ$11}
This seemed to me to be quite developed for such a young wine. Anonymous white fruit aromas dominated by secondary barrel ferment characters (20% saw wild yeast), which made it taste a bit bilgey to me. A flat palate, a little grapefruit, then a short finish. Did something go wrong here? .
2007 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$28}
This is much better. Youthful and classy. Lovely oak notes, ripe chardy fruit. Dry palate, powdery tannins. Medium body and intensity, fresh cut of acid, creamy texture pretty much textbook cool-climate chardonnay.. Might age a couple of years, but see below
2000 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) {cork, 13.5%, NZ$40}
2002 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$40}
So, some older chardonnays are being cleared through the cellar door. But its not looking good. Cabbage-like aromas, vegetative flavours, funky and over-developed. Flat palates, non-existent finishes. The 2002 has the better palate, but a worse nose. Pass on both. In fairness, Richard did say that the vintage quality variation in Martinborough was as high as 50%, suggesting highly variable wines. A point to note; despite the different closures, you wouldnt say the aging profile of these two wines was significantly different.
2004 Palliser Estate Chardonnay (Martinborough) screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$40}
All of which made this wine such a surprise. The pick of the chardonnays. Nose at peak of development. Nuts and figs, integrated oak, all bottle aged to perfection. No malo in this wine. A medium-length, medium bodied white, with sustaining acid and a moderately complex dry finish. Needless to say, drink now!
2007 Pencarrow Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$22}
This wine is about in line with the price. Youthful, with sappy, stalky cherry fruit, its not unripe on the palate but lacks polish and refinement, with gritty tannins and a short, abrupt finish. Not hot, though, but hardly a wine worth seeking out.
2006 Palliser Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$35}
Youthful smoky strawberry and earth aromas. Fruity but not exuberant. On the palate theres a touch of not-distracting stalkiness, ripe pinot fruit, subtle oak, and a generally silky texture. Powdery tannins contribute to the medium-bodied weight and nicely balanced finish. Attractive wine, and although hardly a benchmark is certainly worth the 50% price premium over the Pencarrow. Of Pallisers typical 50,000-case production, about 15,000 is pinot of some kind.
After the tasting, and an inspection of the new 10,000 bottle cellar under construction on the property, we head off to Richards tasteful country manor for a couple of back vintages.
1997 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {cork, 12.5%}
Super aged Riesling nose of honey and citrus, with no hint of petroleum. Acid is balanced with sweetness, and the palate manages to remain aged yet fresh at the same time. So, the ugly duckling does become a swan! A second bottle was retrieved to prolong the enjoyment, but due to the romance of cork (TCA) it was undrinkable.
1999 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {cork, 12%}
2000 Palliser Riesling (Martinborough) {cork, 13.5%}
The results are not quite so delightful here. In fact the 99 is a little fresher than the 2000, and both do hint at the glories of the 97, but theres just enough creeping oxidative character to mute the enjoyment. Neither the acid nor sweetness is a problem, and the balance is good, its just that the whole package is beginning to tire a little. In isolation, theyd be fine, but beside the 97 Well chalk it up to the vintage, I guess.
We check in at the Martinborough Hotel, a four-star venue attempting to fit old-style accommodation into the Peppers-chain format. How cold does it get? there are heated bathroom floors At any rate, its enough to attract David, who finally makes his appearance, thus completing the Rotters roll-call.
Dinner tonight is at Wendy Crawfords The French Bistro, winner of the Cuisine Magazines Best Regional Restaurant award. Were ticking off the categories here, as the last evenings dinner will be at the winner of the Best Winery Restaurant Additional guests tonight include Charles and his wife, and Richard from Palliser, bearing a special bottle. Dinner is degustation style:
Smoked eel Rillettes to spread on local olive oil toast
2007 Palliser Estate Sauvignon Blanc (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
OK, technically a re-taste of this afternoons wine. Here the nose radiates gooseberry, lychee and a touch of asparagus. The light-medium weight palate is nicely built with ripe fruit, well-judged acid, moderately intense in its flavours, and with a quite persistent finish. The non-exaggerated style is a hit with the food as well, and shows very well in these circumstances. One of the best sauvignons of the trip.
Nelson Bay Crabcake
2007 Ata Rangi Craighall Chardonnay (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%}
Only the palest of straw-greens, this limpid wine presents a youthful nose of nuts, stones, and fine-grained French oak. The chalkily tannic palate offers a smoky, almost dusty mineral-like take on a Burgundian theme. Stone fruit flavours play second fiddle to structure, which impresses by its length and sense of scale. A noble, elegant wine of great distinction.
New Zealand Paua in risotto
2006 Martinborough Vineyard Jackson Block (Martinborough) {screwcap, 12.5%}
Well, the Rieslings are getting better. This has a steely, minerally, almost metallic nose, with a dash of glazed honey fruit. On the palate, the steeliness takes a backseat and citric flavours are predominant. With minimal sugar, theres an acidic austerity about this wine that verges on the powerful. Seems not to budge at all even as it warms up in the glass a lovely wine with a persistent finish. Im not brave enough to predict an aging curve, sorry.
Poussin et canard. Wendys duck and baby chicken springtime stew
2006 Palliser The Great Harry Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {magnum, cork, 14.5%, NZ$84/750ml}
This is the top-of-the-tree Palliser pinot, named after a special dog. Dont ask. For the technocrats, its a blend of clones 667 and 777, and spends 16 months in oak, one-third of it new. Its a mid-garnet colour, with perfumed, silky red berry fruit on the nose. The palate, despite a distinct tartness, nevertheless manages some rich plummy fruit flavours. Chalky tannins are pronounced but dont dominate the finish. Overall, the wine is a little raw and disjointed, but it doesnt seem to be anything time wont fix. So, a very good wine, but at such a price premium over the regular release that it becomes a non-starter for me.
2006 Kusuda Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {cork, 14%}
This has a tough act to follow, and it shows. Garnet, with a pungent medieval nose harbouring a hint of mustiness. Quite light on the palate, with soft powdery tannins. Acid is a bit spiky and the warm, almost hot finish all piles up on the front palate before collapsing quickly. A simple, even coarse wine for unthinking drinking.
2006 Ata Rangi Pinot Noir (Martinborough) {screwcap, 13.5%, NZ$65}
A ring-in. Id bemoaned the fact the scheduled trip to Ata Rangi was cancelled this afternoon due to time constraints. Rotters around the table conspired to buy this wine from the restaurant list, then pass a glass of it down to me, with the advice it was a complimentary house wine assembled by tonights providors. That was a dirty trick. Early last year, the Washington Post did an experiment to see whether art can transcend context. They had the famous virtuoso Joshua Bell, in jeans and T-shirt, play violin masterpieces Bach, and so forth on his multi-million dollar Stradivarius in a Washington metro station at 8am on a Friday morning to observe the result. Not a good one for cultural awareness, it has to be said, as he was routinely ignored by dozens of people. Rather shamefacedly, I have to report a similar oenological result. I judged the nose to be clean, with fairly simple, but ripe, red fruits. The palate I called monolithic, mainly because of the strong, if fine, tannins. As a house red it didnt seem so great. More fool me. Coming back to it half an hour later (and with no previous vintage experience of the wine), I can easily enough see why it might be a great wine in time. All the ingredients are there, but tightly bound; the general air of reticence disguises the potential well. The length of finish is there, even if its hard to pin it down precisely. I think I need to try an older vintage now. And stop making value judgements influenced by external factors
Profiterole chocolate clairs with French vanilla ice-cream
2006 Schubert Dolce Muller-Thurgau (Wairarapa) {375ml, cork, 9%}
A moderate gold colour. There are vaguely-confected, floury, pastry-like aromas here, which show bubble-gum notes in time. Thick on the palate not much acid but without depth. Its like a sponge-cake that didnt quite work, in all rather superficial. Sweet, yes, but without freshness. A gentle, short-term sweetie of no great note.
The restaurant is small but excellent. The food wasnt tricked up or over the top. When the room is full, the noise is overwhelming, but that seems to be the fashion in fine dining today, sadly. Despite that, its no-brainer choice (good for shooters, then) if you want to eat in Martinborough.
The Martinborough Hotel being within walking distance, we all made it safely home, I believe. Sleep is needed theres a long ride to the Gravels tomorrow.
September 11
At about 9.30, we farewell Martinborough, and board a coach for the northerly 3-hour ride to Hawkes Bay and the Gimblett Gravels. On the road again, Im still stunned by the vivid greenery of the New Zealand landscape. There are no shoulders to the road here; lush grass grows right to the very edge of the bitumen. You could easily image that after a few weeks with no traffic the road would disappear altogether, lost under a rich green carpet. The contrast with Australia physically so near could hardly be more vivid. Here, the vegetation normally seems perpetually exhausted, and gives up the creeping struggle while still metres away from the road. But New Zealand, with its generous rainfall, volcanic discharges, and collapsing hillsides at every turn, seems to be a land still in formation, or at the very least engaged in a constant process of evolution.
The bus driver interrupts my ruminations to announce that we are passing Peter Jacksons house. Far over to the left, remotely set against the backdrop of the majestic Ruahine Range, a distant festival of fantasy turrets protrudes above the trees. The mountains beyond are heavily draped with stormy clouds whose blackness is worthy of Mordor itself. It is as theatrical a setting as you could imagine. There is no sign of the Chief Hobbit himself, however. Further along the road, another drama is being acted out. We pass a police car pulled over with lights flashing. As we brake, then pass innocently by, we recognise the civilian car and find that TJ himself is the target of the officers fund-raising diligence / road safety enforcement.
After a pitstop in the culturally-confused town of Dannevirke, which seems uncertain whether it is located in New Zealand or Scandinavia, we take the road less travelled and leave Highway 2 for the more westerly and less populated Highway 50. In this way we bypass the main drag through Hastings, and instead arrive directly at Craggy Ranges bulk processing winery, located in the middle of their 100ha Gimblett Gravel vineyard.
His spirit and enthusiasm undimmed by his encounter with New Zealands finest, TJ is there to greet us and tell us about the Gimblett Gravels, the 700-ha plain of seemingly-useless stony earth revealed when a vast 1870 flood changed the course of the Ngaruroro River. The recent recognition that this district has received for its ability to successfully ripen Bordeaux varieties is reflected in the value of the soil; Craggy purchased land at NZ$5000/acre ten years ago, the same sells for NZ$190,000 today.
Craggys vineyard is not totally flat as you might expect; there are gentle contours among the rows, highlighted by the crushed oyster shells beneath every row. The combination of the poor stone soils and the warm climate (indeed the hills around the Gravels are the nearest thing to brown we will see in the New Zealand topography while here) is reckoned to take about 4 weeks off the ripening times, a factor which has a significant bearing on the consistency of the grapes produced from year to year. The vineyard is virtually organic; Craggy evidently have no intention of doing the paperwork required to obtain formal certification. More remarkably, this particular vineyard (about 80ha of which is planted) contained 86 blocks which are each harvested and fermented separately. Even more remarkably, and perhaps the most staggering thing I learnt on the entire trip was that, weather permitting, Craggy Range hand-harvest their entire 250haworth of New Zealand vineyards. That must be a near-unique achievement in the world of wine; maybe only Yquem, who may make up to 5 or 6 passes through their 100-ha Sauternes vineyard (to produce their A$800 bottles) would run it close. This, combined with the absolute commitment to bottling single vineyard wines under the Craggy Range label might be 70,000 cases of wine in a year, but they will be spread over nearly 40 labels must surely make them close to unmatched in the wine world. I could imagine the odd German producer coming close to that sort of production mix, but its extreme in every way.
We return to the winery complex in the middle of the vineyard. Here there are a series of plain, free standing buildings. There are no giant outdoor tanks, no bridges of stainless steel or PVC pipes filling the sky above our heads. Nothing. Just a series of non-related-looking grey buildings, clustered around a large, covered assembly of immaculate crushers and presses. A bit gobsmacked by all this (well, at least I am), we sit down for lunch in one of the winery buildings and, over a delicious cold repast ferried over from the Giants Winery Terrir restaurant, tuck into a couple of luncheon wines.
2007 Craggy Range C3 Kidnappers Vineyard Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 14%, NZ$19}
If this needs a foreign lookalike, then you could say its aimed at Chablis. The C3 is a reference to the three clones making up the wine. Clean, youthful aromas, rather flinty. Dry and lightish-bodied, theres plenty of acid, the barest minimum of oak, and stony fruits and nuts on the palate. Does finish a little warm though I would drink within 2-3 years.
2006 Craggy Range Gimblet Gravels Merlot (Hawkes Bay) {cork, 13.5%, NZ$40}
This is the kind of wine no-one seems to make in Australia certainly not from merlot, anyway. Ruby-coloured inky darkness, with refined plummy vanilla aromas. On the palate, chalky tannins frame well-proportioned muscular merlot fruit. The oak is understated, and the wine feels quite round and soft in the mouth, without ever becoming flabby or harsh. Medium-bodied in the end, with a moderate length finish, it just needs a little time to build some harmony.
After lunch, we embark on en eye-opening tour, hosted by winemaker Adrian Baker, who delivers his talk with wit drier than a 70s Chablis. The 2002-built winery was designed by architect John Blair, and comprises six separate wineries, each set up to deal with a particular style of grape, wine, or winemaking technique. This enables the winemaking team, led by Craggy Range co-founder and Master of Wine Steve Smith to focus their attention as much as possible on the wines, and devote less energy to winery administration. As all Craggys production (except the Sophia merlot blend) is made here, they are receiving grapes from Te Muna in Martinborough as well as from further afield in the South Island. Thus, the pinot cellar is set up for plunging of the cap, whereas the bordeaux cellar facilitates pumping over, in accordance with Craggys preferred winemaking approach. Theres a mix of equipment, including in the pinot cellar larges cuves assembled by the Burgundian suppliers to Romanee Conti. Barrel aging post-fermentation takes place in a series of cellar rooms, all independently temperature-controllable. Adrian reveals, staggeringly, that the average batch size of wines they make is only twelve barrels a function, no doubt, of all those vineyard blocks. The absence of pipes, cables and all the usual paraphernalia that accompanies even the neatest winery is largely explained by all the utilities being located in a single central facility, and running to each of the cellars underground. Inside the winery, spaced every few tanks, stands a stainless sentinel, into which hoses for water, gas, etc can be plugged. The attention to detail is phenomenal.
Yesterday, TJ told us that wed be visiting the worlds most advanced winery. At the time I thought he was gilding the lily a bit, but having seen all this, he may just have a point. This is micro-winemaking writ large, and as far from an industrial tank farm factory as you could expect to find. As Craggys own production steadily increases (and remember, most of their production is from fairly young vines) they are gradually reducing the amount of contract winemaking and bottling they are doing. Yes, of course theres an on-site bottling plant.
With our minds all comfortably bent out of shape by what we have just seen, we sit down to the afternoons blending exercise. Adrian has pulled five pinot samples from various barrels around the place, and set us the task working in pairs of blending up the best possible wine we can (as judged by his pinot-making team), with the selected wine to be served at the final dinner tomorrow night, and the winners each to receive a magnum of their own blend.
In addition to the usual near-incomprehensible series of letters and numbers specifically identifying each pinot sample neatly arranged on the table in front of us in 375ml screwcap bottles Adrian has craftily given each bottle a photo-label and a name. Teachers instructions and the names themselves gave a bit of a decent clue as to the quantities of each wine we should or shouldnt be including. So, the five wines, with broad hints as to their character as supplied by Adrian, were:
Sonny Bill Williams seemingly powerful but possibly a bit flighty?
Robbie Deans represents Old New Zealand, perhaps; the wines that were?
Gandhi apparently frail and aging, or is it ethereal and intellectual?
Michael Phelps something fundamental and extraordinary a backbone?
Stephanie Rice perfumed and gorgeous, but is it enough?
And so we reacquainted ourselves with beakers and pipettes, some for the first time since high school, and attempted to make a wine greater than the sum of its parts. For whats its worth, I found the Sonny Bill powerful but a bit blocky a palate wine rather than offering much nose. Deans was overwhelmingly spritzy to me bordering on faulty. It didnt seem to matter how little we blended in, it was the only thing I tasted. Gandhi was duller in colour, very earthy and apparently burgundy-like, but didnt seem to pair well with anything else. The Phelps was big and clean, with a fruity nose, solid palate and decent finish; perhaps the best all-rounder. Rice had an exotic nose, but needed something to beef it up a bit.
Glenn and I eventually assembled a 100ml sample comprising 30ml each of Sonny, Phelps & Rice, with 10ml Gandhi thrown in for complexity. We couldnt get Deans to work at all (a problem sporadically affecting the Wallabies too).
Dinner is at Pipis Pizzeria in Havelock North, a ten minute walk from our accommodation. The building itself is such a elephants-breath shade of vivid pink I briefly review my alcohol consumption for the day to check whether someone had poured a barrique of merlot into me without my noticing. But, no. This is definitely the colour. Tasty thin crust pizzas accompanied:
2007 Craggy Range Glasnevin Vineyard Riesling (Waipara) {screwcap, 9%, NZ$20}
The nose is very light, all floral and musk notes. It even smells worryingly sweet. The palate offers gently honeyed fruit and sweet white flower flavours. But still it remains all fruit and sugar (34g/l of sugar), I just dont find it has the acid to be convincing. A decent chill helps a cold bottle was more palatable; chilled down with asian food it would work. But Im not really convinced. Needs acid, man!
2006 Corte Giara Pinot Gris IGT (Delle Venezie) {screwcap, 12%}
The only foreign interloper of the weekend, which we wouldnt have ordered had the winelist been a bit more forthcoming about origin. Light matchstick aromas with tropical fruit. On the palate, theres some grey wet-stone flavours, but again this wine seems to have more sugar than the acid can handle. Good to see an Italian wine under a screwcap, even if it may have cost it the DOC moniker; but the wine itself is hardly a great advertisement for anything very much; an undemanding quaffer for a hot day at best.
2007 Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough) {screwcap, 13%}
Among all the many-named sauvignons Crawford makes, this is simply labelled Marlborough. The nose is all asparagus and gooseberry right in the mold. It does smell balanced and controlled it shouldnt put too many people off! The palate avoids the tinned-pea character that I often find; this has lively greenish fruits supported by plenty of acid, and if the back palate is pretty soft the wine still manages a decently persistent finish. An acceptable face of a sometimes extreme style.
2007 Alpha Domes Barrique-Fermented Chardonnay (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 14%}
A flinty stone and grapefruit nose. Oak aromas are pretty subtle for a wine that was both fermented and aged in the stuff. A dry palate, with very soft tannins. Defined by a crisp cut of acid and decent weight of mid-palate fruit, though lacks the depth to suggests its got any great aging future ahead of it. But its very good as a young un.
2005 Redmetal Vineyards Basket Press Merlot/Cab Franc (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 13%}
Lots of jammy, chewing gum aromas. All jubey and sweet-smelling. The palate does a little better, with supple red fruits, soft powdery tannins and minimal oak. Its still fairly light-bodied, although theres no suggestion of unripe or green fruit. The finish is pretty short, and overall its a slightly underwhelming experience. Drink now.
2008 Te Mata Woodthorpe Vineyard Gamay Noir (Hawkes Bay) {screwcap, 12%}
Given the Rotters group attitude to Beaujolais, this wine was always going to meet with a mixed reception. A light sour-cherry nose, with some of the bubble-gum characters you might expect. The palate is light and tight, smoky and tart, with an attractive stalkiness and acidity that suggests its a ideal match to tomato-based dishes. Although light-bodied, it still manages a decent length of finish. I enjoyed it others at the table were not so enthusiastic.
After a few cleansing ales nearby, most of us settled for an early night. Its a 9am start tomorrow, and there are wineries waiting.
See part 2 for September 12 & conclusions