New Zealand, Vol. 3

After enjoying the beautiful, windy city of Wellington, we set off, with our host Paul, for a visit to New Zealand's largest wine producing area, Marlborough. Marlborough vineyards comprise 60% of New Zealand's wine production and is best known for Sauvignon Blanc, put on the map by it's international brand Cloudy Bay.

Luckily, the wind was placid in Wellington as we set off in our 12 seater Cessna for the town of Picton. I have to admit that I had never been on a plane as small, never a pilot so young and never landed on a patch of asphalt in the middle of a grass field.  But overall the flight was dramatic as we flew out of the north island, over the straights and dived between the green mountains of the south island and finally landed at Picton. We rented our car and made our way into Blenheim for coffee. Our first stop after coffee, was Fromm Winery where we were greeted by winemakers Hätsch Kalberer and William Hoare. Hätsch showed us the vineyard and talked to us about their philosophy of farming. The vineyard was right in the middle of bloom and from all indications it looked like a good one. Apparently this part of the world paralleled the Northern Willamette Valley in 2005 with a very poor fruit set. There is no  more critical time of year, save harvest, than bloom and growers and winemakers always breath a sigh of relief with good weather conditions during the fruit set.

Hätsch proceeded to show us how the vineyard was expressed in the winery with a barrel tasting of the 2006 Pinot Noirs from the Clayvin and Fromm vineyard. The Clayvin was more modern in style with black fruits and a long, rich texture. We tasted the same wine from several different barrels as Hätsch helped me understand a little bit more about how different coopers influence wine, something that could take a life time to learn. The fruit from the Fromm vineyard also displayed black fruit character, but with an underlying gamy aroma. The wine was leaner in a Burgundian way and built for aging.

This was one of my favorite visits yet. As good as the wines were, the fascinating part was to get another winemaker's perspective on making Pinot Noir. Hätsch has his own perception of what makes great wine and like any good winemaker, I didn't feel like it was fixed in stone. He said something that is so simple, but many people don't appreciate: the greatest wines are the wines that the last glass is the best. I know exactly what he meant. I loved our visit to Fromm because Hätsch was so generous in sharing his perspective. The wines were also very good, with a lean, Burgundian like Chardonnay that I had to have a bottle of and a gorgeous Spatlase Riesling that tasted more like Mosel, save the minerality, than any I have had.

After lunch it was time to head to Seresin Estate. Seresin practices bio dynamic farming on a large scale and yet makes wines like a small producer. We were greeted by General Manager MJ Loza who turned us over to the vineyard manager Colin Ross. is a big strapping Australian who taught me more about biodynamic farming in one day than I have learned in several years. Colin toured the various vineyard blocks and we were fascinated to see how they were farming, especially on one hillside Pinot block that was very stressed because they were having a hard time pushing water up to the top of the hill. I would have like to have seen a wine from that particular block isolated on it's own. I am sure it would have been very concentrated as you could almost feel these vines struggle in the dry Marlborough sunshine.

Colin proceeded to show us all the organic practices of the vineyard and let us smell the buried chamomile that is one of the ingredients in the tea that forms the vineyard spray. I can't say that I believe in biodynamic principles, the particulars of biodynamics, but I can say that the attention to detail in farming is a great benefit. I can also say that Colin was a very passionate proponent of this style of farming and the light footprint and sustainability is very appealing. At Seresin, biodynamics is part of the natural cycle of the place, seeming to just be a part of their culture on the way to reaching their goal of producing great wine.  I am sure that Colin will produce some great grapes for this vineyard as his farming is well along the way.

We returned to the cellar door and tasted some of Seresins beautiful white wines and had a quick taste from the barrel with assistant winemaker Carlos. I wish we could have spent more time with him, but Paul had to catch the plane back to Wellington and we were very pressed for time. The general manager MJ stepped in and had one of the guys run Paul back to Picton in short order, while we were off the other direction to explore the wines of Nelson.

What people at Seresin. You really can't say enough about the reception you receive in this part of the world. Not only did Colin spend the better part of an afternoon touring the vineyards with us, but MJ's offer to transport Paul and Jan's great restaurant recommendations for Nelson made us feel so appreciative. More on the perfect lunch we had in the wine country around Nelson later. Thanks Jan, MJ, Colin and Carlos for the great hospitality. Stay tuned as we make our way into the vineyards of Nelson and meet a Yank from Napa....