Fine French wine has always been his model; he tells the gathered trade members that the '09 Coleraine has been likened to a Second Growth Bordeaux.
His first experience in the wine industry was in the British wine trade in the 1960s and helping with the vintage in Bordeaux, France in 1965. Back in New Zealand in 1966, he visited Hawkes Bay and tasted the 1966 McWilliams cabernet in barrel.
With the tastes of European wines fresh in his mind, he says, he didn't believe the aromatics and floral rather than fruit notes. It impressed him and he vowed to go into wine production.
It took eight years and looking at 150 properties to find a site that suited, but eventually he bought Te Mata, because its vineyards were on slopes, he said.
"If I know anything, I know all the best vineyard sites in the world are on slopes, which is now becoming known in New Zealand - northeast facing slopes that get the sun early and drain frost and cold air."
Bordeaux is often regarded as flat but the best producers, such as Chateau Lafite, Chateau La Tour, Chateau Ausonne and Chateau d'Yquem, have sloping vineyards on knolls, which gives the edge to aromas and palate, a nervosity, like a racehorse prancing on its toes, he said.
Buck is fizzing about the 2009 Coleraine ($75). It's the best Te Mata has made in 25 years, he says. Certainly, it is rich and mouthfilling with impeccable structure, but still tight and young.
A collector's wine, it will cellar well for 10-15 years, developing more complexity as the years go by. The '09 Awatea ($33), a popular restaurant wine, is fragrant, mouthfilling and fresh with a silky texture. It will develop well for 5-10 years.
The '05 is drinking well now, having developed lovely fragrant, spicy cigar-box aromas, characteristic of mature Bordeaux.
The food-friendly Cape Crest 2010 ($27) is a restrained, dry, barrel-fermented sauvignon blanc, fresh, textural and quite different from the usual Marlborough style.
Zara Viognier 2009 ($27), named after Buck's granddaughter, is fragrant, mouthfilling, and slightly nutty with an intensity balanced by a crisp acidity.
Elston Chardonnay 2009 ($33) is a fragrant, stylish wine, with a restrained hint of smoky oak, mouthfilling intensity, texture and length all supported by a fine acidity.
John Buck says New Zealand has the edge over countries such as Australia and South Africa when it comes to producing fine chardonnay (as opposed to mass-market wine) as our cooler climate produces a balanced acidity which is characteristic of fine French white Burgundy (chardonnay).
Te Mata also produces a range of varietals from its Woodthorpe vineyard which I saw on special at Centre City New World at the weekend - excellent value at around $15.
• For charity
In aid of the Christchurch earthquake, Te Mata is selling a 9-litre Salmanazar of the 2009 Coleraine by silent tender during March, with Te Mata putting in a first tender of $1500.For more information, check the website, www.temata.co.nz
