Central Otago pinot noir now has an international reputation, but 20 years ago the idea was just a sparkle in a few people's eyes. Charmian Smith recalls when vineyards were found only in a few small pockets of the barren landscape and North Islanders scoffed at growing wine so far south.
Central Otago winemakers have a reputation for stubbornness and determination, something well earned, especially by those who experimented in the 1980s. They faced incredulity from the rest of the industry and were told by locals their vineyards on the barren soils laid waste by rabbits were a waste of good merino land.
The sceptics had no experience of the hot days and cold nights, hot summers, cold winters and long dry autumns of the semi-continental climate, the arid, bony soils, the brilliant light or the longer hours of southern summer sunshine that contribute to the distinctive regional character.
Despite being on the 45th parallel which runs near Gibbston and Lowburn - in the northern hemisphere it runs through Bordeaux and Hermitage in France, Piedmont in Italy and Oregon in the US, all of which produce great wine - Central Otago is still the southernmost wine region in the world, further south than any in South America or Tasmania.
When I first came to see what was happening in Central Otago wine in November 1988, there was a lot of enthusiasm and hope, a few bottles of wine, and half a dozen pocket-sized vineyards: Alan Brady at Gibbston Valley; Verdun Burgess and Sue Edwards at Black Ridge near Alexandra; Rolfe and Lois Mills on the shores of Lake Wanaka at Rippon; Bill Grant of William Hill (now Shaky Bridge) at Alexandra; the Hay brothers' newly planted Chard Farm at Gibbston; Sycamore Hill above the Shotover and, at Speargrass Flat near Arrowtown, Ann Pinckney, of Taramea, in whose tiny winery many of the early wines were made.
Taramea and Sycamore Hill have since closed, partly because their sites were too cool and frost-prone - an early lesson about the importance of site selection in the region's numerous valleys varying between 200 and about 450 metres in altitude, separated and sheltered by mountain ranges.
Experimentation and learning from mistakes was essential as the only available advice on grape-growing and wine-making pertained to other regions.
Most industry experts didn't believe that grapes could grow, let alone ripen, this far south, and if they did it certainly would not be economic, or only tourism would keep the wine industry afloat.
Little did they realise the tenacity of the pioneers. They founded the Southern Winegrowers Group in 1984, the forerunner of Central Otago Winegrowers. They had advice from Dr Rainer Eschenbruch, scientist winemaker at the government viticulture and winemaking research establishment in Te Kauwhata in the North Island, who made their first experimental wines.
Unlike other wine-producing regions in New Zealand, which were established by people already in the wine industry, the first modern vineyards in Central Otago were planted by amateurs, wine lovers who had visited Europe and didn't see why grapes couldn't grow here.
The first professionals to come to Central specifically to look for vineyard land were the young Hay brothers, who established Chard Farm in 1988. Rob Hay, who trained as a winemaker in Germany, found an orchard which occupied a warm, sheltered site on the banks of the Kawarau and he and Greg turned it into a vineyard. Rob Hay still runs Chard Farm and Greg Hay moved down the road to establish Peregrine in the 1990s.
In the early 1990s a second wave of vineyards was planted, among them Olssens, Felton Road, Mt Difficulty, Carrick and Akarua in Bannockburn, Kawarau Estate, Mount Michael, Packspur and Pisa Range along the western shores of Lake Dunstan, Quartz Reef at Bendigo, Peregrine, Nevis Bluff and Waitiri Creek at Gibbston, Mount Maude in Wanaka, and several smaller ones around the Alexandra basin.
These produced their first vintages in the late 1990s, and have been followed by numerous plantings large and small in most parts of the region, and even in North Otago's Waitaki Valley, which is a separate appellation.
Central Otago is now the fourth-largest wine region in the country, after Marlborough, Hawkes Bay and Gisborne, with 1522ha of producing vineyard, of which 1196ha are planted in pinot noir. Last year, 9495 tonnes of grapes were harvested in the region, according to Winegrowers New Zealand statistics.
However, most producers are still small. Only Chard Farm and Mt Difficulty produce more than 200,000 litres, but grapes are sold to larger companies such as Pernod Ricard and Villa Maria who also make Central Otago pinots.
Despite the cynicism of northerners, the early Central Otago growers took encouragement from the fact that Romeo Bragato, government viticultural adviser in 1895, had said the region was "pre-eminently suitable" for growing wine, and French gold-miner, horticulturist and vigneron Jean Desire Feraud had grown grapes and made wine at Clyde in the 1860s and 1870s.
But for more than a century, Central was known for its well-flavoured fruit - apricots, peaches, nectarines, cherries, plums, apples and pears, and merino sheep, producing fine wool, grazed the hills above the old gold-mining tailings.
Various inconclusive grape-growing trials had been done by government agencies in the 1960s and 1970s, but these were mostly with hybrids that were fashionable at the time, rather than classic vinifera varieties, or on unsuitably cool sites.
In the 1980s Brady and others planted many varieties to see what would do well in the region. Gut feeling was that riesling and sparkling wines would be suitable, but in reality it took several years for growers and winemakers to get to grips with cropping levels and the high acidity of riesling.
The first serious riesling that lived up to early hopes about its potential was Felton Road Dry Riesling 1997 - powerful, intense, luscious and long, when I tasted it in February 1998. Quartz Reef makes a fine methode traditionelle, but apart from Amisfield's Arcadia and Rippon's Emma which was only produced in 1993, 1994 and 1995, sparkling winemaking has not taken off here.
Gewurztraminer was thought to be promising in the early days and a tasting late last year of Black Ridge 1988 Gewurztraminer revealed a distinguished old wine that was still very drinkable. There are a handful of delicious gewurztraminers produced in the region each year, but it has not been a popular variety to grow, with only 12ha planted. Amisfield has a small trial planting of chenin blanc that shows great promise.
Most of the early plantings of merlot and cabernet sauvignon have been pulled out but luckily pinot noir showed its potential early. Gibbston Valley Pinot Noir 1990 was judged top pinot noir in the 1991 Easter Show.
British wine writer and keynote speaker at this year's celebration Jancis Robinson happened to taste it and sent Brady an encouraging fax, saying it was "an absolute star" and that "despite a Latour 1959 and other wines, knowledgeable palates kept going back to the Gibbston pinot".
Now, of course, pinot noir is indisputably the region's flagship and viticulturists and winemakers have put a lot of effort into it, perhaps at the expense of white wines. Chardonnay (66ha are planted in the region) can be distinctive, if unsung. Instead, pinot gris and riesling appear to be fighting out which, if either, will take the crown in the white stakes.
Pinot gris is by far the most planted white (136ha) and supporters praise the depth and weight of the variety which makes fragrant, mouthfilling, food- and user-friendly wines in the region. The first pinot gris to make an impression was the Nevis Bluff 1998, dry and full-bodied with a touch of spice and peachy fruit. Now there are numerous fragrant pinot gris produced here.
Riesling supporters, perhaps more rarefied, talk about the ability of riesling, like pinot noir, to express the terroir - the soil, climate and other aspects of vineyard and region. From the 58ha of riesling in Central are now made excitingly intense, flinty rieslings with fruit that dances in the mouth and racy, lingering finishes.
The turning point in the reputation of Central Otago wines, at least in the rest of New Zealand, was probably 1998. Although a few awards had been trickling in since 1989, in that year a slew of gold and silver medals and trophies (including a trophy for sauvignon blanc) were awarded to Central Otago wines at several national competitions. By that time the vineyard area had grown from 19ha in 1990 to 210ha in 1998, still just a fraction of the 1522ha it is today.
Although there is little suitable vineyard land near Queenstown itself, tourism to the international resort has had a major influence on the Central Otago wine industry and vice-versa.
Alan Brady opened Gibbston Valley winery and restaurant in December 1990, only the fourth winery restaurant licence in the South Island, and in 1995 he opened a cellar cave and offered tours.
"I think what tourism did for us more than sell bottles of wine was to help identify us as a region. A lot of the visitors we had at Gibbston Valley were Aucklanders or North Islanders coming for the ski season or summer holidays, who had never heard of Central Otago as a wine region," he said.
He thought if the landscape of vineyards was incorporated in the region's publicity material people would realise there was a summer season as well as skiing, because vines were identified with sunny climates.
"It's hard to quantify the influence then or now of tourism. It's part of what we are because we are in a tourist region and we are now part of the tourist landscape," he said.
In 1997, Brady left Gibbston Valley to concentrate on his own, smaller vineyard and winery, Mount Edward. Travelling overseas to promote his wine in the past year or two, he has been impressed with people's knowledge of Central Otago and its wine.
"That's an amazing achievement. It's been achieved largely because we've been united as a region and we've pulled together, and also because of our geographic isolation from the other wine regions. We used to see that as a disadvantage but in a strange way it has worked to our advantage, in that we are seen as a rugged bunch of people who exist way down at the bottom, and we've never really leaned on anyone else.
"We've always done things together and found our own solutions and sought advice and learnt from other pinot noir regions off-shore more than anything. We travelled and people from other pinot regions came here. We learned very quickly and we adapted quickly and also acknowledged we had to do it well and there was no point in taking short cuts. It would be wrong to think we are there; we're not, we are still learning - from growing to winemaking to selling it to understanding the whole weird process."
One of the keys to the success of Central Otago as a wine region is the winemakers and viticulturists. Few leave the area, although some play musical chairs, moving from one winery to another as new ones open or others move on. A few, like Blair Walter, of Felton Road, have been at the same winery since the beginning.
Many of them, like Rudi Bauer (now of Quartz Reef), Grant Taylor (now of Valli, but formerly of Gibbston Valley) and Duncan Forsyth (formerly at Chard Farm and now of Mount Edward) have been in the region since the early days and made wine for other labels besides their own.
Several winemakers specialise in contract winemaking, in particular Dean Shaw, of Central Otago Wine Company (founded in 1997), and Carol Bunn, of Vinpro (established in 2004). Viticulturists are less well known, but some, including Robin Dicey and Greg Hay, have also worked with many growers establishing new vineyards around the region.
They have built an extraordinary knowledge and experience of the vineyards throughout the region, which they are generally happy to share with younger or newer winemakers.
Several of the second generation are now returning to the area and taking over vineyards planted by their parents, among them Nick Mills, his wife Jo, sister Charlie and brother David of Rippon, David Grant, of Shaky Bridge (formerly William Hill), Matt Dicey and his brother James, of Mt Difficulty, Sarah-Kate and Dan Dineen at Maude, Brook and Lucie Lawrence at Aurum, and Sean Brennan, of Brennan.
