Putting down roots

Grapes under netting at Clos Ostler, near Duntroon in the Waitaki Valley. Photos by Charmian Smith.
Grapes under netting at Clos Ostler, near Duntroon in the Waitaki Valley. Photos by Charmian Smith.
"To grow grapes down here needs a bit of southern grit, but we've got recognition" - Jim Jerram.
"To grow grapes down here needs a bit of southern grit, but we've got recognition" - Jim Jerram.
General manager Renzo Mino outside the Pasquale Kurow Winery.
General manager Renzo Mino outside the Pasquale Kurow Winery.
Pasquale Kurow Winery general manager Renzo Mino helps sort the first of the grapes in this year...
Pasquale Kurow Winery general manager Renzo Mino helps sort the first of the grapes in this year's harvest. Photo by Rebecca Ryan.

After early ups and downs, wine growing in the Waitaki Valley is realising its potential, writes Charmian Smith.

A trip up the Waitaki Valley recently - my first for a couple of years - was a chance to taste wines at Ostler's Vintner's Drop in Kurow, where wine from other Waitaki producers can also be tasted, and at Pasquale's cellar door at Kurow Winery.

Although only in its 10th vintage, wine-growing in the Waitaki has already been through a boom and bust cycle, not helped by the global financial crisis.

The flurry of planting around 2004 was driven by Waitaki Valley Estates, the brainchild of the late Howard Paterson, who was subdividing and selling vineyard land in Grants Rd, Otiake.

Some of those vineyards have already been abandoned or pulled up, perhaps because of underinvestment or a failure to understand the wine industry.

The adage that the best way to make a small fortune is to start with a large one and plant a vineyard still holds true in many cases.

However, the area attracted some respected winemakers: John Forrest of Forrest Estate, Steve Smith of Craggy Range (who has since pulled out), Grant Taylor of Valli, Jeff Sinnott of Ostler, and Michelle Richardson of Waitaki Braids, who believed the cool climate and limestone soils of the north-facing hillsides had potential to produce fine and distinctive wine.

Such wine is not produced in a year or two.

It takes time for the vines to mature and their roots to reach the limestone, and for the viticulturists and winemakers to understand the nature of the vineyards, climates and grapes of this particularly distinct, cool region, but now the wines are beginning to show the promised subtleties.

There are climatic difficulties, admits Jim Jerram, of Ostler, one of the first to plant a vineyard on the north-facing limestone slopes between Duntroon and Kurow.

''To grow grapes down here needs a bit of southern grit, but we've got recognition,'' he said.

The region produces wines that are distinct stylistically because the grapes are slow-maturing and slow-ripening because of the cool summers and extended autumns, unlike the hotter Central Otago summers, he says.

Jim and Ann Jerram and Ann's brother Jeff Sinnott have established an enviable reputation for their Ostler wines, which can be found in some prestigious places around the world, including Berry Bros and Rudd in London.

Besides Clos Ostler, the original vineyard in Racecourse Rd, Duntroon, Ostler sources grapes from Lakeside Vineyard on gravels above Lake Waitaki and Blue House vineyard on limestone-influenced gravels between the two.

Mr Jerram has new plans afoot as well, including planting new clones of chardonnay, which appear to do very well in the limestone soils.

Over 10 vintages, he and winemaker Mr Sinnott have achieved a harmony that can be tasted in many of the Ostler wines.

The global financial crisis had a silver lining in that it enabled (or forced) them to release their wines later.

The extra time in bottles has allowed the wines to integrate and develop complexity, something necessary with fine wines from cool climates.

Although many of the early planters focused on pinot noir, the aromatic varieties, riesling and pinot gris, showed early promise, and this is fulfilled in the current releases, the perfumed, fresh Ostler Blue House Riesling 2012, the beautifully balanced, fatter Lakeside Riesling 2012, the outstanding Audrey's Pinot Gris 2011, and the powerful Lakeside Pinot Gris 2012.

The pinot noirs have a certain savoury minerality and elegance rather than the overt fruitiness of Central pinot, the Caroline Pinot Noir 2011 being charming, elegant and silky with a long aftertaste.

• A few kilometres east of Kurow is the large green Kurow Winery and cellar door, home of Pasquale Viticultura.

Italian Antonio Pasquale, who lives in the Bay of Islands, planted vineyards on Riverside farm up the Hakataramea Valley in 2002.

They produced some promisingly fine wine, but the vineyards and the farm on which they were planted have been sold.

Its last vintage was 2011.

It was uneconomic to produce wine there as it was frost-prone, according to manager and viticulturist Renzo Mino.

Now, Pasquale's vineyards are on the river flats around the winery.

Although the operation was advertised for sale recently, it had been withdrawn as they were just testing the market, Mr Mino said.

Although Kurow Winery is well-equipped and the only winery in the region, it has had a series of winemakers and managers over its six vintages, which has not allowed winemaking experience of the grapes and their particular characteristics to be developed.

Nevertheless, there are some noteworthy wines, particularly in the aromatic varieties, such as the focused, minerally Waitaki Riesling 2010, which is just coming into its stride, the perfumed, slightly nutty Hakataramea Gewurztraminer 2011, the floral Waitaki Gewurztraminer 2011 and the powerful Hakataramea Pinot Gris 2011.

Pasquale also makes some stylish dessert wines, a nutty, textural, not overly sweet Passito 2012 for which ripe grapes were left, Italian style, to dry on trays before pressing, and Shrivel 2011, a fully botrytised wine, which is apricoty, intense, and elegant.

There's a light, crisp, peppery Kurow Village Pinot Noir 2011 and a more serious, harmonious, intense Waitaki Pinot Noir 2010 with a hint of mineral and pepper.

 

 


If you go

 

• For more information visit:

www.ostlerwine.co.nz

www.pasquale.co.nz


 

 

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