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The wine pictured in the glass urn. / Credit: Juan Manuel Román
Archaeologists have found an urn of wine that is more than 2,000 years old, making it the “oldest wine ever discovered,” researchers said in a new study. The glass funerary urn was found in a Roman tomb in Carmona, Spain, that archaeologists first uncovered in 2019.
A team of chemists at the University of Cordoba recently identified the wine as having been preserved since the first century, researchers said in a study published June 16 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. The discovery bested the previous record held by a Speyer wine bottle discovered in 1867 that dated back to the fourth century.
The urn was used in a funerary ritual that involved two men and two women. As part of the ritual, the skeletal remains of one of the men was immersed in the wine. While the liquid had acquired a reddish hue, a series of chemical tests determined that, due to the absence of a certain acid, the wine was, in fact, white.
“At first we were very surprised that liquid was preserved in one of the funerary urns,” Juan Manuel Román, the city of Carmona’s municipal archaeologist, said in a news release.
Despite millennia having passed, the tomb had been well-sealed, and its conditions were therefore extraordinarily intact, protected from floods and leaks, which allowed the wine to maintain its natural state, researchers said. “Most difficult to determine was the origin of the wine, as there are no amples from the same period with which to compare it,” the news release said. Still, it was no coincidence that the man’s remains were found in the wine. According to the study, women in ancient Rome were prohibited from drinking wine.
“It was a man’s drink,” the release said. “And the two glass urns in the Carmona tomb are elements illustrating Roman society’s gender divisions in its funerary rituals.”
Wine News by Mike Desimone and Jeff Jenssen – Robb Report – also known as the World Wine Guys, are wine spirits, food and travel writers, educators and hosts.
Sparkling Wine Will Break Free of the Holidays
The Wine Press has been saying this for years, but it looks like consumers are finally embracing the idea that Champagne and other sparkling wines are not only for special occasions and holidays. Expect to see a lot more of your friends ordering a glass of Champagne or popping a bottle open at home at regular dinners and get-togethers, not just celebrations.
The Coming Bubble Boom will have people looking beyond Champagne
RAY MASSEY/GETTY
The increased demand for sparkling wine means that we’re all going to be drinking a vriety of styles and regions, including Spanish Cava; Italian Franciacorta, Trentodoc and Prosecco; and California sparkling. Wine bars, restaurants and shops will also be offering more renditions of ‘pet-nat’, a natural sparkler than can be from anywhere wine is made.
Rosé is Going Haute
Drinking Rosé throughout the year has gone from tend to permanent status and we will see more and more premium offerings entering the market. We’ve been expecting to see luxury competition for pioneers in the space such as Domaine Ott, Château d’Esclans and Gérard Bertrand for some time, and LVMH’s major investment in Château Minuty earlier this year sealed the deal as far as we’re concerned. Expanded – and pricier – Rosé selections are on their way to a restaurant near you.
Expect Italy to Heat Up the Auction Block
WILK
We tapped Nick Pegna, Sotheby’s global head of wine and spirits, for his thoughts, and he in turn polled some of the auction house’s younger specialists to see what they’re hearing about new bright spots in the wine sphere. According to Pegna, Piedmont is on its way up in the auction world, so look to see more Barolo and Barbaresco. We’ve been hearing a lot about (and tasting plenty of) Brunello as well, so keep an eye on Italy’s three B’s.
Connoisseurs Will Have Better Options for Low and No-Alcohol Wines
As Dry January, Sober October, ‘Mindful Drinking’ and well, just drinking less persist in their upward climb, no and low alcohol wine will continue to grow as well. Many people stop drinking temporarily for numerous reasons that include pregnancy, medication regimes or training for a marathon or triathlon, yet they still want to enjoy the social aspect of having a glass of wine with friends.
Although at the onset the category was flooded with low quality dealcoholized bulk wine, we are seeing a growth in single vineyard offerings from well-known regions.
You’ll Be Hearing More About Carbon Footprints
The future of the wine industry is in peril due to rising summer temperatures and unstable weather patterns, and many producers are taking it upon themselves to sound the alarm and become changemakers. Expect to see an increase in the number of back labels talking about sustainability, low water utilization, and regenerative farming, and don’t be surprised when even top icon wines start using lighter-weight bottles to reduce the impact of freight shipping and material usage.
Younger wine drinkers are driving the movement toward transparency on this front.
White Wine’s Upswing Is Nigh
While it was thought for many years that serious wine drinkers only drink red wine, it is now obvious that for multiple reasons white wine is finally starting to be treated with equal respect. A lot of attention is being paid to white Burgundy, Napa, and Sonoma Chardonnay, the whites of the Rhône Valley, and Riesling and other aromatic varieties from Germany, Austria, Alsace, and Alto Adige in Italy. And we’re seeing a rise in interest in premium white wine from Spain, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, New Zealand, and other Italian regions. As much as we love our steak and Cabernet Sauvignon, since we all are moving toward a lighter style of eating—at least occasionally—we are going to see our wine choices change to match.
Two Words Collide – June NZ House & Garden
If you can’t decide between wine or beer, check out Garage Project’s Savoir Faire Pinot Noir Raspberry ’18. It’s a beer/wine hybrid, made from hand-harvested Marlborough pinot noir grapes, lightly crushed, added to a specially brewed malt wort and allowed to ferment for a week before being aged in oak wine barrels then rested on fresh raspberries. 750ml $35 from garageproject.co.nz.
Something Different – July NZ House & Garden
SOUTHERN CHARMS: New to the gin game, Bluff Distillery draws inspiration from the spirit of New Zealand’s southernmost town, making gin that reflects the essence of Bluff – ‘clean, bold and unapologetically authentic’. The London Dry-style gin comes in a custom bottle in the shape of an old glass buoy, a symbol of the maritime heritage that defines this tiny town. 700ml $89.85 from bluffdistillery.com.
ROCKIN’ VERMOUTH: Central Otago distillery Scapegrace has teamed up with its wine-making neighbours, Profhet’s Rock, to produce Scapegrace x Prophet’s Rock Vermouth, available in red and white. Mostly made with local ingredients, the white vermouth is bright and herbaceous with candied floral notes, finishing woody and bitter with wild thyme and wormwood. 705ml $72 from prophetsrock.co.nz and scapegracedistilleryy.com.
Steve Brennan of The Green Circle shows how marc left over from winemaking will be made into biochar. PENNY WARDLE / MARLBOROUGH EXPRESS
The Green Circle, a Blenheim startup company, and Yealands Wine are piloting a method to convert grape waste into 80% pure carbon.
The resulting product, biochar, held up to four times its weight in moisture, provided a home for soil microbes, boosted the value of compost and fertiliser, and could be added to animal feed.
As part of last week’s Climate Action Week Marlborough programme, a demonstration at the Yealands plant near Seddon showed forestry wood-waste and grapevine stumps being fed into one end of a machine and biochar being spat out the other.
The biochar, a charcoal-like substance, was slightly damp from moisture added to reduce its temperature from as high as 1000C.
Brennan encourages people to see, touch and interact with the biochar product. PENNY WARDLE / MARLBOROUGH EXPRESS
The Green Circle founder and director Steve Brennan and chief executive David Savidan said the machine being used for the pilot would dry marc at Yealands this vintage.
Marc is the seeds, skins and stalks left behind when wine is made.
“As much as possible” would be converted to biochar using pyrolysis, which is the burning of organic material at super-hot temperatures with no oxygen.
The biggest challenge would be scaling up to use available waste, improve efficiency and make biochar affordable, Brennan said.
Depending on the size and moisture content of material being fed in, an average of 20 tonnes could be processed per day, Savidan later told the Marlborough Express.
This time next year, the company planned to have several machines with capacity to process 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes. These would be based at a site central to vineyards, ideally in Renwick or Riverlands.
Last year, about 393,865 tonnes of grapes were harvested in Marlborough, according to Marcus Pickens of Wine Marlborough.
About 20%, or almost 80,000 tonnes, of that volume was marc.
Brennan said the 6 million or so vine trunks that were removed from Marlborough vineyards each year and 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes of prunings could also undergo pyrolysis.
Wine companies could dig biochar back into vineyards to sequester carbon for a zero footprint, he suggested.
However, there was not yet New Zealand demand for high-carbon biochar, Savidan said. The Green Circle’s business plan included researching local benefits that would later be shared.
Yealands sustainability manager Andrée Piddington, right, talks about biochar benefits with, from left, Heather Turnbull, John Baldridge and Tracy Taylor. PENNY WARDLE / MARLBOROUGH EXPRESS
Yealands sustainability manager Andrée Piddington said the winemaker was keen for solutions because composting marc could cause leachate runoff.
Even if The Green Circle did nothing but dry marc, she would be happy, Piddington said. It could be stored with no risk of runoff and then sold as livestock feed.
Yealands was planning a trial in which biochar would be added to compost and then applied to soil.
Digging biochar into the ground to lock in carbon was appealing but not practical among the posts and wires of established vineyards, Piddington said. This could be possible as new areas were developed or old areas replaced.
Savidan said The Green Circle would charge clients to process their grape marc, at the cost of disposal. They could buy biochar at discounted rates.
Checking a handful of biochar are, from left, Nick Gerritsen, Gavin Beattie from Port Marlborough, and David Savidan of The Green Circle. PENNY WARDLE / MARLBOROUGH EXPRESS
The company was the sole New Zealand distributor of its pyrolysis machine, bought from an Australian manufacturer that planned to take the technology global, Savidan said. The Green Circle designed and owned the New Zealand-made drier.
The company was also talking with Marlborough forest and aquaculture companies, Savidan said. OneFortyOne was looking into transforming wood waste, while New Zealand King Salmon was considering turning dead fish into soil stimulants.
In June 2020, the Marlborough District Council, Massey University and the Ministry for the Environment analysed five options for repurposing grape marc.
In their report, biochar was said to deliver “far and away the best environmental outcome. Going down the biochar route means the industry potentially has the opportunity to offset the emissions from all other parts of the production and supply chain.”
Indevin founder Duncan McFarlane is thrilled the company is the official wine supplier of the New Zealand Olympic Committee. ANTHONY PHELPS / STUFF
Marlborough will be well-represented at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Indevin Group has announced it will be the official wine supplier of the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC).
Indevin will provide its Villa Maria wines at all NZOC events around the globe, including those hosted at New Zealand House in Paris during the Olympic Games.
Indevin was started by Marlborough man Duncan McFarlane in 2003. In 20 years, it has grown to become New Zealand’s largest wine company, with its 15 Valley winery – the company’s largest – at Cloudy Bay, south of Blenheim. Today, it is mostly owned by Blenheim’s Greg Tomlinson and his Tomlinson Group.
Indevin bought the Villa Maria brand, with its connections to Marlborough dating back to the 1980s, in 2021.
McFarlane, who plans to retire as chief executive of Indevin this year, said the company was thrilled with its partnership with the NZOC.
“This is the pinnacle event for New Zealand’s athletes and an opportunity for all New Zealanders to support the hard work and success of our team … we’re honoured to have Villa Maria contribute to the celebrations as our incredible athletes compete on the world stage.”
McFarlane said Indevin and the NZOC were the perfect pairing.
“We share NZOC’s ambition to deliver meaningful impact both within our own teams, and in the communities within which we live, work and play.
“As the official wine supplier of the NZOC, we look forward to raising a glass of Villa Maria to the success of New Zealand athletes and contributing to the vibrant spirit of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”
Dressage rider Melissa Galloway and her horse Joey have been back home in Tuamarina for the past year. ANTHONY PHELPS / STUFF
One of those athletes could well be Tuamarina dressage rider Melissa Galloway, who had done “everything” she needed to reach the qualifying standard for this year’s Olympic Games.
NZOC chief executive Nicki Nicol said the NZOC was proud to welcome Indevin as an official supplier.
“We’re thrilled to be welcoming Indevin to our Olympic family at a really exciting time,” Nicol said.
“Indevin is known for excellence in winemaking, and at the NZOC, excellence is what we stand for, so there’s a really nice synergy between our brands and we look forward to promoting and showcasing their fantastic locally-made products.”
verything seems normal, until your food emerges silently from the kitchen.
Imagine virtual wine tastings from 31,000 feet, robot room service and exploring countries from the comfort of a couch. That’s what the tourism industry is exploring with new technology emerging at a rapid pace.
Hundreds of industry leaders have been discussing if they are ready – or not – at the Tourism Summit Aotearoa in Te Whanganui a Tara Wellington on Tuesday.
The robot revolution has already arrived at Sudima Hotels, and chief operating officer Les Morgan said they were handy helpers to have around. “Now with the addition of a service bot, it is possible to get a cocktail to your door without having to speak, smile or put on pants for a stranger.”
A robot receptionist at Henn Na hotel in Japan. The tourism industry is exploring with new technology emerging at a rapid pace.
One hotel has two service robots, serving 90% of orders. “Their hours are equal to about 1.5 (full-time equivalents) or approximately $90,000 per annum in wages. “They require no induction, no training, no staff meals, no leave.”
Morgan said he did not want hotels to become sterile, staff-free places, but the robots had their uses and could save time.
From next year, Sudima will introduce specialist robots to clean common areas and act as helpers for staff to transfer linen and products.
Sky Motion uses virtual reality to help people explore places they may never have travelled to before.
Director Soraya Sarwary described it as immersive storytelling, using 360-degree sights, surround sound, and motion pods. “The way that I best describe it is it feels as if you’re standing in a location, rather than just watching it.
Giving you the freedom to basically look wherever you want and get a good feel.”
It did not replace travel, but it gave people an immersive preview to help them decide where they’d like to visit, she said. It can also make travel more accessible to those who could not hop on a plane. “I don’t think anything would be able to replace that experience, so as detailed as we can go into giving people as much of a taste. You can’t get a suntan from this technology.”
Air New Zealand is working with digital bag tags where people can link their luggage to their phones, cutting out the paper printouts and kiosks for check-in.
Chief executive Greg Foran said it had acquired plenty of new technology – both on the drawing board or already here. “Imagine a flight where virtual reality can change your perception of time, offering mindfulness, meditation and ambient lighting to aid sleep.
“Picture yourself playing a cabin-wide game and watching a movie alongside your family while they’re still at home on the couch. Virtual wine tastings set against stunning New Zealand backdrops.”
The airline is keeping an eye on supersonic and hypersonic travel, which is five times the speed of sound.
In the shorter term – about three years away – its first commercial electric plane is expected to take flight. “We’re investigating the role of drones as it may pertain to Air New Zealand and our role in connecting people, and then also single-seater electric planes that require no licence – other than a few hours’ training – but can replace short-distance car travel.”
In the 20 or so years in which they’ve been around, these handblown Austrian glasses have acquired a cult-like international following.
Victoria Moore, WINE CORRESPONDENT, The Telegraph | 26 August 2023
Along with the Rolex Oyster, Zaltos were one of six ‘perfect things’ to be given an ‘unimprovable award’ by The Wall Street Journal
Last summer, 67 Pall Mall, the private members’ club for wine lovers, sent out what must surely rank as one of the most first-world-problem apologies of all time. ‘We have used Zalto glassware exclusively in the Club since opening,’ it began, before explaining that, because of production delays, the club had been ‘forced’ to put ‘alternative glassware’ on the tables. The horror!
But that’s how people get about Zalto. In the 20 or so years in which they’ve been around, these handblown Austrian glasses have acquired a cult-like international following. They are used for service in 19 out of France’s 29 three-star Michelin restaurants. Most sommeliers and wine writers I know – including me – have at least a couple of the huge, extremely thin, straight-sided Zalto Denk’Art Universals (right) in the cupboard. Along with the Rolex Oyster, Zaltos were one of six ‘perfect things’ to be given an ‘unimprovable award’ by The Wall Street Journal, which I suppose makes the price tag – the ‘use for everything’ Universal is now about £50 a pop – look almost accessible.
Catholic priest and influential Austrian wine lover, the late Father Hans Denk
I recently met up with Zalto’s GM, Christoph Hinterleitner, in London. He told me a key moment in Zalto’s rise came in 2007 when the German current affairs magazine Stern tested out a bunch of wine glasses in a blind tasting and Zalto took first place in three categories. Wait – a blind tasting of stemware? How does that work? ‘You had to wear an eye mask, and thick glove, like a skiing glove, so you couldn’t feel or see anything.’
In London, I saw Zalto gain traction in the tasting equivalent of word of mouth: you try one, you buy one – or put a pair on your Christmas list. One influencer named her dog Zalto. The Universal became a kind of gold standard. It altered glass fashion. The overall size and shape became familiar even to those who don’t pay Zalto prices (see the Large Wine Glass at Zara Home, £9.99).
According to Hinterleitner, it takes a team of eight to make each glass CREDIT: Thomas Schauer
Hinterleitner explained that it takes a team of eight to make each glass. But pinning down the story of how Zalto glasses came into being proved impossible as the Hinterleitners, who now run the company, and Kurt Zalto, whose family originally owned it, agree on almost nothing.
Hinterleitner tells me the ‘vision’ belongs to the late Father Hans Denk, incongruously a Catholic priest and influential Austrian wine lover. Denk, he said, felt he was ‘missing the perfect glass’ for the Wachau Grüner Veltliner he loved to drink, believed there must be an alternative to the ‘traditional egg-shape’ and created the Zalto range in collaboration with Kurt Zalto.
Kurt Zalto, who no longer has any involvement with Zalto Glass and left the company over a decade ago, selling them the right to use his name, says he alone conceived of and drew the thin, straight-sided glasses. He credits an Austrian feng shui expert, Thomas Schwäbisch, with one key input – the use of the angle of the tilt of the earth’s axis in the design. But he says when Father Denk – one, he says, of many people to give feedback – came in the picture, the designs were ‘already like they are now’, and only ‘minor changes’ followed. In short, behind one of the world’s most loved and perfect glasses, is a very ugly mess.
Portuguese distilling company apologises for accident that led to fears a nearby river would suffer environmental damage
It is enough to make a connoisseur weep – the sight of millions of litres of red wine flooding down the streets of a Portuguese village.
The freak occurrence took place when two huge wine tanks burst at a distillery in Sao Lourenco do Bairro in the centre of the country.
Bemused locals watched as an estimated 2.2 million litres – equivalent to the water held in an Olympic-sized swimming pool – cascaded through the village on Sunday, swirling around street signs and parked cars.
Video footage showed the torrent of red wine flowing down a slope and around a bend in the road.
The wine flooded the basement of one house, though much of it was diverted into fields, Portuguese media reported.
There were fears that it could contaminate a nearby river, but local authorities said they had managed to prevent that from happening.
The distilling company, Levira, apologised for the damage and said it took full responsibility for the unusual accident.
“The causes of the incident are being investigated by the competent authorities. We are fully committed to covering the costs associated with cleaning up and repairing the damage, with teams ready to act immediately. We are committed to resolving this situation as quickly as possible,” the company said.
‘The miracle of Settecani’
The incident came three years after locals in a village in Italy were delighted when they found that red wine, rather than water, started pouring out of their taps.
The bizarre water-into-wine mix-up happened in the village of Settecani in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna.
The local winery, Cantina Settecani, is connected to the public water supply, but a valve malfunction during maintenance work meant that instead of water being piped into its bottling plant, sparkling Lambrusco started flowing in the other direction.
“[Our] staff intervened fairly quickly, much to the disappointment of the locals, some of whom had started bottling it,” Luisa Malaguti, a representative of the company, told The Telegraph at the time.
“People are talking about it as ‘the miracle of Settecani’ and comparing it to the story of Jesus turning water into wine.”
The reality was more prosaic.
“The problem was traced to the malfunction of a valve. The pressure of the wine was greater than that of the water and the wine flooded into the public water network,” Ms Malaguti said.
France is about to destroy enough wine to fill more than 100 Olympic-size swimming pools. And it’s going to cost the nation about US$216 million (NZ$365m).
Ruining so much wine may sound ludicrous, but there’s a straightforward economic reason this is happening: Making wine is getting more expensive due in part to recent world events, and people are drinking less of it. That’s left some producers with a surplus that they can’t price low enough to make a profit. Now, some of France’s most famous wine-producing regions, like Bordeaux, are struggling.
In June, the European Union initially gave France about US$172m to destroy nearly 80 million gallons of wine, and the French government announced additional funds this week. Producers will use the funds to distil their wine into pure alcohol to be used for other products, like cleaning supplies or perfume.
Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told reporters that the money was “aimed at stopping prices collapsing and so that winemakers can find sources of revenue again”, according to Agence France-Presse.
The decline in wine consumption is not new, according to Olivier Gergaud, a professor of economics at France’s Kedge Business School who researches food and wine.
Wine consumption in France has been plummeting since its peak in 1926, when the average French citizen drank about 136 litres per year. Today, that number is closer to 40 litres, The Washington Post previously reported. Consumers are also inundated with beverage choices now, and they’re choosing wine less and less.
“We have an underlying issue of, ‘How do we better engage with the consumer and make wine more relevant, make wine a relevant choice for consumers that have a lot of options?'” said Stephen Rannekleiv, the global sector strategist for beverages at Rabobank, a Dutch financial firm specialising in agribusiness.
As consumption has taken a nosedive, production costs have increased and inflation has tightened budgets around the world. That’s especially true since the Covid-19 pandemic, which shuttered bars, restaurants and wineries, driving up prices. The war in Ukraine also influenced the industry by disrupting shipments of products essential to winemaking, like fertiliser and bottles. And on top of the pandemic and war, climate change is forcing growers to adapt to new harvest schedules and reckon with more extreme weather.
Costs are so high and demand is so low that some producers can’t turn a profit.
While this year’s subsidy is getting a lot of attention, the French government intervention is not a new phenomenon, according to Elizabeth Carter, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who has studied the French wine market.
“I am not vaguely at all surprised that France is looking to destroy surplus and prop up prices by limiting quantity, because this is something that they’ve actually been struggling with since the 19th century, wine overproduction,” Carter said.
She said there’s been an internal push-and-pull in France for decades as producers grapple with what quantity of grapes to grow and how much wine is too much. The nation has long regulated the wine market intensely, in some cases telling producers how many vines they can grow and how far apart they have to be, in an effort to prevent the market from being flooded.
So while this buyback program isn’t totally new, Gergaud said, he hopes the industry takes this moment to consider longer-term solutions.
“We need to think in terms of, you know, long-run adaptation to these changing conditions,” he said. “We need to help this market to transition to a better future, maybe with more wines that would respect the environment. Adaptation to climate change is a real challenge.”
And regardless of its current woes, wine is too strong a part of France’s identity for the market to go anywhere. It’s certainly in the government’s best interest to keep the industry happy: French President Emmanuel Macron has even said that a meal without wine “is a bit sad”.
Sauvignon blanc grapes at Alapa Vineyard Services in Blenheim.
Prices for sauvignon blanc vineyards in Marlborough have topped $400,000 per hectare this year, up by almost 60% on past record, the Real Estate Institute says.
Andy Poswillo, director for Colliers in Marlborough said it was a big jump from the $270,000 per hectare that the best vineyards fetched for a long time.
A number of factors influenced the price, he said.
The best vineyards delivered consistent high-quality yields, Poswillo said.
The land that attracted the most interest was not under any contractual obligations and buyers could “do what they wanted with the fruit,” he said.
Investors looked at the rate of return and the value of a vineyard came down to yield and location, he said.
Water availability and security was a major contributor to the value of land.
The price per tonnes of grapes made land attractive, he said.
Sauvignon blanc grapes harvested recently sold for up to $2200 per tonne, Poswillo said.
Real Estate Institute rural spokesperson Shane O’Brien said these sales were the only “bright spot” in the rural property market as sales continued to decline compared to last year.
The institute’s data showed there were 166 fewer farm sales for the three months ended May than for the same three months ended May 2022.
“The reduced number of sales is impacted by buyers continuing to take a wait-and-see approach to buying amidst the backdrop of higher interest rates, farm expenses increasing and lower farm incomes off the back of adverse weather and challenging economic conditions,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said the sale of two established vineyards was at a price per hectare never seen before.
“In Marlborough sales are now being reported at record levels for good quality sauvignon blanc land and more land is being acquired for further development in grapes,” he said.
The recent uptick in wine exports and free-trade agreement with the UK gave the industry “renewed confidence,” O’Brien said.
Chief executive of New Zealand Winegrowers Philip Gregan said earlier this month wine exports for the year to May were worth $2.4 billion, up 25% on last year.
Sarah Wilson, general manager for advocacy at New Zealand Winegrowers, said under the UK free-trade agreement technical barriers to trade would be removed, and certification and labelling requirements minimised.
Marcus Pickens, general manager for Wine Marlborough, said the phenomenon of good sales for sauvignon blanc vineyards was not new, with ongoing growth in the industry for the last 30 years.
“It’s a continuation of the growth trajectory.
“There could have been an uptick and land conversion into viticulture. The world discovered sauvignon blanc in the 1980s and there’s been growing demand ever since. Other varieties grow very well, but sauvignon blanc gets all the attention,” Pickens said.
Marlborough had “nice warm days” in the growing season and “quite cold nights which was good for flavour development,” he said.
Marcus Pickens says sauvignon blanc gets all the attention in New Zealand.
Of Marlborough’s about 30,000 hectares of vineyards, about 24,000ha was planted to Sauvignon Blanc, Pickens said.
The vineyard area grew by 29% in the last 10 years, but it was hard to say if this trend would continue, he said.
Marlborough had a record harvest last year, after a small harvest in 2021 brought about by poor fruit set, he said.
This year’s harvest was marginally less than last year because of an abnormal summer, Pickens said.
“As a wine industry we have been careful to map planting planning with consumption demand as we do not want to oversupply the market, just grow our premium offering at the same pace as demand grows,” Pickens said.
The median price per hectare for dairy farms for the three months ended June this year was up 3.1% compared to last year, for finishing farms it was down 4.8%, up 5.3% for grazing farms and down by 25% for horticulture, Real Estate Institute data showed.
Hiking in Girraween National Park. Photo / Lachlan Gardiner
You’re not alone if you’ve never heard of Queensland’s Granite Belt. This little-known wine region has been kept closely under wraps. With epic scenery and delicious drops, no wonder Queenslanders don’t want us to know about it, writes Caroline Gladstone.
Balancing Heart Vineyard occupies a prime position in the shadow of Girraween National Park – a 117sq km expanse of forests and creeks dominated by spectacular granite outcrops, arches and bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.
This is the Granite Belt region of southern Queensland, home to more than 50 vineyards, wineries and cellar doors.
Balancing Heart takes its name from a heart-shaped chunk of granite that rolled down the mountain eons ago and has pride of place among the vineyard’s premium shiraz vines.
Balancing Heart Vineyard is home to bizarrely shaped lumps of stone sitting precariously atop lofty peaks.
With altitudes between 800m and 1500m, the Granite Belt is Australia’s highest wine region, which took root, so to speak, 15km away at Ballandean Estate. There, in 1968, Angelo Puglisi produced the first shiraz on a vineyard his grandfather had bought 30 years earlier to grow table grapes.
Five decades on and shiraz and its cool-climate cousins, – chardonnay, cabernet, and merlot – are still the region’s mainstays, however, a growing number of Mediterranean varieties including fiano, petit verdot and nebbiolo and an Eastern European wine, saperavi, are gaining notoriety.
Yet, despite high praise from wine writers, the region – three hours from Brisbane and an hour from the New South Wales border – is relatively unknown. Mention it to a sophisticated Sydneysider or Melburnian and you’ll likely draw quizzical looks. It seems this 305ha pocket, on the eastern spine of the Great Dividing Range, is still very much a Queensland secret.
And Queenslanders love it, flocking there in record numbers during the Covid border closures to sample the fruits of the vine and stock up on gourmet produce and snuggle into guesthouses during winter, fondly known as brass monkey season.
At its centre is Stanthorpe, Queensland’s coldest town, which proudly displays its chilly temperatures on a giant thermometer outside the visitors’ centre.
Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean are designed to look like giant halved wine barrels.
The town (population 5500) and a clutch of northern Granite Belt villages have a long agricultural history. Decades before commercial vines were planted, they grew apples, pears, berries and stonefruit. Today the region’s one million apple trees produce around 20 per cent of Australia’s crop, while fruit and vegetables are still very much part of the economy. Growers such as Nicoletti Orchards and Eastern Colour open their farms to the public for apple and strawberry picking and the hottest ticket at the biennial Grape & Apple Harvest Festival, a fixture on the calendar since 1966, is the public grape crush where bare-footed folk squish as many grapes as they can to be crowned Queensland’s grape-crushing champion.
With such a bounty of good food and wine, a Granite Belt trip deserves at least a two-night stay and an escorted winery tour to remove the angst of drink-driving. Mini-van day tours visit five wineries and include lunch, while new ways to explore the vineyards include self-guided or group cycling tours that travel on e-bikes.
Accommodation choices run from the cosy to the curated with many guesthouses, bushland cottages and cabins set among the vines. One that has grabbed the headlines since its opening in October is Barrel View Luxury Cabins in Ballandean.
Views of the grapevines and distant hills from Barrel View Luxury Cabins.
Designed like giant halved wine barrels with exterior timber cladding bound by metal hoops, each of the three cabins is the last word in decadence, with curved travertine walls, slick kitchens with the latest appliances and huge oval windows bringing in the views of the grapevines and distant hills.
Another property embedded in a vineyard, with the added advantage of an onsite cellar door, is Ridgemill Estate. Comprising 12 studio cabins and a three-bedroom cottage, guests have several wine experiences at their fingertips from tastings, master classes and vineyard tours led by the winemaker.
Heading out from Brisbane, a good place for a lunch break or even an overnight stay is Warwick, an historic town of impressive sandstone buildings and eclectic events including the annual rodeo and the Celtic Festival. Here the place to stay is the Abbey Boutique Hotel, an 1891-built Gothic-designed former convent and girls’ boarding school. Each of the 12 individually themed rooms has a story, such as the sought-after Bavarian room, once the girls’ dormitory and later the nuns’ chapel, and the Mother Superior’s room, created from four smaller nuns’ cells, with a glorious, canopied bed and cosy fireplace.
Ridgemill Estate boasts 12 studio cabins embedded in a vineyard.
A short detour to Allora, 25km north, would appeal to history lovers: it houses both the restored Glengallen homestead, considered the finest house in Queensland when built in 1864 by wealthy pastoralists, and Mary Poppins’ House. The latter was the childhood home of author P.L. Travers, who as a 6-year-old girl moved there with her family in 1905. Guided tours tell the story of the girl, born Helen Lyndon Goff, who later adopted her father’s first name of Travers, and changed Helen to Pamela, reportedly because she thought it was ” pretty”. She moved to England in 1924 and began writing her famous novel, the first of a series of eight Mary Poppins stories, 10 years later.
From Warwick it’s an hour’s drive to wine country and the first Granite Belt village of Cottonvale, home of Heritage Estate Wines. Another 50 wineries are located down country roads in the villages of Thulimbah, Applethorpe, Severnlea, Ballandean and Wyberba that lead off the New England Highway as it wends south towards Girraween National Park and the NSW border.
Wine enthusiasts can partake in a “Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism.
Each has something different to offer.
Heritage Estate Wines holds tastings, lunches and monthly five-course degustation dinners (complete with old movies) where guests dress to the nines in a huge mid-19th century cellar door that was once an apple barn. Owners Therese and Robert Fenwick love to entertain and their latest offering is a weekly Friday night progressive dinner that begins with hors d’oeuvres among the vines and culminates with dessert in the cellar door.
Ballandean Estate, the oldest winery in Queensland, offers daily tastings and grazing platters in the rustic barrel room amid century-old wine barrels, while Whiskey Gully Wines’ cellar door occupies the 1880-built colonial homestead known as “Beverley”, where owner and multi-instrumentalist musician John Aldridge entertains guests at Saturday night dinners with an array of tunes.
Robert Channon Wines offers guided wine tastings including their award-winning verdelho in a venue that overlooks beautiful Singing Lake, and weekend lunches in the Persian Poppy, the region’s most exotic restaurant where dishes such as camel tajine grace the menu.
Discover a spectacular setting of giant granite boulders in Girraween National Park.
While locations and quirky features differ, what unites Granite Belt wineries are their “Strange Birds” – the wine varieties that represent less than 1 per cent of Australia’s vines, which include fiano, frontenac gris, malbec, gewurztraminer, marsanne, sylvaner, saperavi and nebbiolo. Visitors can pick up a Strange Bird Trail map and head out on a journey of discovery. One not to be missed is Bent Road Wines; owners Glen and Andrew provide tastings in an old timber church they bought on eBay, and show visitors the huge amphora vessels, known as qvevri, imported from Georgia (the former Soviet Republic) that has made saperavi, a robust red wine, for more than 8000 years.
“Winemaker for the Weekend” course at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism, the only facility of its kind in the world, or book a “Wine Philosophy” course with Balancing Heart Vineyard’s winemaker and viticulturalist Mike Hayes.
Named 2017 Queensland Winemaker of the Year, Hayes leads a fun session of swirling, sniffing and tasting of five of the vineyards top drops, including the acclaimed Campfire Company Red, in a spectacular setting beneath the granite boulders of Girraween National Park.
Getting there
WHERE ARE WE? Southern Queensland, Australia. Within 3hrs drive of Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Byron Bay.
Brisbane is the easiest airport to fly into from New Zealand, with many of the Granite Belt’s townships sitting a 2.5-hour drive south of the airport.
An experimental vineyard is one of the ways that science will ensure the world will still be able to enjoy New Zealand wine as the climate changes.
With the ability to fine-tune the environmental conditions, scientists at the Plant & Food Research Experimental Future Vineyard at the New Zealand Wine Centre -Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa – will be able to mimic expected climate scenarios of the future.
Plants grown in the new 600sqm facility which is due for completion in 2024, will help scientists understand how different temperatures, soil types and water availability may impact grape production in the future, and provide the industry with key knowledge to help it adapt.
The experiment comes as a Plant & Food Research study suggests areas of the North Island suitable for growing Sauvignon blanc vines are likely to substantially reduce this century as climate change brings rising temperatures.
Dr Jill Stanley, Plant & Food Research Science Group Leader, Fruit Crops Physiology. Photo / Supplied
However, Plant & Food Research Science Group Leader, Fruit Crops Physiology, Dr Jill Stanley, says it is not all bad news for connoisseurs of the wine – one of New Zealand’s most popular varieties – as modelling under both low and high temperature rise scenarios also shows areas of the South Island are likely to increase in growing suitability.
“Moderate gains are predicted in Marlborough, Canterbury and central Otago under low rise scenarios, but substantial gains under higher temperatures,” she says. “By mid-century, there may be an opportunity for Canterbury and parts of Otago to become global Sauvignon blanc powerhouses, alongside Marlborough (New Zealand’s current prime Sauvignon blanc producing region, accounting for 72 per cent of output).
“So, if you like a drop of New Zealand Sauvignon blanc, you’re probably going to be okay.”
Chief Sustainability Officer, Dr Roger Robson-Williams, says Plant & Food Research is working with a variety of industry sectors, to understand what and where crops can be grown in the future. By using computers to jump in a ‘virtual time machine’, scientists can see what rainfall patterns and temperatures are going to look like in different parts of Aotearoa.
“Climate change is going to affect what we eat over time,” he says. “For wealthy nations, the impact may seem quite small at first, as they will generally have the resources to secure more-or-less whatever foods they want for the time being.
“For less developed countries, climate change will produce real issues in terms of food security; not just impacting the type of foods available but, more worryingly, it will lead to absolute scarcity of food with ever-increasing risks of crop failures around the globe. We want to make sure that New Zealand can continue to grow good, nutritious food, for ourselves and for others.”
Robson-Williams says the first step is to get a picture of what crops will grow well and where; these may be crops we already have, or new crops.
“We’re also looking at improving our current crops so they can cope better with the impacts of climate change – be it drought tolerance, resistance to different pests and diseases, or just the ability to grow in hotter conditions,” he says.
Stanley says the research contains a key message for growers and the industry: “It’s increasingly important growers start thinking about what the future holds and the adaptations they can take to mitigate and reduce the effects of climate change.
“While we don’t know for certain what is ahead as many different factors affect how crops are grown, the research is designed to give the sector some idea of what could occur,” she says.
Dr Zac Hanley, General Manager Science New Cultivar Innovation, Plant & Food Research. Photo / Supplied
As well as changing to varieties that are more suited to the changing climate, Stanley says growers could adapt the way they grow crops, such as using covers to protect them from increasing risk of rain and hail. They could change the crops they grow (for example growing avocados or apples instead of grapes) or consider expanding into different regions.
Dr Zac Hanley, General Manager Science New Cultivar Innovation, says that the changing climate might also create new opportunities for New Zealand’s horticulture sector.
“We’re bringing new crops into New Zealand, testing things that might be able to cope with future conditions. For example, New Zealand might be able to successfully grow sub-tropical plants like dragon fruit as our climate changes, and that could be a potential new industry for growers in these warmer regions.”
New Zealand-Viet Nam dragon fruit breeding programme. Photo / Supplied
A joint New Zealand-Viet Nam dragon fruit breeding programme has resulted in the development of the first varieties of dragon fruit that could form the basis of a New Zealand sector.
Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Premium Fruit Variety Development project has bred three new varieties of dragon fruit which will be commercialised globally by VentureFruit, a T&G Company. Initial testing and evaluation is underway to determine how these new varieties could be commercially grown in Northland.
Plant & Food Research is also looking at the viability of commercial production of other non-traditional crops, such as peanuts in Northland and almonds in the Hawke’s Bay, that may do well in New Zealand’s future climate.
Dr Samantha Baldwin, a Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research. Photo / Supplied
Growing indoors, away from the weather, is also an option. Dr Samantha Baldwin, a Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research, says their research is attempting to make sure New Zealand can deliver food than can be grown long into the future, despite the climate issues being experienced.
She says indoor growing could help food security “because we can basically recreate the entire environment within a controlled area so we can take out the risk not only of erratic weather but also seasonal weather. We can create all seasons in one day if we really want.”
Stanley says that climate change will potentially have major impacts on New Zealand and growers are already thinking about how they will respond.
“The horticulture sector needs to weigh the costs of adaptations or mitigations to climate change against the economic impact of doing nothing,” she says. “It is great to see industry bodies starting to think about what these changes might mean and to plan accordingly.”
It’s a steaming 26.5C in Hawke’s Bay as a retired King’s Counsel handpicks Chardonnay grapes in the wake of a cyclone.
He’s one of a team of volunteers who heeded the call from winemaker and Chardonnay specialist Tony Bish, who’s lost 75% of his intended intake to the rain and floods this season. “We’ve written off about 150 tonnes out of a 200-tonne intake,” Tony says on 9 March, about to drive his trailer of freshly picked fruit back to the winery. “It’s been a hard season.”
But despite knowing he won’t meet export orders, which take up half his production, Tony is heartened by the response from his local community, with people of all ages joining the harvest, alongside a team of seasonal workers from Vanuatu.
Tony Bish, Winemaker
The wine community has pitched in too, with Marlborough growers offering a lifeline for Tony’s Fat & Sassy consumer brand. On realising the extent of crop losses, Tony emailed his contacts in the region and revealed he was “desperate for Chardonnay”.
The response was good, both from those willing to part with their fruit, and others offering moral support. “It’s a case of Marlborough helping Hawke’s Bay,” he adds. “Basically the story will be Fat & Sassy goes to Marlborough. Thanks to our colleagues in Marlborough helping us through a cyclone, we’ll be able to keep continuity in the domestic market.”
In the meantime, he’s excited about the quality of fruit still hanging on the vine, to be picked at the end of March for his premium labels. “We are going to pick some really good fruit, so there’s a happy ending in sight. It’s going to deliver something delicious.”
