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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”.
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.”
Quartz Reef winery operations manager Montse Mondaca helps with the first harvest of the season at the Bendigo vineyard yesterday. Image: Julie Asher
A classic Central Otago harvest season began yesterday with the first fruit plucked from the vines at Bendigo. Quartz Reef winemaker Rudi Bauer said the harvest looked set to be a good one but would have its challenges as unsettled weather during flowering in early December resulted in uneven fruit set.
Daily decisions would be made about which fruit to pick, but overall the average yield looked very good, Mr Bauer said.
Harvest had started three to four days earlier than last year, so it was a normal season. The spring had been very good, with good rainfall until January, when it became very dry.
There was around 50mm of very welcome rain last week.
A forecast of cool nights and warm days was exactly what the winemaker wanted for the cool climate wines such as the Pino’s, Chardonnay, sparkling and Gewurtztraminer wines that did so well in Central Otago.
He had plenty of labour available and there was no sign of infection in the grapes so it promised a good solid season.
Last year’s white wines had been very well received and the Pino’s would be bottled after harvest.
More winemakers in Central Otago were expanding into organic production.
While Central Otago wine made up about 3.5% of the country’s total production, their reputation and quality meant they were highly regarded.
“We punch way above our weight,” Mr Bauer said.
All the winegrowers in the region were mindful of the losses suffered by their North Island counterparts following Cyclone Gabrielle.
All were donating what they could to the Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne winegrowers associations.
It would be some time before the scale of damage could be assessed but it would be massive and include machinery destroyed by having silt through it as well as vines which could take years to replace.
MERMAIDMARY lauds the delights of lesser-known white wine variety chenin blanc.
Like many of the grape varieties we know and love, chenin blanc originates in France, hailing from the Loire Valley. And like other European wine varieties, chenin has found its spiritual home in the New World wine regions – South Africa produces one-fifth of the world’s chenin, twice as much as in its native France. Here in New Zealand, just a few passionate producers are devoted to this lesser-known white wine.
You can describe most New Zealand wines in a few words that refers to their signature style. For example, sauvignon blanc is zesty and vibrant, chardonnay is buttery and oaky and so on. Chenin blanc, however, is hard to narrow down due to its remarkable versatility.
On the vine the chenin grape is akin to chardonnay with high acid and a neutral palate. As a result of this neutrality the grape is influenced by the terroir in which it is grown as well as winemaking decisions. In the glass, chenin comes in a range of guises, from the perfect base wine for crisp dry sparkling wines to lusciously sweet dessert wines – and everything in between. There truly is a chenin blanc for every wine lover.
Chenin is best served chilled, but not cold, so as to preserve its complex aromatics and rich flavours – about half an hour in the fridge will suffice. Chenin is also a fantastic food wine, complementing a range of different cuisines. Off-dry examples with a hint of sweetness are particularly sublime with Southeast Asian cuisine.
Although delicious young, chenin has an incredible ability to age. A dry chenin could hold its own in the bottle for 10 years, with sweeter examples cellaring beautifully for decades.
Essentially, you can drink chenin in any style, at any age with any food, so there’s no excuse not to try one.
Blenheim-based Yealands wants to eventually absorb more greenhouse gas than it emits, making it climate positive. That’ll require the winemaker to cut its footprint by 5% every year, sustainability head Michael Wentworth tells Olivia Wannan.
When did Yealands’ sustainability journey begin?
In 2008, when we launched, it was Peter Yealands’ vision to lead the world in sustainable wine production. We have a philosophy: think boldly, tread lightly.
We were the first winery in the world to be certified as carbon-zero, from day one.
In sustainability, there’s never a finishing post. There are always improvements.
What are the major contributors to a winegrower’s footprint?
Michael Wentworth, Yealands sustainability general manager, is excited by the vineyard’s green plans.
Our operations here – the vineyard and winery – make up about 35% of our footprint. Of that, diesel and electricity are key.
That leaves 65% – the primary emissions are packaging and freight. This is challenging, because you have to work with multiple parties and countries. The big gains are beyond our vineyard boundary.
How do you get that to net-zero?
Diesel powered our irrigation pumps, though we’ve electrified those. We’re using smaller tractors, better suited to lighter work. Before, we had large agricultural tractors.
We reduced diesel emissions by planting wildflowers and legumes down the vineyard rows, so you don’t have to mow as regularly. The beauty of that is it naturally increases biodiversity within the vineyard and carbon and water in the soil.
We’ve got a significant composting operation.
Winemaking can be electricity-intensive. Right throughout the process, you’re regularly either warming wines or cooling it, depending on where your wine is at. That requires energy.
At the moment, we produce 20% of our energy requirements on site. We’ve got a solar system on our winery roof – and it was the largest array at the time, when it was installed. Within the next two years, we’ll be installing something that’s 10 times larger, on land opposite the winery. We’ll get to about 60% self-sufficient.
But what’s unique to us is that we bale a portion of vine prunings, dry them and use those as a heating source in the winery – rather than using LPG.
Increasingly, we are bottling in the market. When you’re shipping long distances, you want to be as efficient as possible. Sending packaged wine overseas means your container is full of air, or the air gaps between bottles – plus you’re shipping a heck of a lot of packaging.
By shipping more wine in less packaging, we reduce our freight footprint by 30%. In the foreign markets, you get more choice. For example, in Sweden a lot of their premium wine comes as cask wine – which is one of the lowest-emissions forms of packaging.
We calculate all our emissions and for all unavoidable ones, we purchase registered carbon credits. We’ve done that from day one. But we want to be carbon-positive by 2050 – we’ll achieve that without offsetting.
By 2050, we’ll have to sequester carbon: whether that’s planting native trees or using biochar, which locks carbon away in the soil.
2050 sounds like a long way away. To get there we need to reduce our carbon footprint by at least 5% every year. And by 2030, we want to reduce our emissions by at least 50%.
From 2013 to now, we’ve reduced our footprint by about 25%. There’s still a lot of work to be done.
What happened with Yealands’ eco bottle?
Yealands already has solar panels on its facility roof – but will expand its generation at a nearby site.
It was a PET plastic product, which had emissions advantages. A lighter bottle uses less resources, and when you’re moving that bottle, you produce fewer emissions transporting it.
It was always a starting point, in our quest to find a biodegradable product that stopped the wine being oxidised.
The public wasn’t really ready. We found people were buying it more for convenience, than the environmental aspect. It was easier to use outdoors, and doesn’t break.
Shoppers’ acceptance is key. There was a push against plastic. Ultimately, we didn’t progress.
How will a warming climate affect wine production?
Over the last six months in Marlborough, we’ve had three significant weather events that have impacted our ability to get to the winery and our ability to export our wine via Nelson.
Our industry is very reliant on the weather. A small change in temperature or the environment has a noticeable impact on the flavour profile of your wine. Marlborough sauvignon blanc is so distinctive on the international stage, so a small change in climate has the potential to affect the wines we produce. It is scary.
People are looking at ways to adapt – but the argument should be: what can we do to prevent it?
We believe that a more biodiverse vineyard is a more resilient one. The more we plant native trees and wildflowers, the less inputs we need to make and the better our vines will be.
French wine producer Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines has bought Central Otago vineyard Akarua Estate, which it hopes will eventually produce 60,000 bottles a year of premium organic pinot noir.
Bordeaux-based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines received Overseas Investment Office approval to buy the 52-hectare estate, with 34.5ha of vines, in Central Otago’s Bannockburn, along with the Akarua Estate vineyard from New Zealand company the Skeggs Group.
Ariane de Rothschild, president of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, which also owns Marlborough vineyard Rimapere, said the region’s soil was world-famous for its exceptional growing conditions for pinot noir.
She said that the terroir, or environment, at Bannockburn was on par with the Burgundy region in Eastern France.
“The addition of our second New Zealand winery is part of our wider strategy to develop a portfolio of premium international wines from exceptional terroirs.
“Central Otago’s international reputation for pinot noir provides a unique opportunity for us to complete our range and move into the production of organic wines – one of the fastest growing categories,” she said.
Winemaker Ann Escalle, who was technical director at Rimapere before moving to Akarua Estate, said the soil had all the elements they were looking for, and the slope was gentle enough for the vines to be able to develop well.
Akarua Estate vineyard in Central Otago has been sold to Bordeaux-based Edmond de Rothschild Heritage Wines.
The region’s climate was known for its hot and cold extremes, but the site was not too harsh. At the same time, it was dry and windy enough to keep diseases away.
“We think that what we have here at Akarua is really top potential, and we can bring it to the world. We would like to produce some of the best pinot noirs in the world because it’s possible,” she said.
The vineyard, which produced about 80% pinot noir along with small amounts of chardonnay and riesling, was not organic yet, but work was starting on converting it immediately.
When fully converted and organically certified, the vineyard would produce more than 60,000 bottles of organic wines annually for the international and domestic markets.
The soil had all the elements required, and the slope was gentle enough for the vines to be able to develop well, said Ann Escalle.
The wines would continue to be produced under the Akarua brand. The Akarua Estate vineyard was founded in 1996 by former Dunedin mayor Sir Clifford Skeggs.
Skeggs Group managing director David Skeggs said the new owners had significant global influence and networks and would bring new opportunities for the Central Otago wine industry.
The Skeggs Group would continue to produce its Rua brand from its 90 hectares of established vineyards in the Bannockburn and Pisa sub-regions.
The nine vineyards owned by Edmond de Rothschild Heritage in France, Spain, South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand produced 3.5 million bottles of wine a year.
The Jura is a wine-growing region in Eastern France, bordering Switzerland. It sits just to the east of Burgundy but feels a world apart in many ways.
Burgundy is arguably the epicentre of the “fine wine” world (although Bordeaux may have something to say about this), with a long history of monastic and aristocratic estates, tiny plots of globally treasured terroir, and today, massively inflated prices.
The Jura is historically associated with its agricultural traditions of the collective production of Comte cheese, its obscure oxidised wines matured under a veil of yeast and left in barrels for literally years (much like a very cold climate dry sherry), and perhaps for its particular mountain-country style moonshine.
Or, just as likely, it was the admittedly very picturesque backcountry region you passed through on your way to skiing in the Alps. Until 20 years ago, it would be fair to say that most people in France, let alone the rest of the world, barely thought of this quiet, seemingly isolated region as much more than an oddity of the wine world.
But after a week spent tasting the region’s wines and visiting its winemakers, the transformation is startling. Both in terms of the wines being made here and, even more so, the wine world’s perception of the region.
I spent the first two days of my stay at Le Nez dans le Vert (the name translates literally as Nose in the Green, but is a play on Nose in the Glass, with a wink to organics), a wine fair featuring a line-up of many of the best organic wine producers of the region.
Since all of the stars of the region farm organically, that means, in practical terms, that is really a collection of simply the region’s best wines.
This is part of the region’s transformation and the attention it is now receiving. Small, determined, and very hands-on family-run estates committed to laborious viticulture, have shone a spotlight on the incredible potential of the region’s unique soils and its cold climate to produce astounding and nuanced wines.
NACHO DOMÃNGUEZ ARGENTA/UNSPLASH “After a week there, I’m convinced the wines of this region are among the best being made anywhere.”
While this is also true of changes in many grape-growing regions over the last couple of decades, the underlying factor in the Jura is they are exceptionally blessed in terms of “terroir”, and much of its potential is yet to be discovered.
When I first attended Le Nez dans le Vert around a decade ago, the wines were already great, but as a buyer, you always felt you could largely give or take what you wanted. This time, as I visited winemakers, I met buyers, journalists and wine fans from Munich, Amsterdam, Rome, London, New York, Tokyo and Seoul.
The global thirst for Jura wines is seemingly unquenchable. Somewhat victims of their own success, many of the winemakers at the tasting spent much of their time apologetically explaining why they couldn’t sell wine to new clients. Demand now greatly outruns supply.
I’m pretty sceptical about hype in the wine world; for whatever reason, it’s a business that seems to invite hyperbole, but after a week there, I’m convinced the wines of this region are among the best being made anywhere.
And there’s plenty to say they are going to get even better. I’ve met many exciting, driven young winemakers making their first wines for every “star” of the region whose wines and vineyards I was looking forward to visiting before I got here.
Some locals and others from all corners of the globe came to the region to work for and learn from the trailblazing generation before them, who are now putting down roots in the Juracian soil and pushing even further forward.
Much like its wines, the region is charged with energy and life today. As much as there are many reasons for optimism for the region’s future, especially if, like me, you find yourself seduced by its wines, there are twin menaces on the horizon.
The first is the effect of climate change. In one sense, the general warming of the planet is something that has driven interest in traditionally cooler regions like the mountainous Jura. But with it, global warming has also brought unpredictable and dramatic weather events. The 2021 vintage in Jura was hit with a double blow of heavy frosts in early spring, killing off much of the early season growth, and then weeks of rain throughout the summer, creating significant problems with mildew and odium.
BIG DODZY/UNSPLASH “After a week there, I’m convinced the wines of this region are among the best being made anywhere.” In New Zealand, we’re lucky to have a few key importers bringing in some of the best producers from the Jura.
Winemakers have recounted losses of production of up to 85%. The financial pressure that creates is very difficult to bear for a region based on small family-run farms. Similar climatic events have menaced several of the last decade’s harvests.
The cruel irony is that just as the hard-earned attention of the wine world has turned to Jura, the hard-working winemakers have nowhere near enough wine to satisfy that demand and finally see financial returns on years of commitment and investment.
Although it was alarming to see up close, I was aware of the problems with yield from conversations with friends and winemakers before my trip. What I hadn’t expected was the effect of the global wine market on the region, or more specifically, on the access of the region’s wines to wine lovers.
I encountered many stories of Jura wine bottles 10-15 years ago that was easily accessible to anyone but are now being traded on grey markets at prices in excess of 1000 euros a bottle. Speculation is a menace for genuinely interested consumers and winemakers who are still selling their wine for more or less the same low prices as they have for years in the hope their wines end up in the glasses of enthusiastic wine lovers.
As small artisan producers are struggling to keep going in the face of diminished yields, speculators are making fortunes and inflating the market beyond the reach of most. It seems anathema to the spirit of this wild, strange and beautiful region. And again, I’m reminded that Burgundy is so close by.
In New Zealand, we’re lucky to have a few key importers bringing in some of the best producers from the Jura. As befits this off-centre region, it’s tricky to recommend specific wines, as availability is complicated. Best try tracking these wines down either directly through their importers or at one of the following switched-on wine bars or restaurants.
In Auckland, try out Star Superette or their affiliated restaurant Bar Celeste, both on Karangahape Rd, or take a trip to Cave a Vin on the North Shore. In Wellington, the restaurant Highwater or wine bar Puffin are good ports of call if you want an introduction to Jura wine. Gatherings in Christchurch are a good starting point for those curious about Jura wines in the South Island.
Maison Vauron is the New Zealand importer of cult southern Jura winemaker J-F Ganevat and also of the trailblazing Domaine Tissot, who makes stellar oxidative wines. Domaine du Pelican is the Jura project of the esteemed Burgundy producer Guillaume d’Angerville, based on their purchase of the estate of the “Pope of the Jura” Jacques Puffeney. In New Zealand, their wines are imported by Peter Maude Fine Wines.
Domaine Bottes Rouges are one of the many new ambitious producers of the region. Their wines are imported to New Zealand by Wine Diamonds.
Contact any of the above to find out what Jura gems are available and where to find them.
Napier’s iconic National Tobacco Company factory on Ossian St in Ahuriri has gone from one vice to another. It is now home to a brewery, urban winery and, more recently, The National Distillery Company.
Blair Nicholl is doing the seemingly impossible, turning Hawke’s Bay-grown grapes into wine and gin.
It is there that Blair Nicholl is doing the seemingly impossible, turning Hawke’s Bay-grown grapes into wine, then into gin.
A bartender by trade, he has seen firsthand the “ebbs and flows” of the wine and craft beer industries.
He says that New Zealand is one of the biggest wine exporters to the United States and could soon be the powerhouse of the spirit industry.
“It’s what the New Zealand spirits industry has got ahead of them if we band together.”
Nicholl’s foray into distilling came when he, best friend, and business partner Ricardo Reis made a gin using botanicals found in women’s luxury beauty products for a Wānaka event in 2018. Their gin caught the eye of Cardrona’s head distiller, who invited them for a tour.
Bloody Syrah is available exclusively direct from the National Distillery Company.
They relocated to Napier, where Nicholl began distilling from his kitchen. A chance opportunity brought them to the building that had been on his vision board for ten years.
Like the dynamic duo, the owners were from Kāpiti and eager to see what these “Kiwi blokes with a dream” could do.
In early 2020, Nicholl and Reis found themselves in New York – dressed in jandals and T-shirts despite the cold – promoting their gins alongside New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
“We stood out because we don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we’re deadly serious.”
Interest was growing in their product, and they would soon go on to win many accolades and awards in spirit-making competitions, beating big brands such as Beefeater, Bombay Sapphire and Tanqueray.
A bartender by trade, Nicholl has seen firsthand the “ebbs and flows” of the wine and craft beer industries.
But when Covid-19 hit, the pair “thought the National Distillery dream was over,” Nicholl says.
Bloody Syrah is available exclusively direct from the National Distillery Company.
With no means to sell alcohol, he and Reis began making hand sanitiser using grapes from Clearview winery, owned by long-time friend Tim Turvey, where the pandemic had also brought production to a near halt.
While it allowed them to keep the business going, it was terribly boring for a creative like Nicholl.
Then he got the idea for what became known as Bloody Syrah: a gin made from wine.
“I’m all about trying things that people haven’t done before or say can’t be done.”
“Wine is my first love. It’s something I’m extremely passionate about,” Nicholl says.
But he thought he could go a step further.
Using grapes from the coastal vineyard, Nicholl and Reis made a syrah, aged it in barrels, and played around distilling it into a clear, neutral spirit. Then they added the gin botanicals, distilled it again, put it back into oak, and left it for 12 months, turning it amber.
“We were trying to capture white pepper, and intense berry and earthy tones – the type of syrah that Hawke’s Bay is famous for.”
They bottled about 130 all up, corked and waxed, also like wine. The label draws inspiration from Penfolds, one of Australasia’s oldest wineries, and includes a dedication to Turvey.
Nicholl isn’t sure if his syrah gin is a world first, but it might well be, and it is certainly something he is happy to cross off his bucket list.
“I’m all about trying things that people haven’t done before or say can’t be done.”
At 44% alcohol by volume (ABV), Nicholl describes Bloody Syrah as the “cognac of gins”.
“Sit on one of these at a dinner party, and you only need one or two to be the life of the party. As long as Tim Turvey and myself aren’t there,” he laughs.
Plus, a handy guide for deciphering your methodes from your Champagnes.
Photo / Babiche Martens
If the bubbles that have dominated most thoughts of late are the ones we’ve been living in, there’s hopefully something we can toast, even if it’s just the passing of 2021.
There’s good news on the fizz front, as there has never been a more delicious and diverse array of sparkling wines to enjoy in Aotearoa.
Here’s a selection of the best from my blind tasting of bottles from across the world. Their corks are definitely worth popping, to cheer the spirits if our parties must be virtual, or celebrate with on the return to fully social occasions.
STYLE GUIDE: WHAT’S IN A STYLE? Sparkling wines are made in a wide variety of ways that dictate their flavour, quality and price. It can be confusing, so here’s a rough guide to styles and terms you might see on a bottle that suggest the kind of wine you might find within.
Traditional Method Most of the highest quality sparkling wines, including Champagne and cava, are made by the traditional method, also known as methode traditionnelle. It’s an elaborate system that adds to the cost of the wine, but is widely regarded to create the most complex flavours and finest mousse (bubbles).
A second bubble-inducing fermentation is triggered in the bottle, followed by a period when the wine remains in contact with its yeasts. These impart complex bready and nutty flavours to the wine depending on how long it remains on these yeast “lees”.
The yeasts are then removed by a lengthy process of “riddling” that gradually shifts the yeast into the neck of the bottle, which is then frozen. The frozen plugs of yeast are removed, the bottle topped up and then re-stoppered in the wine’s “disgorgement”.
Some examples state a disgorging date, which provides an idea of a wine’s maturity — recently disgorged can mean fresher flavours, and older more toasty notes.
Bottle Fermented (Transfer Method) If it’s traditional method, most wineries trumpet this. So if you see “bottle fermented” on a label, this suggests the wine has likely been made by the slightly simpler transfer method. Sparkling wines made in this manner can still be very good, but are cheaper to produce than the traditional method. This is basically identical to the traditional method up to the point of riddling, when the bottles are instead disgorged into pressurised tanks, where they’re filtered. They’re then re-bottled in a new bottle.
Tank Fermented Less likely to appear on a label, but influencing the final flavour, is the Tank Method. Also known as the charmat or Martinotti methods, or cuve close. The wine’s second fermentation takes place in a pressurised tank rather than a bottle, and the final fizz bottled under pressure. You don’t get the yeasty character of bottle-fermented methods, but this is often preferable for more aromatic grapes and fresher styles, such as the prosecco that’s made this way.
Methode Ancestral (Pet-Nat) Undergoing a revival currently is the methode ancestral, responsible for the petillant maturels (pet-nats) that have burst onto the natural wine scene in particular. Likely the oldest way of making sparkling wine, the wine is bottled while still undergoing its first fermentation. This finishes in-bottle, producing its effervescence.
Some winemakers choose to leave the yeast in the bottle, leading to a cloudy appearance and the possibility of drinking a bottle at different stages on its path to dryness. Others filter or disgorge and rebottle for a clearer and more consistent end product.
Champagne (NV and Vintage) Champagne can only come from the eponymous region in north-eastern France. Its name, synonymous with luxury and celebration, is protected in law and cannot be borrowed by wines from elsewhere. Its wines have to adhere to strict criteria, which includes bottle aging of 15 months for non-vintage wines (NV) and three years for vintage.
Its chilly climate makes it a challenge to ripen grapes, which has led to the practice of blending wines from multiple vintages, with vintage wines being made with only the best grapes in the best years.
The practice of making and labelling sparkling wines as “NV” has been adopted beyond Champagne and tends to suggest the tier below a winery’s more premium “vintage” release.
Styles and Sweetness Various terms originating in Champagne indicate the grapes used, and consequently suggest the style of a sparkling wine. Blanc de Blancs is made from 100 per cent chardonnay, which tend to be lighter and racier. Blanc de Noirs is a white sparkling wine made from just black grapes, which tend to be fuller bodied.
There are also descriptors highlighting levels of sweetness. The most common is Brut for dry to off-dry, with the likes of Demi-Sec, meaning sweet and Doux, lusciously sweet.
A growing movement towards near bone-dry styles means seeing more bottles sporting terms such as Ultra Brut, Extra Brut, Brut Nature and Zero Dosage, which signal the driest of the dry.
Detergent is the enemy of effervescence, so always rinse your sparkling glasses in warm water to get rid of any residue. Photo / Getty Images
WHAT’S IN A GLASS?
Wisdom on what makes the best glass from which to drink sparkling wine has shifted over the years. Certainly, the wide-rimmed shallow coupe popular in the early 20th century has fallen out of favour, for good reason.
These may work to some extent for softer, sweeter styles, but the wine’s large surface area in these means bubbles swiftly dissipate and they go flat quicker. The narrow shape of the iconic flute fares far better for retaining effervescence, but also suppresses aromas.
Current thinking on the foremost stemware for fizz, particularly the more complex traditional method wines, is a tulip-shaped glass with a wider middle and a narrow top. Similar to a white wine glass, it provides a slightly larger wine surface area than the flute and has a shape and greater space above the wine conducive to funnelling aromas up beyond its rim.
It’s also supported by findings of the rigorous research currently being conducted on bubble behaviour, by the likes of Champagne physicist Dr Gerard Liger-Belair at the University of Reims in Champagne.
The Comite Champagne, which represents independent Champagne producers, now officially recommends a tulip-shaped glass in which to enjoy its members’ wines. Something like Riedel’s egg-shaped Veritas Champagne Wine Glass fits the bill ($113 for 2 stems from Kitchenware.nz). However, the flute still works fine for simpler fruit-driven styles, such as prosecco.
You can enjoy fizz from a standard white wine glass. However, it’s still optimal to use a glass that’s been designed for sparkling wine as this will contain a “sparkling point”. Bubbles attract and carry aromatic compounds to the surface of the wine and need somewhere to start.
In sparkling glasses they’re directed from a single point etched on the bottom of their bowl, rather than forming randomly off the likes of fibres left in a glass from tea towels.
Whatever glass you choose, there are further ways to ensure you maximise your bubble count. Detergent is the enemy of effervescence, so always rinse your sparkling glasses in warm water to get rid of any residue. If you dry them manually, make sure it’s with a lint-free cloth to avoid unruly effervescence!
FRANCE’S FINEST
THE BEST SPARKLING WINES OF THE SEASON: FRANCE’S FINEST
1. Taittinger Millesime Brut Champagne 2014, $125 This Grand Cru-dominant blend is made only in the best vintages and aged five years on its lees to gain added complexity. The result is a Champagne with great intensity and finesse, with elegant and crisp notes of red apple and citrus, hints of apricot, mineral and blossom, over a subtle hazelnut base. Stockists: Countdown; Glengarry; Vineonline; Fine Wine Delivery; Vintners.nz
2. Paul Launois Monochrome #1 Grand Cru Extra Brut Champagne NV, $82 This stylish Champagne is an exciting new find: from third-generation growers Julien Launois and his wife Sarah, who started making wines in 2015 from their small family estate in the Grand Cru village of Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. The Monochrome #1 is an impressive ultra-dry 100 per cent chardonnay, with a pure and poised palate of crisp apple and lemon, hints of almond paste, acidity and an intense flinty minerality. Stockists: Barewine.co.nz
3. Andre Clouet Grande Reserve Brut Champagne NV, $68 A 100 per cent pinot noir Champagne that offers great value. Its attractive notes of apple and stonefruit are underpinned by rich toasted brioche and hazelnut notes. All this is supported by a fine and fresh line of lemon and mineral salts and a fine mousse. Stockists: Black Market; New World; Dhall & Nash
4. Marion-Bosser Premier-Cru Brut Rosé Champagne NV, $90 Marion-Bosser’s impressive grower Champagnes are made by the mother and daughter team of Bernadette and Elodie Marion in the Premier Cru village of Hautvillers. Their elegant and fresh rosé Champagne combines delicate raspberry and redcurrant fruits with a suggestion of apple and almond pastry. Stockists: Threefrenchvines.com; Winedirect.co.nz; New World
NZ’S FINEST
BEST LOCAL BUBBLES
5. No 1 Family EstateReserve Marlborough Blanc de Blancs NV, $96 It’s perhaps no surprise that one of the top wines in this year’s sparkling tasting is made by a 12th-generation Champagne winemaker. Daniel Le Brun crafts this exquisite Reserve example in Marlborough, which layers white flowers, white fruits and citrus over subtle nutty, biscuity nuances, wrapped in a creamy mousse. The release is limited to just 1000 individually numbered bottles. Stockists: Glengarry; No1familyestate.co.nz
6. Koyama Waipara Methode Traditionnelle Brut Nature NV, $45 A delicious bone-dry pinot noir-dominant blend made in tiny quantities by Takahiro Koyama, in which rich notes of gingerbread and toasted breadcrust are counterpoised by a powerful line of lemony acidity. Koyama has had a growing focus on sparkling wine with his original label and at Mountford Estate, which he now also runs, and this is a fine addition to Aotearoa’s sparkling scene. Stockists: Great Little Vineyards; Hamilton Beer & Wine Co; Star Superette; By the Bottle; Natural Liquor
7. Mumm Marlborough Brut Prestige NV, $40 A decidedly Champagne-like local traditional method wine, from a collaboration between the Champagne House of Mumm and Pernod Ricard NZ, makers of the likes of Brancott Estate. It expertly juxtaposes richness with freshness in its notes of crisp apple and lemon curd, savoury praline undercurrent, and long nutty finish. Stockists: New World; Countdown; West Liquor; Liquorland; Super Liquor; Glengarry; Moore Wilson’s
NZ’S FINEST
8. Quartz Reef Bendigo Estate Methode Traditionnelle Central Otago Rose NV, $43 Refined strawberry and redcurrant meld with hints of rose-like florals, creamy notes and an appealing savoury dimension. A complex and compelling rose which finishes with a dynamic wave of freshness and lingering minerally note. Stockists: Glengarry; Fine Wine Delivery; Farro Fresh; Quartzreef.co.nz
9. Hunter’s MiruMiru Marlborough NV, $29 Hunter’s has been making its MiruMiru for two decades from the classic trio of Champagne varieties — pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier — over which time it’s established the wine as consistently offering great quality and value. Its latest release over-delivers once more with a lovely lemony freshness to the fore, joined by white fruits and more complex toasty, yeasty elements. Stockists: Fine Wine Delivery; The Good Wine Co; Wine Direct; First Glass Wine & Spirits; Primo Vino
10. Morton Estate Brut Methode Black Label NV, $20 Ridiculously good value for a traditional method sparkling wine, Morton’s pink-tinged crowd-pleaser ushers in baked apples, juicy lemons and a touch of toastiness. Rumour has it, its price may be rising soon, so stock up for the festive season and beyond. Stockists: New World; Pak’nSave; selected specialist liquor stores
EURO-FIZZ
EURO-FIZZ
11. Borga Prosecco Extra Dry, Italy NV, $25 Light, bright and bone dry, this is a lovely expression of prosecco from a family-run estate in the Treviso region of Veneto. Its crunchy green apples and mouth-watering lime join hints of stonefruit, perfumed with a touch of jasmine. Stockists: Caro’s
12. Vilarnau Barcelona Cava Organico Brut Reserva, Spain NV, $25 There’s plenty of richness to this organic cava, with its notes of spiced honey cake, baked apple, stonefruit, toasted nuts and bread characters, offset by crisp lemon. Full of flavour, gorgeous packaging and great value. Stockists: Caro’s; First Glass Wines & Spirits
13. Ramon Jane Tinc Set Escumos Brut, Spain 2019 $33-35 A biodynamic pet-nat made with wild yeasts and no added sulphur from local grapes in the cava country of Spain’s Penedes. It’s ultra-dry, pure and savoury in style, with brisk citrus and restrained apple and pear, laced with white pepper and herb, an underlying vegemite-savoury richness. Stockists: Star Superette; Cahn’s Wines & Spirits; Fine-O-Wine; By the Bottle; Cult Wine; Planetwine.co.nz
14. Sartori Prosecco Rosé Brut, Italy NV, $25 Following the popularity of prosecco and the fashion for drinks pink, prosecco rosé became an official denomination in Italy last year for bubbly made from the traditional white prosecco grape Glera and a dash of Pinot Nero (pinot noir) for colour. While some “ro-secco” can be on the sweeter side, the Sartori is a more serious dry style that’s fresh, citrusy and moreish with strawberry scented with rose. Stockists: New World; Dhall & Nash
15. Privat Reserva Brut Nature Rosé Cava, Spain 2018, $32 This very appealing bone-dry organic cava is made from a blend of pinot noir and chardonnay. It combines green apple and fresh lime notes, with more complex nuances of honey and toasted breadcrust. From: Hamilton Beer & Wine Co; Regional Wines; Stvincentscave.com
We all know it’s winter here in NZ, but did you know it’s also a very important time in our vineyards? The following article is taken from The Sisters’ latest wine newsletter. It gives you a great insight into what goes on in a Marlborough vineyard over winter to prepare for the next harvest – repeated with permission.
In the Vineyard
Winter a time for rest and repair
Buy your The Sisters wines from Countdown, select New World, Pak n Save, and online via Black Market.
After the frantic period of harvest in late summer and autumn and the excitement of grapes coming in and winemaking getting underway, winter seems a very still, quiet time. While this is true for the most part, important things are happening in the vineyard.
Row upon row of vibrant green, busy vines gradually change during autumn and early winter as the canopies begin to shut down, and the leaves change colour. Once brown, they fall to the ground, and the bare vines head towards dormancy.
And winter means pruning. This involves cutting off the canes (branches) that produced this year’s fruit and laying-down new fruiting canes that will bud come Springtime. There are many ways to prune vines, and methods are chosen based on the grape variety and the amount of fruit desired.
Generally, the more fruit it produces, the harder the vine must work and the more challenging it is to get it all ripe before the end of the growing season. This can lead to quality issues as grapes need to be ripe to produce flavoursome fruit with the right balance of natural sugars and acidity.
Once pruned, the vineyards are quiet, although buffeted with winter weather. It’s a period of rest and repair as their roots grow and strengthen, looking for the all-important nutrients from the soil, building up their resources in preparation for the growing cycle to start again in the Spring.
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Wine emojis to help you choose a bottle.
If you feel lost as to what wine to serve at your Moroccan-inspired dinner party this weekend, one website is on a mission to help – using a database of unique, and very cute, specialised emojis.
When lockdown forced Wellington’s Noble Rot Wine Bar to close in March 2020, three wine experts used the downtime to create a database of wine profiles. The ultimate goal was to simplify the wine-buying process for the average consumer.
Two years later, Wine-oji, is a website featuring 221 emoji-like images designed to help anyone pick the perfect bottle of wine, whether they know what wine they enjoy or not.
Noble Rot owners Josh Pointon and Maciej Zimny, with head sommelier Jessica Wood, launched Wine-oji last December. Wood says the response has been “amazing” from consumers and producers.
But what exactly is Wine-oji, and how does a collection of wine-related emojis help someone pick a bottle of wine?
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Wine-Oji was an idea born out of lockdown.
The website is a colourful, busy and interactive library of images used to describe flavour profiles, production methods and ideal food pairings for wines.
The list is pretty extensive. Images are allocated to primary aromas, such as fruits and vegetables, as well as floral notes such as jasmine and honeysuckle or earthy tones of oak and wet stone.
Secondary aromas, which come from the winemaking process, oak ageing, oxidation and bottle ageing include popcorn, butterscotch, oak, berries and fruit and tar and rubber, among others.
Wood says while the library of wine emojis is fun, the interactive “find your perfect match” section is where customers can hone in on exactly what they are after in a wine.
“You can search any winery or flavour,” she says. Users can also simply search for the food they plan to eat and find the perfect pairing.
“If you’re cooking snapper tonight, you can type snapper, and it will bring up all the wines that have any of those Wine-ojis allocated to the profile.”
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF The initial idea began when Wood realised she was fielding questions from customers at Noble Rot about what certain wines taste like.
She says the site also allows people to open their minds a bit to try new wines.
“[You can find] things you’ll actually like, rather than based on wine that’s discounted heavily at the store, or because you tried it before, or like the label. It’s actually all about your experience of the wine.”
The initial idea began when Wood realised she was fielding questions from customers at Noble Rot about what certain wines taste like, and what wines pair best with certain foods.
And so the idea of creating a database of flavours, profiles and distributor information began to form.
“We … started composing a list of the key aromas and flavours, and structural components of the wine, that we could then build into a bit of a library. That became the new language – the language of Wine-oji,” she says.
The creation of the images was hugely important, Wood says. They brought in a local graphic designer to help create the library. They needed to be well-designed, but they also had to appeal to people who are not wine experts.
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF People need no previous knowledge of wine to use the emoji wine website.
“They had to be easily recognisable, quite quickly, by the average consumer.”
“There is a huge problem in that people don’t know what wine they like, or what wine they should buy. There’s never really been an understanding of their flavour profile or their taste preferences.”
“We were thinking, how can we translate to people quickly and instantly what’s in their bottle of wine using images rather than words?” she says.
The resulting database is something Wood insists people need no previous knowledge of wine to use.
“You just need to know if you like something or not,” she says.
Using the interactive section of the site, a search for “lemon” results in 33 bottles of wine. Of those, two are Pinot Gris and 12 are Chardonnay. The selections can be further filtered by wine type or vintage.
For each bottle, the full Wine-oji profile can be viewed. There are eight sections: aroma, flavour, sweetness, acidity, body, oak, finish and food. Each is illustrated with the relevant Wine-ojis.
MONIQUE FORD/STUFF Wine-Oji will give you the nous to have a good nose for wine – no experience required.
My 2019 Main Divide Riesling, for instance, had an acidity rating of 4½ lemons out of 5. Its sweetness is only worthy of one lollipop, however, and in terms of the body, my chosen riesling shows 2½ bodybuilders out of a possible 5.
My chosen wine also pairs well with prawn skewers, pad thai, Moroccan couscous and snapper ceviche.
And after two years of creating an extensive database of wine-related imagery, what are Wood’s favourite Wine-ojis?
She has a few, including lily, jasmine and ginger. She is also a fan of the food pairings.
