When Kim and Erica Crawford sold the Kim Crawford brand back in 2003, it was fair to say the New Zealand wine industry stood back, scratched its collective scalp and wondered what on earth these two vin-trepreneureal powerhouses would do next.
The silence stretched for years until the Crawford's revealed they were planting grapes on a barren sheep paddock, high up in the hills overlooking Marlborough's Awatere Valley. And they were going to go completely organic.
Blocks were planted in varieties proven to do well in the Awatere such as pinot noir, riesling, pinot gris and sauvignon blanc. But there was one triangular patch on the top of the hill on the eastern side of the property that they'd decided to get a little crazy with. They called it G Block, where experimental plantings of arneis, viognier, chenin blanc, gewrztraminer, moscato, pinot blanc, sauvignon gris, st laurent and tempranillo were soon sprouting buds. But was bloody hard to get them to grow.
For starters there were the relentless, chilling winds that rip at 110kmph for 10 months of the year. Then there were the difficult, depleted soils and pastoral land surrounded the property in every direction. The problem is that land is riddled with grassgrubs, which grew into bronze beetles, which attacked the vines constantly. "They target the bunches first, then they attack your growing shoots," says Kim.
The viognier didn't grow; they've only had two crops of gewrztraminer, the tempranillo was just as tragic, and sadly, after releasing a tiny clutch of delicious wines from G block, they've gone back to the drawing board.
