KEY POINTS:
With few older winemakers behind them, it's great to see the young ones rising to the challenge here and really taking charge," Maude Wines' Dan Dineen enthuses about the New Zealand winemaking scene that he's recently entered. Bringing fresh ideas, the drive to experiment, international experience and the desire to make great wines, younger winemakers are driving much of the excitement in this youthful industry and are behind some of our most impressive new labels.
MAUDE WINES
Dan and his wife, Sarah-Kate (SK) are one such example. Their Central Otago-based Maude label, launched from the 2004 vintage, has swiftly made them a winery to watch. They're part of a growing number of 30-somethings who've honed their skills in established wineries before going it alone in their quest to make their ultimate wines.
Prior to setting up Maude, both held high-ranking winemaking positions in the Australian industry. Adelaide-born Dan was chief winemaker at wine luminary Len Evans' Tower Estate, following stints at Mount Pleasant and Brokenwood.
After starting her career in New Zealand, Central Otagan SK was manager/winemaker of Tempus Two, whose jaw-dropping winery she helped design.
"We probably had two of the best jobs in the Hunter, so people thought we were nuts when we said we were moving here," recalls SK. "We had a great time there, but we were ready to do our own thing."
One of the major forces that drew them back to New Zealand was the Mount Maude vineyard in Wanaka owned by SK's parents.
The couple were keen to start making wines from this individual site with its steeply terraced 14-year-old vines and took over the winemaking for the family estate on their return. However, while this remains separate from Dan and SK's Maude label, they have plans to release a reserve pinot of their own from the Mount Maude site.
Maude's small but impressive selection of wines are currently regional blends, with fruit from growers providing the many different elements of the finished wines. Of the pinot, Dan says: "We have Cromwell fruit as the foundation, Gibbston for structure and Wanaka for perfume - we've been really happy about how the parcels have come together."
One of the first things Dan and SK instigated on their arrival was the building of their own winery - a relative rarity in Central Otago where many boutique players rely on the services of the region's two large contract winemaking facilities. The Dineens now make their own wines here, as well as those of a number of other small players, which has enabled Dan and SK to encounter a wealth of different fruit from Central Otago's emerging sub-regions.
"We will set up our own vineyard eventually," says Dan. "However, we still don't know exactly where that will be, which is why we're making wine for other labels as it's interesting for us to see this wide variety of fruit."
PYRAMID VALLEY
While the Dineens decide on their ideal site, Pyramid Valley's Mike and Claudia Weersing have found theirs. However, it was only after an intensive four-year hunt that took Mike, spade in hand, up and down and down the country in search of the perfect combination of cool climes and limestone soils he considered crucial to making great pinot noir and chardonnay.
The Weersings eventually found their potential vin-utopia in 2000 in the as-yet vineyard-less terrain of Canterbury's Pyramid Valley, near Waikari. Having found this special site, they're intent on making wines that really speak about where they're from.
"In our home vineyard we've sponsored a marriage of limestone, to pinot noir and chardonnay, in an attempt to find a new vinous place-voice," explains Mike. "Every means we've adopted - biodynamics, close planting, low yields, natural winemaking - has been chosen more faithfully to discover, record and transmit this voice."
In the setting up of the Pyramid Valley vineyard, Mike has drawn much inspiration from his time studying and working in pinot noir and chardonnay's heartland of Burgundy in particular. However, as well as having worked with some of the legendary names of France, Mike, originally from California, has made wine in Germany, Spain, Oregon and Australia's Yarra Valley, before he and German-born Claudia moved to New Zealand in 1996 when Mike became winemaker at Nelson's Neudorf.
As well as making wines from their home block, Pyramid Valley also release wine in their Growers Series, "This allows us to work with admired friends and with varieties, soils, sites different than those at home," Mike says. This eclectic and intriguing range explores pinot noir from other sites across the country, as well as championing other often overlooked varieties, such as semillon and pinot blanc.
Next month sees the release of the long awaited first duo of pinots from their home vineyard. Preview tastings of the minuscule production of the Angel Flower and Earth Smoke pinots sourced from Pyramid Valley vineyard's two differently oriented slopes, suggest a place in the ranks of New Zealand's classic wines may well await them.
JULES TAYLOR
Being Marlborough born and bred, Jules Taylor is a rising wine star who's had more time than most to develop an intimate knowledge of the region she calls home and from which she makes the wines of her eponymous label. However, like many of the new generation of winemakers, the rising cost of land off the back of the success of more established wine regions, means that owning her own vineyard is something she can't yet afford.
"I haven't got enough money to buy land in Marlborough," laments Jules, who returned to the region in 2000 after working eight vintages in Italy and a number across the ditch.
But not being tied to a vineyard does have its benefits.
"In reality, it's a great model for people with our skill set and general lack of capital," she says. "I also believe that if you own a patch of dirt, you are limited to having to work with the flavour profile of the fruit coming from it. Being able to understand, search for and source fruit from vineyards in various sub-regions within Marlborough always leads to a better outcome in the wine."
Back in 2001 Jules released just 250 cases of her inaugural wine, while working as a winemaker for Kim Crawford. "The intention in the beginning was to make wines that I wanted to scoff myself," Jules admits. "And it has slowly evolved over the last few years to be based around obtaining fruits from unique vineyard sites and following the potential of this fruit into the bottle."
She is now assisted by her husband George Elworthy, a talented winemaker himself, which has helped her focus more on the Jules Taylor brand, which she juggles with her high-powered day job as chief winemaker for Constellation (formerly Nobilo).
Recent years have also seen the quality of her pure and vibrantly fruited wines attract growing attention, with her sauvignon blanc beating other Kiwi contenders to win the coveted Sauvignon Blanc Trophy at the last Air New Zealand Awards.
In the future Jules will be experimenting with making wines from new and interesting varieties, while keeping a very much hands-on approach as the label grows.
"In terms of world domination, we are still a long way off," she says. "But I always wanted to keep in touch with the wines and keep the wine quality and style intact as the brand evolves."
As our wine industry matures Jules considers honing existing styles and developing new ones crucial to retaining the world's interest in its wines.
"This can only be achieved by having a vital and enthused winemaking and viticultural fraternity, which is always forward focused," she says.
It's not going to be the "bean counters" that are behind this, thinks Jules, but the country's "vibrant family" of winemakers and viticulturalists. In this clan, it's the likes of Jules Taylor, Pyramid Valley and Maude, who in their quite different ways, are already helping to take New Zealand's wines to their next level.
WHERE TO BUY
Maude Wines: Caro's and selected fine wine stores.
Pyramid Valley: Kemp Rare Wines and selected fine wine stores.
Jules Taylor: Glengarry and selected fine wine stores.