The Dalmatians and their wine

Clockwise from left, Joe and Peter Babich with their father Josip, the founder of Babich Wines. Photo / Babich Wines Archive, NZME.

To celebrate Auckland’s 175th anniversary, its demisemiseptcentennial, the Weekend Herald continues its series celebrating the growth of the city with a look at people who shaped Auckland. Today: “the Dallies” and their wine industry.

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One hundred years ago, a teenaged Josip Babich removed the boots in which he'd trudged through muddy swamps searching for kauri gum - and trampled delicate grapes with his bare feet.

At 14, he had sailed from Dalmatia to New Zealand to join four brothers digging for gum in the Far North; at 16 he made his first wine to satisfy weary Croatian diggers, with the juice from Isabella grapes he grew on the terraces above the Kaikino Swamp.

In 1916, he made his first wine for sale, toiling away in a windowless tin shed named "The Kaikino Wineshop", filling casks and bottles bearing the label, Babich Brothers.

It was a humble start - sometimes, Babich would ride 130km on horseback to sell his port and sherry.

As the gum began to dwindle, the Babichs moved south to a 29ha block of unbroken hill country they bought at the base of Auckland's Waitakere Ranges. It was there Josip Babich played his part in establishing the centre of New Zealand's wine industry in west Auckland, along with many other Croatian settlers before and after him.

Josip Babich was not the first. That honour belongs to Stipan Jelich - or, his anglicised name, Stephen Yelas.

Like 2000 of his countrymen, Yelas left the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire before the turn of the 20th century looking for a more successful life in Nova Zelanda - the land of many prospects. Most came from Dalmatia, a "kingdom" on the Adriatic Sea, now part of Croatia, where olives and grapes flourished and wine-making was deeply entrenched in its culture. Most of those men, like Yelas, ended up in the gum fields of Northland.

Ivan Selak, winery director and winemaker, checking the sparkling Champelle in 1981. Photo / Babich Wines Archive, NZME.

By 1895, Yelas had earned enough from gum to buy his own piece of gum-land in the Henderson Valley. He turned the earth with a spade and tied the vines of black hamburgh grapes to manuka stakes. Without a horse, it was back-breaking work. In spite of the vintage of hardships, Croatian winemakers endured through the first half of the 20th century, Yelas' Pleasant Valley Vineyard survived and still exists today, run by his family.

From the 1910s to the 1950s, it was a grim time to squeeze a living out of winemaking in New Zealand. Prohibitionists declared wine production "the devil's work"; even the Prime Minister William Ferguson Massey was not impressed by the demon "Dally plonk".

During parliamentary debate over licensing winemakers in 1914, Massey said: "Austrian wine has caused loss of life and it should be put down with very drastic measures ... I have never seen the stuff but I believe it to be one of vilest concoctions which can possibly be imagined ... from what I have learned it is a degrading, demoralising and sometimes maddening drink..."

Prejudice was rife - Croatians had been labelled "aliens" since the arrival of the gumdiggers. Some were taken from their homes and placed in work camps during World War I. Kiwis didn't care much for wine - New Zealand men drank beer. It wasn't until American servicemen came here during World War II that wine tastes were broadened beyond potent fortified wines.

It was the wine demand from the US troops that helped Josip Babich pay off his debts, so when his sons Peter and Joe joined him in the 1950s, the business - which began as New Era Orchard and Vineyard and became Babich Wines - could stand on its own feet. Josip no longer had to milk cows and sell vegetables to make ends meet. Next year the Babichs will celebrate a century since Josip sold his first bottle.

The wine industry buried its roots deep in West Auckland and, in the 1950s, almost all of the 80 small vineyards there were owned by Dalmatian families. Although urban sprawl has forced most of the vines out of Henderson - and Auckland winemakers now pull in grapes from all over New Zealand - the Croatian influence on our wine history is significant.

Michael Brajkovich with his father, Mate, grandmother Kate Brajkovich and mother, Melba, in 1989. Photo / Babich Wines Archive, NZME.

Other Dalmatian wine pioneers:

Selak:

Marino Selak arrived in New Zealand in 1904 and produced his first vintage 30 years later from his Henderson plot. His nephew, Mate, sailed to New Zealand and bought the vineyard in the 1940s. Even when the Government took the land to build the Northwestern Motorway, Mate continued to make wine in his basement before moving to Kumeu. The Selaks made New Zealand's first sparkling wine, Champelle.

Nobilo: After fleeing the threat of war in Croatia in 1936, Nikola and Zuva Nobilo bought a small rundown farm in Huapai. Between the grapevines they grew tomatoes and onions, supplying Auckland's Croatian restaurateurs. Nobilo Wines helped lead the move from hybrid grapes to classic varieties - specialising in sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. Like Selaks, Nobilo is now owned by the US-based drinks multinational, Constellation.

Brajkovich: Mate Brajkovich, one of the great personalities of the wine industry, came from Croatia with his parents in 1938. Learning to make wine with the Soljan family, he built up the San Marino Vineyard in Kumeu - renamed Kumeu River after switching from fortified to table wines. After Mate died in 1992, his wife Melba and their children continued the winery, renowned for its world-class chardonnay.

Mazuran: George Mazuran was one of the great lobbyists for New Zealand's fledgling wine industry, awarded an OBE for helping change restrictive winemaking laws. From the early 1940s, he grew his vines off Henderson's Lincoln Rd, making ports and sherries the Mazuran winery still focuses on today.

Yukich:

Ivan Yukich named his vineyard in the Waitakere Ranges "Montana" - from the Croatian word for mountain. Planting his first vines in 1934, he was joined by sons Mate and Frank to set up Montana Wines in 1961. First famous for its Wohnsiedler muller-thurgau, the company expanded into vineyards in Gisborne, Hawkes Bay and Marlborough.

Peter Fredatovich and his son, also Peter, harvesting at Lincoln Vineyards, Henderson. Photo / Babich Wines Archive, NZME.

Udjur:

Although his first vintage in 1915 was produced in a makeshift winery made from car packing crates, Simun Udjur soon grew Birdwood Vineyards in Massey into one of the largest wineries in the country. As an "Austrian alien", the pioneer viticulturist battled many laws and regulations and became a spokesman for the industry. After his death in 1953, the winery declined. The land is now a public reserve.

Fredatovich: In the 1930s, Petar Fredatovich built large totara barrels by hand to hold the wines he made at Lincoln Wines in Henderson. Four generations of Fredatovichs - all called Petar or Peter - have run the winery; its vineyards on busy Lincoln Rd are now swallowed up, but the cellar door remains.

Delegat: After buying 4ha of land on the Whau River on the Waitemata Harbour, Nikola Delegat - who left Croatia in the 1930s - became a vintner in 1947. With vineyards in Hawkes Bay and Marlborough, Delegat's is now New Zealand's largest listed wine company, and still has its winery in Henderson.

Fistonich: George Fistonich was just 21 when he decided carpentry wasn't his future, and leased 2ha of land from his father, Andrija, in Mangere to grow his own grapes. He began making wines under the name Villa Maria in 1961. This year, Villa Maria was recognised as the fourth-most-admired wine brand in the world by Drinks International.

Gradiska: Waiheke Island may be Auckland's new destination for wine buffs but the island's first vines were planted in 1929. Lovre "Lorrie" Gradiska, whose family were long-established winemakers, made fairly potent sherry and port - known on the island as "Purple Death" - at his Ostend Vineyards until the 1950s.

Stomping grapes and eating doughnuts

Stomping grapes at Soljans' Berba Harvest Festival continues to attract the crowds each Easter. Photo / NZME

Every Easter, the Soljan family brings a little of the Adriatic island of Hvar to northwest Auckland with the festival "Berba", celebrating the Croatian grape harvest.

Berba, which translates as "harvest", began in Croatia in the 18th century to celebrate the picking of the grapes for the new vintage.

In 1927, Bartul Soljan brought his young family from Hvar, a sun-drenched island in the Adriatic Sea, to West Auckland and established a vineyard on Henderson's Lincoln Rd. His eldest son, Frank, set up Soljan Wines in 1939 and the family business continued with Bartul's grandson Tony building his own winery in Kumeu.

The Berba tradition also endures. At Easter, the Soljans open their winery doors for the public to stomp grapes, drink novo vino - the new fermenting wine - and eat pasurates, Croatian doughnuts.

The Croatian community in Auckland is still strong, even though only 2673 New Zealanders identified themselves as Croatian in the 2013 census. Clubs like the Dalmatian Cultural Society in the central city and the Croatian Cultural Society in West Auckland aim to keep their culture, language and traditions alive.

Founded in 1930, the "Dally Club" in Eden Terrace has weekly classes teaching the Croatian language, the tamburica (a stringed instrument), and the folk dance, kolo. Te Atatu's Croatian Club has its own sports field and teams in soccer, cricket, rugby and lawn bowls.