The New Zealand Wine website (the trade group for nation’s winegrowers) describes the Nelson/Tasman region, where some of the country’s best wine is produced, as “slightly off the beaten track“.
I would beg to differ. At the end of an afternoon with Vintage Wine Tours, a company that specializes in wine tasting, I’d have to say that Nelson is at the very epicenter of the action.
Located on the Northern tip of the South Island, this region is blessed with high sunshine hours, a sheltered, moderating coastal climate and free-draining, semi-fertile soil. (Yes, semi-fertile, even gravelly soil is what you want to produce great grapes).
The Nelson area produces outstanding Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and a mix of emerging varieties. These include Albariño, Reisling, Viogier and others.
There’s a century and a half of viticulture in this neighborhood–German settlers first grew grapes here in the mid-19th century. It’s also been a center of production for tobacco, hops and apples ever since. The latter two are still cultivated here.
According to Rod Malcolm, founder of Vintage Wine Tours (who deftly guided us around), the top three wines in the area are Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay.
“Both Marlborough and Nelson grow the same grapes,” says Malcolm. “In both places, the cooler temperature is more suited for white wine so other than Pinot Noir, you’re generally not going to find people growing grapes for reds.”
A Vintage Tour
After a brief stop at the Aronui vineyard, which is the only Maori-owned wine-maker in the country, we stopped at Kina Beach Vineyards, a boutique vineyard owned by a Swiss family. It has some amazing views of the Tasman Sea and some nifty couples-only accommodations on the property for at NZ$250 per night in a cottage and NZ$400 in a former 1930s era schoolhouse.
We sampled three white wines– Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and a Reserve Pinot Noir. Of the three we liked the Chardonnay the best. Winestate magazine, a local trade publication, awarded Kina Beach Reserve Chardonnay 2010 five stars.
Kina Cliffs, our third stop, is an 8-acre family owned boutique vineyard. It’s situated near Kina Peninsula cliffs, with great vistas of Tasman Bay and across to the Western Ranges. Both owners, Julie and Alistair Ashcroft, grew up on farms so hard work and getting their hands dirty, were not foreign concepts.
According to the Ashcrofts, the location is a salubrious factor, both for the health of the vineyard and flavor of the wine. The nearby Kina cliff face exposes the Moutere clay gravel subsoil that also lies beneath the vineyard. The sea breeze promotes air-flow around the vines and minimizes frost damage in the winter.
We sampled four of their wines and liked the Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc the best.
Rimu Grove, owned and operated by Patrick Stowe, a native of Napa Valley, was stop number 4. The Vineyard was planted in 1995 and consists of a little over 17 acres of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris vines. It’s easy to like the location, where you can quaff great wine at a picnic table on the north facing slope of the Bronte Peninsula overlooking the Waimea Inlet. The wines produced by this vineyard are yet another product of the ancient glacial gravels of the Moutere Clays.
Simon Thomas, who poured our wine, clearly had an Epicurean side. He discussed each wine’s nuances and how to pair it with food. For example, Gewurtztraminer works well with spicy food and Riesling with fish. “The oak from Chardonnay,” he explained, “should never dominate the taste of the wine.”
Rimu Gove produces a variety of reds and whites. Our favorites were the Riesling, Chardonnay, and, the Gewurtztraminer. It was the only outstanding Gewurtztraminer we had on our visit to New Zealand.
Our final stop on the afternoon of epic wine tasting was at a restaurant called Cellar Door which served us wines from Waimea Estates. The restaurant is also an indoor/outdoor environment shaded by trees in one section and a canopy in the other. In true New Zealand style, it was unpretentious and friendly.
We sampled a number of white wines including Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and the most memorable, an unusual offering, Sauvignon Gris (2015). The winery describes it as a “cousin” of Sauvignon Blanc, with a “roundness and intensity of fruit that projects it into a more tropical clime”. Think of it as a New Zealand style Sauvignon Blanc on fruity, tropical steroids. I liked it.
True to its Kiwi conservationist roots the winery also contributes funds to help sustain New Zealand’s Tuatara which is often referred to as a living fossil and is the world’s only remaining living link to the dinosaur.
They have done this by establishing a separate line of Spinyback wines.
Every purchase of a Spinyback bottle provides funding to further education and conservation of the creature. Waimea Estates assists both the New Zealand Department of Conservation and Ngati Koata (pronounced “Narti Ko Arta”, Nelson’s local Maori Tribe) in their efforts to protect this species.
Part and parcel of the tour is a visit to a restaurant. On this day, Rod took us to an informal eatery called Jester House Café. It was packed with customers of every demographic. An indoor/outdoor affair, it also has a playground for youngsters adjacent to the restaurant. A small creek with “pet” eels winds below the restaurant. Entrees are reasonably priced in the NZ $25 range. We had a pan-fried Gurnard, a local delicacy with delicate white flesh. (No, they don’t serve eel).
Conclusion
Our host Rod Malcolm provided a tour de force of Nelson-area wines ranging from large operations, where product is exported overseas to niche boutique wineries that are only distributed domestically.
Not only did we get a cross-section of fine wines from a variety of micro climates, but he offered a primer on local history and culture.
On a practical note, Rod made it easy to appreciate a wine tasting both by providing information and transportation. There is no way an outsider could have navigated the highways and byways of Nelson wine country (whether sober or drunk). Having someone else transport and inform you, was a real blessing and worth every cent. Tariff for visiting five wineries plus lunch was US$133.
(Top photo of Aronui vineyard courtesy of NZ Wine. All other photos by Robert Kay and Philippe Guesdon).
Rob Kay, the author of two titles (Fiji and Tahiti) for the Lonely Planet series, writes for the business and health sections of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and is the editor of Fiji Guide, an online travel guide to Fiji.