Thursday, June 10, 2010

Waipara


My next leg of the trip was down to the Waipara valley, about an hour north of Christchurch. Approaching the valley, everything in every direction was covered in frost. My first appointment was with Muddy Water (the English translation of the Maori word Waipara) Vineyards, a very difficult winery to locate. I think there is some unwritten rule that the better the wine, the smaller the winery’s sign and the larger the potholes on the road leading to it. I can say without reservation that Muddy Water is a prime example of this phenomena. I arrived slightly late but was made to look punctual by the much tardier arrival of a concurrent visitor from the new New Zealand government's new $1.2 million initiative to promote high end New Zealand wine in United States markets. I was quite happy to wait and we took the tour together.

The viticulturalist, Miranda Brown, took us on a walk through the vineyards. She showed us their vineyards, all of which are managed and cared for by Miranda and the rest of the team. They are certified organic and utilize many biodynamic practices, using cover crops, compost, and animals to eat weeds. Cover crops are any plant that, when planted between rows of vines, produces a beneficial effect of some sort. Many cover crops provide a habitat for beneficial insects or microbial life, legumes fix nitrogen in the soil, while other cover crops break up the soil and provide better drainage. From beginning to end of the season, the vineyard is cared for by Miranda and the rest of the winery crew, without outside labor. This is part of the ethic of Muddy Waters, of having the same hands on the wine from beginning to end. This is followed down to the Nth degree: even the harvesting is done solely by the permanent crew.

In the winery, where Belinda Gould is winemaker, we tasted through an impressive array of wines from a vertical range of vintages. The Rieslings were amazing, ranging in style quite widely. My favorite had a lower amount of residual sugar, close to dry, balanced but sharp and with focus. The Pinot Noir’s were excellent as well, showing the ability to age, as the older vintages tasted the best. As during previous tasting with screwcap enclosed wines, I could see that wines under screwcap are able to age quite well, maintaining their fresh young character while also developing aged aromas and softened tannins. All in all, it was perhaps the happiest day of my life.

I then visited Mountford Estate just down the road. I was greeted by Takahiro, the assistant winemaker who works closely with the wine. He led me through a tasting of their wines. My favorite, as he predicted, was the 2007 Mountford Estate Pinot, from all estate grown fruit. It had a nice balance of brooding aromas and masculine tannins that I enjoyed thoroughly. Mountford has the interesting distinction of having a blind winemaker, C.P. Lin. C.P.'s background is well summarized here: http://www.winebiz.com.au/features/default.asp?VIEW=86

From Mountford I moved on to Pegasus Bay, a beautiful winery with a beautiful restaurant. I sat down with one of the brothers, Paul Donaldson. He was a top man, very welcoming, starting the tour with a generous lunch and tasting through a wide range of their wines, over various vintages. Perhaps the most interesting was a side by side comparison of 2003 Pinot Noirs, one under screwcap and the other under cork. After seven years of aging, the cork-enclosed wine was tasting well but was showing it's age and had lost much of its youthful aromas. The screwcap wine tasted aged as well, having softened on the palate and developed some aged aromas. But it had also preserved an intensity of fruit and youthful character. I think I am finally convinced: screwcap wines age better than cork wines.

It was another good day on the wine trail. I quickly hurried into Christchurch, where I would spend the night. I was able to meet up with Cris Carter, who was the assistant winemaker at Penner-Ash winery when I worked a vintage there in 2008. We went to a concert that night, the New Zealand group “Fat Freddy’s Drop.” They played an excellent show, and Cris and I were able to catch up on what we’d been up to over the years. Most recently, he had been working at Carrick Winery in Central Otago, one of the wineries I would visit on the next leg of my tour.

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