New Zealand (wine)

New Zealand wine is produced in several of its distinct winegrowing regions. As an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, New Zealand has a largely maritime climate, although its elongated geography produces considerable regional variation from north to south. Like many other New World wines, New Zealand wine is usually produced and labelled as single varietal wines, or if blended, winemakers list the varietal components on the label. New Zealand is best known for its Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, and more recently its dense, concentrated Pinot Noir from Marlborough, Martinborough and Central Otago.

While New Zealand wine traces its history to the early 19th century, the modern wine industry in New Zealand began in the mid-20th century and expanded rapidly in the early 21st century, growing by 17% a year from 2000 to 2020. In 2020, New Zealand produced from of vineyard area, of which ha (about two-thirds) is dedicated to Sauvignon Blanc. Nearly 90% of total production is exported, chiefly to the United States, Britain and Australia, reaching a record in export revenue in 2020.

History

Winemaking and viticulture date back to New Zealand's colonial era. British Resident James Busby, a keen oenologist who had also established wine regions in Australia such as the Hunter Valley, was producing wine on his land near Waitangi for locally stationed British soldiers in 1836., In 1851, French Marist missionaries established a vineyard in Hawke's Bay for making Communion wine. Now part of the Mission Estate Winery, it is the oldest commercial vineyard in New Zealand. William Henry Beetham is recognised as being the first person to plant Pinot Noir and Hermitage (Syrah) grapes in New Zealand at his Lansdowne, Masterton, vineyard in 1881. In 1895, the New Zealand government's Department of Agriculture invited the expert consultant viticulturist and oenologist Romeo Bragato to investigate winemaking possibilities. After tasting Beetham's Hermitage, he concluded that New Zealand and the Wairarapa in particular were "pre-eminently suited to viticulture." His French wife, Marie Zelie Hermance Frere Beetham, supported Beetham in his endeavours. Their partnership and innovation to pursue winemaking helped form the basis of modern New Zealand's viticulture practices. Dalmatian immigrants arriving in New Zealand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought with them viticultural knowledge and planted vineyards in West and North Auckland. Typically, their vineyards produced table wine and fortified wine to suit the palates of their communities.

For the first half of the 20th century, economic, legislative and cultural factors made wine a marginal economic activity. The most common use of land in New Zealand during this period was for animal agriculture, and the exports of dairy, meat, and wool dominated the economy. Most New Zealanders were of British descent, and favoured beer and spirits; the temperance movement further reduced the national appreciation for wine. The Great Depression of the 1930s also hampered the growth of the fledgling industry.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, these factors that had held back the development of the winemaking industry simultaneously underwent subtle but important changes. In 1973, Britain entered the European Economic Community, which required an end to the historic trade terms for New Zealand meat and dairy products. This led ultimately to a dramatic restructuring of the agricultural economy. Before this restructuring was fully implemented, diversification away from traditional "primary" products—dairy, meat and wool—to products with potentially higher economic returns was explored. Vines, which produce best in low moisture and low soil fertility environments, were seen as suitable for areas that had previously been marginal pasture. The end of the 1960s saw the end of the New Zealand policy known as the "six o'clock swill", where pubs were open for only an hour after the working day ended and closed all day Sunday. The same legislative reform saw the introduction of BYO ("bring your own") licences for restaurants, which had a marked effect on New Zealanders' appreciation of and approach to wine.

Finally, the advent of jet airliners in the late 1960s and early 1970s ushered in the "OE", short for "overseas experience", where young, typically well-educated New Zealanders spent time living and working overseas, often in Europe. The ensuing exposure to wine while abroad subsequently stimulated demand within New Zealand.

First steps

In 1973, Montana Wines, now Brancott Estate owned by Pernod Ricard, planted Marlborough's first vineyards and produced its first Sauvignon Blanc in 1979, labelled by year of production (vintage) and grape variety, in the style of wine producers in Australia. That year, superior quality wines of Müller-Thurgau, Riesling and Pinotage were also produced. Good Cabernet Sauvignon wine from Auckland and Hawke's Bay bolstered the industry with ever-increasing investment, vineyard plantings, rising land prices and greater local interest and pride. The result of this boom was over-planting, particularly in hybrids and less well regarded but high yield varietals such as Müller-Thurgau. Hoping to address this issue, a 1984 government initiative paid growers to pull up vines, but many growers used the grants to swap these varieties with more fashionable ones, particularly Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, often keeping the old rootstock. This, combined with the introduction throughout the 1980s of much improved canopy management techniques to reduce leaf vigour and improve grape quality, set the New Zealand wine industry on course for recovery and greatly improved quality.

Sauvignon Blanc breakthrough

By the 1980s, wineries in New Zealand, especially in the Marlborough region, were producing outstanding Sauvignon Blanc. It was in 1985 that the Sauvignon Blanc from Cloudy Bay Vineyards finally garnered international attention and critical acclaim for New Zealand wine. Wine writer George Taber recounts Cloudy Bay is "what many people consider to be the world's best Sauvignon Blanc". New Zealand's reputation is now well established; Oz Clarke wrote New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc was "arguably the best in the world", and Mark Oldman wrote "New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is like a child who inherits the best of both parents—exotic aromas found in ... the New World and the pungency and limy acidity of an Old World Sauvignon Blanc like Sancerre."

Climate and soil

Wine regions are located mostly in free draining alluvial valleys—Hawke's Bay, Martinborough, Nelson, the Wairau and Awatere valleys of Marlborough, and Canterbury—with the notable exceptions of Waiheke Island, Kawarau Gorge in Central Otago. The alluvial deposits are typically the local sandstone called greywacke, which makes up much of the mountainous spine of New Zealand.

Sometimes the alluvial nature of the soil is important, as in Hawke's Bay where the deposits known as the Gimblett Gravels represent such quality characteristics that they are often mentioned on the wine label. The Gimblett Gravels is a former riverbed with very stony soils. The effect of the stones is to lower fertility, lower the water table, and act as a heat store that tempers the cool sea breezes that Hawke's Bay experiences. This creates a significantly warmer mesoclimate.

Waipara, in Canterbury, represents another soil type. The Omihi Hills, part of the Torlesse group of limestone deposits, are located here. Viticulturists have planted Pinot Noir here because of the French experience of the affinity between the grape type and the chalky soil on the Côte-d'Or

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