What do Gordon Ramsay and the Tate Gallery have in common?
Kevin Judd
Marlborough winemaker Mike Eaton certainly gets around. “I had a very interesting day yesterday,” he reported recently. “Tasted with Hamish Anderson, of Tate Gallery, who has listed our sauvignon blanc by the glass for a number of years. When he tasted the ’09 Eaton Pinot, he was quite taken aback and thought it was one of the best pinots to come out of New Zealand to date … Then I went to see Jan, the head sommelier at Gordon Ramsay, who echoed the sentiment. Quite remarkable, seeing your empty carton in Gordon Ramsay’s rubbish.”
The next day featured a tasting at Claridge’s, “then out to Oxford to have dinner and a tasting with the professor who buys for Oriel College. No rest yet …”
Eaton, who founded TerraVin Wines with his wife, Jo, entered the industry as a vineyard labourer for Montana. After nine years running a vineyard-contracting business, then working in three French wine regions – Burgundy, Pouilly-sur-Loire and the Jura – he returned to New Zealand, looking for land.
After planting “the first hillside vineyard in Marlborough”, Clayvin – later sold to Fromm Winery – the Eatons bought a steeply sloping, north-facing site with clay-bound soils in the Omaka Valley, where today their 4ha of vines are sufficient to make 800 cases of pinot noir, 400 cases of pinot gris – and “J”, a Bordeaux-style red named in honour of Jo.
Eaton, like the region’s other premium producers, is well aware that Marlborough’s large output of pleasant, affordable reds has hampered recognition of their achievements at the top end. “As more producers have developed better sites and lowered yields, and as vines have matured, we are starting to see the true potential of Marlborough … Almost exclusively, these [outstanding pinot noirs] come from the hillsides.”
Eaton loves Burgundy, the homeland of pinot noir. When he visited the famous region, he discovered a “harmony of fruit and terroir [soil, climate, topography and people] that fully reflects the village appellation and the grower himself. While the world homogenises itself in a lake of perfectly made, pure fruit bombs that have the individuality of Coca-Cola … it is this desire to be individual and true to the land that will see Burgundy live on.”
Four years ago, the personal demands of growing grapes, making wine and promoting it around the world started to get on top of the Eatons. “It was either bail out completely,” Mike told Winepress, “or downsize and concentrate on producing high-quality wine and aiming it at the top end of the market. We decided on the latter.”
Most of the 12ha vineyard was sold – to Spy Valley for its Envoy red – and Eaton looked forward to spending more time with his family. But three years ago the influential American publication Wine Advocate gave TerraVin glowing reviews, stimulating overseas demand – and another change of direction.
In March, a group of pinot noir lovers “from all over the world”, including Wellington financier and merchant banker Errol Clark and Auckland corporate lawyer Greg Horton, poured money into TerraVin. New sites for vineyard development have been bought or leased, including a 41ha property in the Awatere Valley. The goal is to focus on top-end pinot noir and develop a substantial export business.
Eaton is excited by the big move. “Let’s face it, I’m a grape grower who got so obsessive I had to make wine, so having someone who can govern and organise is fantastic …” Now with “men of comfortable means” backing him, he can get on with the job of creating a selection of “genuine small-production, ageworthy single-vineyard wines that might be seen in some of the fine cellars of the world”.
One of Marlborough’s greatest reds, TerraVin Eaton Family Vineyard Pinot Noir 2010 ($78), was estate-grown, fermented with indigenous (“wild”) yeasts, French oak-matured and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Deeply coloured, it is powerful and finely poised, with rich cherry, plum and spice flavours, showing excellent complexity and silky tannins. A very “complete” wine, it is likely to be long lived – although not at my house.