What can you expect on a visit to the country's leading wine region?
Hunter's winery in Blenheim
Marlborough, long known for rearing sheep and All Blacks, now produces 70% of the country’s wine. Each year, about 1.5 million domestic and overseas visitors descend on the region, and if you want to taste some of those world-famous sauvignon blancs at their source, about 45 cellar doors are keen to serve you.
Last year, for the fifth year running, Wine Marlborough (the local winegrowers’ body) organised a Cellar Door of the Year competition, using mystery shoppers to evaluate the wineries’ knowledge and hospitality. Only five wineries that scooped a top “gold award” in 2010 repeated the performance in 2011 – Auntsfield, Clos Henri, Cloudy Bay, Forrest Estate and Hunter’s.
Top of the list for many visitors is Cloudy Bay, whose sauvignon blanc was once lauded in Punch as “New Zealand’s finest export since Sir Richard Hadlee”. Construction of the handsome concrete-slab winery in the heart of the Wairau Valley began in 1985. Today, from its spacious cellar door with floor-to-ceiling windows, you can gaze at the Richmond Range that inspired the elegant, uncluttered Cloudy Bay label. “Looking out the window of an Air New Zealand Friendship as we were landing in Blenheim,” recalled the founder, Western Australia winemaker David Hohnen, “I saw the three-tiered silhouette of the mountains in the distance and got an instant vision of the Cloudy Bay label.”
Cloudy Bay’s cellar door offers a free tasting of two “core” wines – the sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and pinot noir are all consistently impressive. For $5, you can taste any six wines from the range, and if you later buy a bottle or two, you get your money back. If you fancy a light lunch, you can buy a pizza for $15 and a glass of Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir for $9.
One of the newest arrivals on the scene is Brancott Estate Heritage Centre, on an elevated site overlooking Pernod Ricard NZ’s historic Brancott Vineyard, where Montana planted Marlborough’s first sauvignon blanc in 1975. Opened by Prime Minister John Key last October, the stylish flat-roofed building has a cellar door and a restaurant serving such local produce as hot-smoked salmon salad with oven-roasted beetroot and grilled asparagus ($26.50). Don’t miss the audiovisual on Marlborough sauvignon blanc – there’s a dramatic ending.
For a sense of the region’s modern-era wine history, it’s hard to go past Hunter’s – the only Marlborough vineyard established in the 1970s that is still owned by the original family. Since Ernie Hunter’s early death in a road accident in 1987, his widow, Jane, has established Hunter’s as a source of consistently satisfying, sharply priced white wines, especially sauvignon blanc and riesling. A villa draped with wisteria houses Hunter’s tasting room and Garden Restaurant, which also offers al fresco dining in the shade of mature trees. A visit to the 2ha garden will show you how the valley used to look.
In 2008, Marlborough honoured its first winemaker, David Herd, of Auntsfield, with the unveiling of a statue at Blenheim Airport. Herd, a Scotsman, planted his vineyard in 1873 in the foothills of the Wither Hills, on the south side of the Wairau Valley. Today, Auntsfield is owned by Graeme Cowley, a film producer and cinematographer, and his wife, Linda. Their sons, Ben, a viticulturist, and Luc, a winemaker, are also involved in the business.
The Cowleys have replanted Herd’s 1000sq m vineyard in the same variety (a type of red muscat) he is believed to have chosen, and restored the derelict cellar. For $15, you can book a tour of the historic vineyard site and cellar, where Auntsfield’s wines flowed for over half a century. From a 40ha vineyard on north-facing clay slopes and the valley floor, Auntsfield now produces a fragrant, creamy and complex chardonnay; a notably classy sauvignon blanc; and a deeply coloured, floral, rich pinot noir.
WINE OF THE WEEK
Goldwater Wairau Valley Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (★★★★★)
Classic Wairau Valley style with mouthfilling body and a strong surge of tropical-fruit flavours, deliciously fresh, rich, ripe and rounded. Fine value at $20.