Nature and the vineyard are the true creators of Villa Maria’s most expensive wine.
Esk Valley
Descending from Taupo to Hawke’s Bay, State Highway 5 hits the coast at Bay View. If you turn south, heading towards Napier, you will soon pass Esk Valley winery, the home of some of New Zealand’s greatest reds. Above a cluster of old buildings, terraced vines clamber to the sky.
“The aspect to the sun is remarkable. It’s our hill of Hermitage,” says winemaker Gordon Russell, referring to rare, rich reds cultivated on steep vineyards in France’s northern Rhône Valley. Hermitage, however, is planted with syrah vines; this is malbec mountain.
Soon after Villa Maria bought Esk Valley (then called Glenvale) in 1987, the hillside, originally planted with vines in the 1940s but later established in pines, was replanted in malbec, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. The classic cabernet sauvignon variety, unfortunately planted in a section of the vineyard cooled by sea breezes, was removed in the mid-1990s.
Today, this densely planted, drought-prone vineyard yields an exceptional red wine – The Terraces. “I’m the custodian of one of New Zealand’s greatest vineyards,” says Russell.
From the chardonnay at the base of the hill, you ascend past cabernet franc and older malbec vines to plots of merlot and young malbec. At the crest, on scrubby land once part of Heipipi Pa, vines were planted recently for a second syrah-based red.
Sold on an en primeur (payment in advance) basis for $99 and otherwise on the shelves at around $125, The Terraces is one of New Zealand’s most expensive reds – but it’s also one of the most memorable, with bottomless depth. An excitingly bold, dark wine with intense, plummy, spicy, complex flavours, braced by firm tannins, it rewards cellaring for up a decade – even beyond.
Russell sees The Terraces as continuing “the whole French thing – you take the grapes from the terraced vineyard, put the wine into the barrel and then the bottle. It’s very simple.” The style of The Terraces, he says, is “what nature gives us”.
The land faces north to north-west, giving the vines long exposure to sunshine. The soils, uplifted over millions of years, are a complex mix of layers of shells, limestone, clay and river shingle.
The vines, up to 22 years old, are small: “They’ve had to struggle to survive,” says Russell. It’s an unusually hot, very early ripening site, and the vines’ yields are extremely low.
The Terraces is a triumphant expression of site selection and vine management, rather than vinification. “At the winery, it’s very hands-off. All three of the grape varieties go into a single, open-topped fermenter, so that removes blending options, allowing the vineyard and nature to truly create the wine.” Maturation is for up to 22 months in all-new French oak barriques.
Muscular, with a richness and ripeness rare in New Zealand reds, The Terraces is a dark, spicy, tannic red, with a distinctive dimension that reflects its unusually high malbec content. Malbec accounts for over 40% of the vines, followed by merlot and cabernet franc. The malbec, says Russell, gives “perfume, spice, tannin and brilliant colour”.
Production is limited to about 300 cases a year, and in many years – 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 – the label does not appear. A 2011 is unlikely.
It’s a classic cellaring style. At a recent tasting of the six vintages produced from 1991 to 2000, the stars were the dense, spicy, savoury 1995 – now at its peak – and the arrestingly powerful 1998. The 2002, 2004 and 2006 are all fragrant and flowing, dark and sweet-fruited, with great personality. The just-released 2009 vintage is rich, plummy, spicy, savoury and unusually smooth.
The wine is not entered in competitions, despite Villa Maria’s strong commitment to the show circuit. “It’s not a show wine,” says Russell. “It’s the most expensive wine made by the Villa Maria group – a symbol of what we can do.”