Author/s: Susan Low Issue: August, 2001

Try this fun game next time you're feeling bored: ask your friends to name a famous New Zealander. Silence and raised eyebrows? Then ask them to name a famous New Zealand wine. Chances are that they'll answer quite readily "Cloudy Bay." When it first hit the streets, New Zealand Sauvignon blanc--and Cloudy Bay in particular--made the wine-drinking world sit up and take notice. All that exuberant, full-throttle fruit and aroma couldn't pass without comment--and it didn't.

Yet a few years on, New Zealand producers were getting jittery. They suspected that Sauvignon blanc would be a here-today, gone-tomorrow trend. For people in the wine business, where long-term planning is crucial, to be the equivalent of a one-hit wonder is bad news. So, like good businesspeople, they began to diversify--into red wines. Yes, it's true that Chardonnay remains the most widely-planted and widely-produced varietal in New Zealand, but, let's face it, Chardonnay is yesterday's news.

That New Zealand could make decent reds, however, was news of the more gripping "man bites dog" variety. New Zealand's first efforts with red wines were often disappointing, with unripe, green vegetal flavors and thin, weedy fruit, but viticulturists have been moving the game on very quickly. If this article had been written a mere five or six years ago, it would have been pretty short. Not any more.

Last year, production of Sauvignon blanc in New Zealand decreased by almost 25%. Although it is still the second-most harvested variety (after Chardonnay) it looks like its popularity is on the wane. Chardonnay production increased by almost 33% in 2000, closely followed by Pinot noir, which saw a 30% rise in production year on year.

The idea that Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot could meet with any success at all in New Zealand came as a surprise to many. The received wisdom was that New Zealand was too cold, too marginal, for any red varieties apart from (possibly) Pinot noir to be successful. Yet that theory has been proved wrong in a number of big international wine tastings, such as the International Wine Challenge, held each year in London.

That's not to say that all New Zealand reds are good; many are not, particularly those from cool or rainy vintages.

Cabernet Sauvignon is Tricky

Cabernet Sauvignon has proved a particularly tricky variety to grow. According to Tony Prichard, senior winemaker at Montana's McDonald winery in Hawke's Bay, "We had everything wrong. The sites were too vigorous, they weren't the right clones, the rootstock was the highest-vigor one you could get--it was recommended by some German guy. In France they'd laugh their pants off if you told them you had that rootstock."

Grant Edmonds, who makes some of the most generous, silky-textured reds from Bordeaux varieties at Sileni winery in Hawke's Bay, believes that Cabernet Sauvignon remains a difficult variety to grow in New Zealand. "Both Merlot and Cabernet franc ripen consistently well, even in cooler years, and rarely show that herbaceous methoxypyrazine edge so common with Cabernet Sauvignon," he says. You can understand why plantings of Merlot are on the increase, and why Cabernet Sauvignon is being treated with caution.

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