Marlborough’s red revolution

This story was written by BRENDON BURNS for the September 2023 edition of Winepress.

Patrick Materman began wine work in 1990, riddling Montana’s first release of Deutz Méthode Champenoise, a blend of Chardonnay and several ‘Pommard’ and Swiss Pinot Noir clones. Little did Patrick realise that within a few years he’d be overseeing the production of quite possibly more Pinot Noir than any other winemaker in the world.

Andy Frost, Patrick’s colleague at Montana, first produced a Montana Pinot in 1989, using clones that proved more suited to sparkling wine. It didn’t take off, but by the early 1990s the red revolution was already fermenting. People like Mike Eaton (Clayvin) and Hätsch Kalberer (Fromm) were trying different clones on sites that included the southern valleys off the Wairau Plain.

Patrick recalls a lot of Pinot Noir excitement in the Marlborough winemaking community, even though most of their time was devoted to the region’s star. “Sauvignon Blanc is mostly made and sold as a fresh, bright wine with less winemaker influence. Winemakers get deeply passionate about Pinot Noir as a variety – they like to stamp their own style.”

There were annual Southern Pinot Noir workshops in Hanmer Springs (which continues) where Marlborough winemakers from the likes of Villa Maria, Cloudy Bay, Nautilus, Hunter’s and Auntsfield mixed with other New Zealand Pinot producers, doing comparative tastings and swapping information. “I’m trying to think of another industry where direct competitors get together to share knowledge to develop a better product,” Patrick says.

By this time, Montana was producing a Reserve Pinot Noir, selling for around $25 – the minimum wage then was $7.70 and it’s now $22.70, so that’s closer to $70 in today’s prices. In 2001, Montana released what this wine reviewer then billed ‘Pinot Noir for the masses.’ This admittedly lighter bodied, but still appealing and drinkable wine, sold for as little as $11.

To achieve this, the company had planted significant areas of Pinot Noir at its new Kaituna and Squire vineyards and replanted some of its Fairhall blocks. Montana also planted 40 to 50 hectares of Pinot Noir at Seaview in the Awatere Valley, and at the Terraces Block in upper Brancott Valley. “That was the first of the Dijon clones, which in time drove greater depth of flavour and complexity to the wines,” Patrick recalls.

Before long, Montana had more than 300ha of Pinot Noir planted in Marlborough and was crushing 3,000 tonnes, creating speculation at the time that it could be the world’s biggest producer. Also expanding were others like Delegat and Villa Maria, with its Seddon and Taylors Pass single vineyard Pinot Noirs, which Patrick observes have been a standout.

Between 2003 and 2008, Damian Martin led the development of 90ha of Pinot Noir in high density plantings at Ara Vineyard on Bankhouse Station, which was the largest single planting of Pinot Noir in the country. With Bankhouse Vineyard now under Indevin Group ownership, it remains the largest single Pinot Noir planting in the country, and a site Patrick is thrilled to be working with as their director of winegrowing.

Marlborough’s Pinot Noir plantings grew rapidly from less than 500ha in 2000 to more than 2,000ha by the end of the decade. However, with more certain demand for Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, the planting of Pinot Noir slowed.

Wineries also faced huge investments in smaller tanks, open-top fermenters with plunging systems, and oak barrels, as well as swings of up to 40% in yield, with early-ripening Pinot Noir facing more frost and flowering risk. This, coupled with highly manual vineyard practices, are reasons few growers have chosen to produce the challenging variety, Patrick says.

From around 2003 onwards, the focus increasingly went on quality, developing subregional expressions. Marlborough’s distinct red fruit style, aided by the region’s more bankable climate, still sees its 2,637ha produce about half of New Zealand’s Pinot Noir. Viva la revolution .

Few would have predicted Marlborough’s rapid ascent to become one of New Zealand’s preeminent – and internationally renowned – wine-growing regions. From August 2023 the region’s winemakers and growers are celebrating 50 years of Marlborough’s official beginning as a wine region, and inviting the country to re-discover the depth of Marlborough wine.

Discover the history of our region’s wine brands and explore stories about our people and place that make it special here. https://www.marlboroughwinenz.com/2023

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