New Zealand’s Pellucid Wines: More Light Than Heat

New Zealand’s wine industry and its grape vines continue to grow and mature. I experienced the country’s blinding summer sunshine up close and personal earlier this year, but its vibrant wines kept me consistently refreshed. I tasted more wines than ever before that deliver complexity and place character, not just varietal fruit. And the recent succession of benevolent growing seasons has been a boon for ripeness without heaviness. 

This Year’s Coverage

My coverage of New Zealand wine in recent years has focused mostly on Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, the country’s most consequential categories. I cast a wider net this time around, as my two weeks in New Zealand in late January and early February allowed me to taste a broader range of varieties at a number of the best addresses. I was also able to sample many other wines at a series of group tastings and events, some of them centered around the Central Otago Pinot Noir Celebration in Queenstown and the International Sauvignon Blanc Conference in Blenheim during the peak of New Zealand’s summer. I followed up by tasting (and retasting) many additional wines in New York City in February, March and April.

Mt. Difficulty's Pipeclay Terrace vineyard

On this trip, I spent time on Waiheke Island, in Hawke’s Bay, in Marlborough, and in Central Otago but also tasted most of the top wines from other regions such as Martinborough in Wairarapa, the Waipara Coast on the South Island, and Nelson (as well as a few wines from North Otago). 

A Very Young Wine Industry

Although grape-growing and winemaking in New Zealand go back to the 1830s, by the late 1960s the wine industry was marginal at best. At that time, New Zealand had barely a handful of vines, mostly in Hawke’s Bay and Auckland on the North Island. Here the original focus was on Cabernet and Bordeaux blends, but even in this subtropical climate these grapes struggled to ripen and were frequently thwarted by cool temperatures and early-autumn rainfall. A common greenness in these wines, along with their relatively high prices, has limited the appeal of these wines in export markets. (Today, increasingly, Merlot performs well in Auckland and in Hawke’s Bay, since it ripens earlier than the Cabernets.)

In the history of New Zealand’s burgeoning wine industry, Martinborough evolved first as a promising source for Pinot Noir in the late ’80s and ’90s. But in the last 25 years, and especially since the turn of the new century, it has been the stunning success of Marlborough’s Sauvignon Blanc that transformed the New Zealand wine landscape. Meanwhile, Central Otago, in the middle of the South Island, had barely existed as a source of high-quality Pinot Noirs for the outside world until the year 2000; but rapid growth in vine plantings and wine quality have made Central Otago the second big success story in New Zealand’s modern age of viniculture. And Syrah has found a home in poorer soils in Hawke’s Bay and Waiheke Island, which typically produce lower yields and can more frequently ripen their fruit.