Growing and making New Zealand wines

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32566, 27 March 1971, Page 10

Growing and making New Zealand wines

Wine in New Zealand. By Frank Thorpy. Collins. 170 pp. Appendices, bibliography, index. In this informative, frank and honest book, the author expresses highly favourable opinions about New Zealand’s potential as a producer of high quality wines; but he insists that potential is very far away, and he gives convincing reasons why. The book will not please everybody. Some growers might think it too critical and that the author searches for an elusive and, in the circumstances of the current market, unnecessary perfection. But

for the objective general reader this can hardly be a blemish on a book that shows the greatest goodwill towards wine in New Zealand, from the front cover to the back. This comprehensive survey of wine

in New Zealand, what it has been, what it is, and what it might be, begins at the very beginning. The history 'of wine in the New Worlds, Mr Thorpy explains, is the history of the missionaries. Wherever went the colonisers of new lands, not far behind them and in some cases accompanying them, went the missionaries. To celebrate the Sacraments, wine was needed; Fathers, Brethren, Pastors, seized every opportunity of planting vines. From Mexico in 1522, Cortes sent on behalf of the missionaries to Spain for vine cuttings. The Spanish Jesuits established vines in California. In South Africa it was the turn of the Calvinists. The missionary pattern broke in the case of Australia, but was restored in New Zealand where the honour of planting the first grape vines has, Mr Thorpy says, usually been conceded to Samuel Marsden. Mr Thorpy quotes references in Marsden’s letters and and journals to vines, which he thought “would do well from the nature of the soil and the climate.”

Naturally, the French settlers brought vine cuttings with them. An 1842 report to Colonel Wakefield, said of the French settlers at Akaroa that they “at once started to prepare their gardens and grow grapes, some of them developing their branch of horticulture to a high degree of efficiency making excellent wine therefrom.” "When the Italian, Romeo Bragato was lent to New Zealand in 1 1895 at the request of Richard Seddon he visited Akaroa and said of the district that it was "splendidly situated for the cultivation of the vine . . . and Akaroa would acquire world fame.” These and other historical snippets in the book testify to the extent of Mr Thorpy’s research into the literature of wine in New Zealand. As with other activities one can think of—mining, oil, exotic treegrowing—interest in wine in New Zealand waxed and waned over the years. Bragato came back to New Zealand in 1902, and under his direction Te Kauwata (established a few years before as an experimental nursery) became the centre for instruction in wine-making and viticulture. For a decade the industry prospered. Some notable names of persons and vineyards began to appear. In 1909, Bragato was able to report that 668 acres were under

vines. But apathy in high places, vine diseases, the growth of prohibition, the first world war, all had influences and by 1923 only 179 acres were under grape vines.

A revival of the industry was accelerated during the second world war, and reached 1000 acres under vines. By 1965, the figure had reached 1253 acres, by 1968, 1650 acres, and a remarkable increase in the last two years is responsible for a present estimate of about 3000 acres. What Mr Thorpy calls the third golden age of New Zealand wine making is at hand. Consumption has increased to the point where demand has outstripped supply.

But is quality matching quantity? In some cases that he mentions Mr Thorpy concedes that it is—but they are few. As he takes us on a tour of the individual vineyards of New Zealand, Mr Thorpy describes the merits of each and the weaknesses. We learn a lot about the types of grapes planted and how the selection of a prolific producer might mean an inferior wine to what might be obtained under similar soil and climatic conditions from a vine yielding rather less. Mr Thorpy tells us as we travel through the vineyards about soil and climate and about such vastly important matters to wine as effects of climate on the setting and ripening periods. By the standards defined by world research, New Zealand has a first-rate climate for producing wines of great delicacy and breeding.

Mr Thorpy notes a belief in the wine industry that the New Zealand taste is not yet attuned to the really good wines; consequently, the demands of an unsophisticated palate are what the wine industry is required to meet, and no more. Mr Thorpy mentions practices —adding sugar and water, for instance —that assist the demand for quantity, but detract from quality. Also, ready, demand for current production can render uneconomic the several years of storage necessary to bring some wines to their best. As Mr . Thorpy takes us through the plants associated with the various vineyards, we are brought to appreciate that if the palate of the average New Zealand drinker of wine

is unsophisticated, this description by no means applies to the processes by which the juice of the grape is conveyed from the fruit to the bottle. Most New Zealand wine-makers are highly skilled; indeed, in some of the small establishments (Mr Thorpy names a few) wines of most pleasing richness can be found. And the big establishments have strengths that readers will be happy to be told about. Establishments small and large exercise the traditional fine skills of the winemaker, and in some, traditional methods of processing and testing are assisted by the apparatus of modem laboratories.

Is there a future for New Zealand wines in the export market? Having visited and tasted wines in most countries of the world, Mr Thorpy thinks New Zealand would find it extremely difficult to compete at present, except with our finest wines such ?s Cabernet Sauvigon-and some white wines he mentions. His contention is that we must first put our house in order and make the quality of our wines such that no-one in New Zealand would want to buy an Australian or South African wine or run-of-the-mill French or German in place of them. That moment is not yet, he says, but it will come if the right attitude is taken by the Government and the winemakers. The first step must be to turn from hybrid varieties of grapes (which may be more prolific producers) to planting quality grapes in quantity. Mr Thorpy discusses the question of brandy and says that experiments have proved that we can make a brandy at least as good as the ordinary French brandy now bottled in New Zealand. A final chapter gives hints about the serving of New Zealand wine, when it should be drunk, and with what food. Care of wine and the establishment of a small cellar are discussed. Many will find a useful glossary of the terms commonly used in describing wines. The book is profusely and well illustrated, some illustrations being in colour. Greatly increased interest in New Zealand wine should ensure a wide and appreciative reception for an authoritative book on the subject that does not lack interest from beginning to end.