Wine of the Rhine emulated

Press, 25 July 1984, Page 3

Wine of the Rhine emulated

A small pocket of land at Burnham could acquire the title “Rhine Valley of the Southern Hemisphere” if the conviction of a German family is correct. The Giesen family, from the famous Rhine Valley wine-making area in Germany, believe they can make white wines in Canterbury equal to the quality of those from their native country. The first vintage of wine from the Giesen Wine Estate will be launched on Saturday in true German style. “We chose this place for our vineyard because it has a climate more similar to the Rhine Valley than anywhere else in the world,” said the eldest of the three Giesen brothers, Theo.

“Most of the other places in the world where the Rhine riesling grapes are grown, such as South Africa and California, are far wanner. Here it is cold and

not too wet.” Research done at Lincoln College was used to find the desired micro-climate. Grapes grown in Marlborough were used for the first vintage of muller thurgau, Rhine riesling, gewurtzraminer, and sauvignon blanc wines. Next year the Giesen brothers hope to harvest and process between 20 and 30 tonnes of grapes from their own plantings and gradually phase out the “imports.” Theo and Alex Giesen, aged 25 and 24, the first of the family to come to New Zealand, started planting the 20-hectare property in 1980 with six varieties of stock. Over the next four years they put in 100,000 plants, 9000 posts, 18 tonnes of wire, built a processing and bottling store, and imported all the necessary wine-mak-ing equipment from Germany.

Two years ago their par-

ents, Gudrun and Kurt Giesen, emigrated to New Zealand, followed by the youngest brother, Marcel, late last year. Marcel, aged 19, is the wine-making expert in the family. While his elder brothers were in New Zealand planting grapes, he stayed in Germany “learning the ropes” at a winemaking college. “Without Marcel’s expertise we would not have gone into this venture,” said Theo Giesen. “We always had a little vineyard in Germany, but had never made wine. You need someone with training to do that and there is always a risk with employing a stranger.” In two years Marcel graduated top of a course that normally takes three years to complete, during which time he processed some three to four million litres of wine. He will return to Germany in Septem-

ber for the vintage to see some special production systems. Wine-making, he said, was not always what one read in books. Knowing what was written between the lines and keeping up with the latest techniques was the secret. German chemicals were used for this year’s vintage so that Marcel could use ones he was familiar with. “Already we have been able to achieve the same quality wines as those I was making in Germany. I have been surprised at how good this first vintage is,” he said. Theo Giesen is confident about the future for the family’s and other New Zealand wines, in spite of talk of a wine glut in Europe. “New Zealand makes good-quality table wines and there are good export prospects for this.. The wine glut is mainly from the

south of France and Spain and always very low-grade wine,” he said.

The outlook for the whole wine market was very sound. Australia, Japan, Asia, and even Europe were good export prospects. “We know quite a few importers from the area where we come from and they have said, ‘Show us your wine and we will buy a little’. Many people in Europe collect wines from around the world and they will buy some bottles from New Zealand.”

There was no point in New Zealand wine-makers cutting prices and trying to sell in bulk because it was the quality wines that sold well, he said. “No-one ever complains of a glut of Rhine riesling wines. Three out of 10 vintages in Germany are bad because of weather problems, but with the climatic conditions here we can virtually have a good vintage every year.”