Rising fame

Press, 9 August 1988, Page 15 (Supplement)

Rising fame

Te Whare Ra is a small and little-known winery in Renwick with a philosophy of producing wine for winedrinkers rather than wine judges. Its owners are two dedicated but strictly nononsense winemakers, Allen and Joyce Hogan. In Alien’s own words, he is “a self-professed shooterdown of romantic claptrap” about winemaking. In spite of, or perhaps because of, their down-to-earth attitude, the Hogans wines are starting to attract both attention and acclaim. The varietal Duke of Marlborough series and the red Sarah Jennings labels are unlikely to be found on shop shelves.

Te Whare Ra sells 80 per cent of its wines to private mail-order customers and most of the rest at the door.

As they produce only 2000 cases in each vintage, wouldbe customers have to be in quickly. The Hogans’ most talked about wines are the dessert wines, made using the. Botrytis or Noble rotted process, and Allen is now acknowledged as the country’s finest Botrytis winemaker. Their reds have also been praised, and Allen believes that although Marlborough is more commonly seen as a white wine area, it is capable of producing some of the greatest reds New Zealand has seen. He sees the trend moving away from “gutsy,” high pH reds to more refined, elegant wines — the sort New Zealand winemakers have been producing for years.