On tough harvests and the changing marketplace for wines.
This year in Hawke’s Bay and Martinborough (Wairarapa) we are seeing some challenging conditions where our talented growers had to fight off quite a bit of pressure with powdery mildew. The wet spring was followed by a very dry and hot stretch until early February where we have just seen two significant rain events. That dry ground has swelled up with water which consequently swelled the grapes with water. We are seeing splitting on some of the fruit and already signs of botrytis. Every 4 or 5 years we seem to get vintages like this in these regions. But what fun would it be if it was easy? The great wine regions of the world are always just on the cusp of disaster in certain vintages and sometimes even meet that disaster head on. In New Zealand, the vintages 2011 and 2017 come to mind when conditions were very tough but we made some great wines.
Tough times for farmers is a story as old as man settling down into agriculture societies. It might be a drama and near-devastation to us inside the industry, but I would guess that most of the people enjoying our wines year in and year out would just nod their heads and think ‘Cry me a river, you get to make wine for a living and sometimes its hard?! Try being a nurse or a teacher or running a restaurant in this day in age!‘ So I try to take it in stride and remind myself to do the best I can with what Mother Nature is giving.
While that might be a personal mantra, I have shifted and recognised certain things in the global wine marketplace that has better positioned myself. First of all, I moved to New Zealand because of its marginal, cool climate wine styles. I could have easily moved to Napa and made the same Cab Sauv every year if I had wanted. But I came here because NZ has wines of vibrancy, driven by phenomenal acid and unique fruit flavours. While I love some of the big reds Hawke’s Bay can produce, it has become a smaller and smaller portion of what I produce and even what I drink. Picking earlier to avoid big issues in the vineyard from previous or upcoming weather events is sometimes a necessity. But I’ve found even in the past four vintages that had very favourable conditions, I have preferred the wines I picked a bit earlier and came out a bit fresher.
This move to fresher wines, particularly reds, is also happening out in the wine market place. This is particularly important when exporting. When we send out a big red to the UK, the US, Australia, or really any wine market that truly understands and appreciates great wine, we are competing with the likes of Bordeaux, California, Italy, South America and Australia to name just a few. Each of these competitors also has a much larger critical mass and can produce huge volumes at lower prices that we simply cannot compete at. However, we have the advantage in producing vibrant, exciting styles of Syrah, Pinot Noir, Malbec and yes, even Merlot. Or how about blending them together (Crunchy Red anyone?).
So this year we will be stressed out picking and working in the winery. But we will do our best and probably produce some fresher styles. I will update next week when we may even start to begin picking….. :0
Cheers,
dB