A Wine Lover’s Progress

Near closing time in the Porirua Tavern in 1967 – note in the right foreground the bartender holding a beer hose.

New Zealand actually had a nascent wine industry in the late 19^th century, but it was destroyed by prohibition and would not re-emerge until I was well into my adult years. As a child I had no experience or knowledge of table wine, in fact the only wine I ever saw before leaving school was “sweet sherry”.  Despite beer drinking (and smoking!) being hallmarks of the cool set, I never developed a taste for either. At 17 years old I briefly flirted with binging on locally produced “port”, but the rugged aftermath cured me and by 18 I wasn’t really drinking much at all.

My 24th year, and second at Victoria University (1978) saw my first real wine encounter. Coinciding with the beginning of the long summer break, the Wellington Club was looking for an “evening steward” to serve food and drinks in this exclusive establishment. I got the job and became acquainted with the wine served almost exclusively, with meals. I remember most of these were Australian, Queen Adelaide Claret comes to mind, as well as McWilliams White Burgundy and Mt Pleasant Shiraz, all of which I had opportunity to taste from meal leftovers.  I remember the head steward explaining to me his preference for Burgundy over Claret and having no idea what he meant. The Club also had a cellar where members could purchase wine to take home. Staff also had purchasing benefits and I recall taking home affordable bubbles – Henkell Trocken, cheap and rough Spanish Siglo, and my first ever real champagne” Perrier Jouet which I purchased to celebrate with my fiancée.

A while ago I published a blog on glassware for wine, but have to sheepishly admit that back in those days I drank wine at home mostly in pottery goblets.

I wish now I had stayed to learn more, but in February 1979 I decided that working a full evening shift was not going to be conducive to the quality of academic achievement I desired in my first year of marriage, and I left the job. And despite these early encounters, wine was not something I expected to drink on anything other than very special occasions. Meanwhile things were starting to happen in the NZ wine scene. I remember visiting my parents home at celebratory occasions and while beer and spirits were still the main game, casks of NZ made Muller Thurgau (“Chateau Cardboard”) wer making an appearance. I tasted but never found any desire to drink it.

1987, while in employment at Natwest Finance as the Personnel Manager, saw my next serious wine encounter. The periodic board meetings held  on the majestic premises included lunch and wine was served. That was the year of Villa Maria Barrique fermented Gisborne Chardonnay – I had tasted nothing like it and it literally blew my socks off – big, fat oaky Chardonnay that loudly demanded and claimed affection. It was the first wine I ever purchased a case of. The Chief Executive of the company was quite a wine buff and introduced me to some other wines which I went on to purchase and cellar but none made the impression that Villa Maria Chardonnay did.

The mid-80s saw massive plantings of Sauvignon Blanc in the New Zealand South Island region of Marlborough. It was on a lunch date in Wellington’s Taj Mahal Restaurant (despite the name this was NOT and Indian restaurant but served contemporary European fare in a building that had once been a public toilet so nicknamed because of the building’s dome) that I encountered the famous Hunter’s 1985 Fume Blanc (an oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc) which went very well with the salad based main I had ordered.

In 1988 I moved to Auckland. On one occasion while on holiday visiting my parents in the Wairarapa I took an exploratory drive to Martinborough – a town I had never previously visited, and discovered on Huangarua Road the very young wineries of Stan Chiffney (now Margrain) and Ata Rangi. I met Clive Paton, the founder of Ata Rangi at his then roadside wine stall, and on tasting the 1986 Celebre – a kind of Bordeaux meets Rhone blend - was so impressed I bought a dozen. I took a bottle to dinner with an American friend from the Finance Industry who was similarly impressed and asked me to purchase a case for him as well. How amazing that 37 years later I am living in Martinborough and my wife is part of Ata Rangi’s viticulture team!

In 1989 I headed across the ditch to work in Sydney and recall drinking a couple of impressive Hunter Valley Chardonnays during business lunches including the Rosemount Estate, which by then was a household name. These were oak forward, but still fruit driven wines with full malolactic conversion, creamy and tropical. But unlike many who eventually tired of these styles and migrated to the ABC club (Anything But Chardonnay) I never drank enough of them to have anything but pleasant memories. Later that year I became more involved in a church community that discouraged alcohol consumption, eventually leaving my Human Resources career to study theology end enter the Ministry. This led to a dry period in my life that extended until the end of 1996.

I left the Ministry and for the most part, church life as well in 1986, but abstinence, albeit no longer ideological was still mostly my habit. But as I slowly began to socialise in wider circles I encountered wine at meals and found that food and wine really do go well together. For the most part the wines I encountered were just solid, well-made supermarket wines. I recall Taylor’s Cabernet Sauvignon was the preferred roast accompaniment with one couple, and on a date enjoyed a Wynns Black Label Cabernet chosen by my date.

In 2002 I returned to New Zealand  to join the newly formed giant dairy cooperative Fonterra as Global Performance & Rewards Manager for the FMCG business then known as New Zealand Milk. Based in Wellington, it was evident that from time to time I would need to entertain team members from overseas and I wanted to serve good wine. Discovering that Martinborough, just 90 minutes’ drive away, was now considered a premium wine region I thought to myself “to be expert on wine from everywhere is beyond me, but perhaps I can be knowledgeable about the wine on our doorstep”. So I made a succession of weekend visits, reacquainting myself with Ata Rangi, and discovering that the winery on the corner of Huangarua Road where I met pioneer Stan Chiffney, was now known as Margrain.

I discovered some of the other great pioneering wineries including Martinborough Estate and Palliser Estate but it was a small winery, then on Dublin Street (where coincidentally I now live!) that made the biggest impression. A sign outside said Alexander. I walked down the drive and knocked on the door to be greeted by an affable Pom from Manchester, Mike Finucane, who took me on a tour of the vineyard and his winemaking facilities and then proceeded to open his 2001 Pinot Noir and 2001 Reserve Cabernet Merlot for me to try. The latter was tight and closed – I made polite noises but didn’t really enjoy it. I think from memory I purchased a bottle of the Pinot Noir and Mike insisted that I took the Cabernet Merlot he had opened away with me. I did, just leaving it on the bench overnight with little enthusiasm to re-visit. But the following night I decided to pour it for dinner and was amazed to discover a transformed wine, now opened up with layers of cassis and dark chocolate, truly magnificent! I went back the following weekend and purchased a case. In 2003 I visited Mike again to inquire when the next vintage of the wine would be available and was devastated to be told there would be no more “It’s like this John”, Mike said, “I can get the Cabernet properly ripe here maybe one year in six and when its ripe like the 2001 I still only get $30 a bottle for it but the Pinot Noir I can produce every year gets a better price”.

Two great Martinborough wines from 2001

2002 was also my first serious cellaring venture. My two storied house in Upper Hutt had a decent storage space under the stairs on the south (cold) side of the house, so I decided to line it completely with underfloor 100cm polystyrene, and installed wine shelving for 120 bottles, believing I had the perfect space. I was very proud both of my collection of excellent wines from Martinborough and what I believed to be an ideal passive cellar, until on a whim I installed a maximum and minimum thermometer and discovered with great shock that despite my insulation efforts, the temperature could oscillate as much as 6 degrees in a day and 10 degrees in a week!

During my time at Fonterra, as well as becoming well acquainted with the wines of Martinborough, I was also learning about other New Zealand wines. Some of my work colleagues played a role in this. My boss, Dale Farrar, introduced me to Te Mata Bullnose Syrah. My counterpart Vic Osborne in the Ingredients business then called NZMP was knowledgeable, and I learnt from him too. In those days it was not frowned upon to have a bottle of wine at a business lunch and I remember quite a few enjoyable wines at waterfront restaurants.

In 2005 I moved to Singapore where wine was heavily taxed. By 2007 I was in Thailand and disillusioned with what I saw as fatally flawed motivation models that to my mind nurtured greed and weakened the humanity affirming intrinsic motivators of mastery purpose and connection, I left the corporate world to work as an English teacher in NE Thailand. My pay dropped from an average of NZ$15,000 - $18,000 month to NZ$1500 month and Thailand had 400% excise taxes on wine imports so wine was once again relegated to rare special occasions – and the wine I could afford (or actually even find) not much better than the entry level Jacobs Creek. In December 2009 as Program Director running my first summer school, I hired a young French cabinet maker, Julien, from Champagne whose English was fluent from a long working holiday boatbuilding in New Zealand. We became good friends, and he was instrumental in the next chapter of my wine journey.

Late In 2010 I joined ChildFund International, based in Bangkok. My pay took a jump, albeit not to previous corporate levels, and supermarket quality Australian wine was now both accessible and affordable at expat- friendly supermarkets like Villa. Throughout that year Julien had been working at my rural NE Thailand home in New Zealand building me a Western-style kitchen. Our habit on Sunday evening when he would return to the school where he was a fulltime ESL teacher in Pu-Wiang, was to stop inn Khon Kaen for a pizza and a bottle of Jacobs Creek to share. He later moved to a school on the outskirts of Bangkok and introduced me to French wine at a French restaurant called JP in Asoke.

My new Western kitchen in rural NE Thailand, thanks to Julien

Building this kitchen with Julien provided the occasion for sharing many glasses of wine

From time to time I dreamed of visiting France and in 2012 my wife and I finally took the plunge and booked our tickets. After our first few days in Paris, Julien had arranged for us to stay with the family of his best friend Alex in his hometown Germigny, not far from Reims. “You must visit the winery in my village and taste their Champagne” he urged. I had googled the village – a population of 200 or so people, so I was imagining a small winery in a shed like some I had seen in New Zealand with one or two tanks – how wrong I was! It was an enormous, ultra-modern enterprise, highly automated, making a million plus bottles of Champagne per year under the Prestige and de L’Auche labels.  

Outside Cooperative Vinicole de Germigny Janvry at Rosnay overlooking the vines

This was the first of many wine-focused visits to Europe. Meanwhile, back in Bangkok I came across the Wine Connection franchise which made solid entry level wines from around the world accessible and affordable. At weekends I began to enjoy decent Bordeaux Superior, well-made great value Languedoc Chardonnay and Syrah, Argentine Malbec and others.  

In 2014 I went to work in Yangon, Myanmar as part of a large post war reconstruction enterprise. The corner store near my apartment had a great selection of French wines, particularly from Graves. I was always astonished at how cheap they were but it all fell into place when I noticed the tax seal over the capsule was always carefully steamed off before I could take the bottle away – presumably to be re-used.

In 2015 the big decision to return to New Zealand for the rest of my life was made. Until then I had imagined retiring in Thailand but recurrent military coups, lack of real democracy or freedom of speech (Thailand has lese majeste laws with dire penalties!) and poor public education were the push factors now we had “adopted” our granddaughter. The opposite of these things in New Zealand combined with a desire to spend time with aging parents were the pull factors.

We lived in Wellington for the first two years and during that first year on my way to work I saw a wine store called Wineseeker advertising Guided wine tastings with tasting plates. These were a frequent event and incredibly informative, so Noy and I became regulars, learning about the wines of the world.  This really whetted my appetite for wine knowledge and I enrolled in a virtual winemaking “taster” course offered by EdX through the University of Adelaide where I finally gained a proper understanding of the winemaking process and key decisions. Later that year we both decided to do WSET2. We chose the online offering which did mean we had to purchase and awful lot of different wines to complete the tasting requirements. We’d often host events with friends to help us get through all the bottles we needed to open. When we turned up for the exam there were at least fifty or sixty others present, maybe more. The exam was mostly multi-choice and I had studied hard, so I completed the exam well under time and left early. From the stares I got from other exam candidates I suspect they thought I had given up, but I aced the exam with a high score and qualification with distinction.

A much larger wine enterprise – Glengarry, also held tastings from time to time, these were usually narrower and more focused on prestige wines. I attended these at any opportunity and some of the most memorable include the wines of Chateau Palmer and Leoville las Cases, the 2016 Bordeaux Grand Crus, the outstanding wines from the partnership in the Languedoc of Tollot and Anne Gros, and a Premier Cru Burgundy tasting. At one of those tastings in 2016 I met Thierry Jutel, who invited me to a meeting of the Magnum Society. This was one of those life-changing moments.  Magnum purchases premium wines from around the world on a thematic basis and has them professionally cellared for tasting in their optimal drinking window. For me, joining the Society was an opportunity to taste wines that I could otherwise only read about but never afford to purchase and to learn from the deep and wide knowledge of other wine-loving members including previous wine judges and wine makers.

Another wine shop in Wellington, Regional Wines, also has a custom tasting room and hosts some interesting wine tastings. Most notable among these have been the extraordinary tastings hosted there by Geoff Kelly from his incredible cellar. Some examples include 1982 Bordeaux, 2001 Sauternes, Ch. Montrose Vertical, Chateauneuf du Pape & Gigondas 2001, 2010 Bordeaux, Te Mata Coleraine Vertical,  Penfolds Grange Vertical…

A Penfolds Grange vertical with 50 year old wine hosted by Geoff Kelly at Regional in 2017

Also during this time in Wellington I bought my first wine fridge, a 120-bottle capacity Vintech which by the end of 2016 had 140 bottles jammed in! (Plus a few boxes in the wardrobe). At the end of 2016 we purchased a renovated cottage in the wine village of Martinborough and moved there in January 2017. Noy soon began to work for a vineyard contractor first picking grapes at harvest then doing pruning, shoot and leaf thinning and so on. She is now quite skilled and is part of the permanent viticulture team at the top winery Ata Rangi. Meanwhile I renewed my acquaintance with Mike Finucane from Alexander who was now based on Hinakura Road. He was as kind to me as ever and for my birthday in 2019 presented me with a bottle of the 2001 Reserve Cabernet Merlot that had so impressed me back in 2002. I opened it alongside a Leoville Barton 2003, joined by the sommelier/wine service trainer for Qantas in New Zealand. We both agreed that the Alexander stood up to the St Julien and was not at all a lesser wine. I have consistently been impressed with how well the Alexander wines age, and have enjoyed 15 year old Pinot Noir from Mike’s library also. Sadly Mike passed away earlier this year from cancer. I miss him greatly.

My first ever wine fridge, a second hand Vintech in March 2016

In 2018, we undertook am ambitious wine-based holiday in France. After flying in to Paris we got the train to Strasbourg and from there a bus to Ribeauville visiting some outstanding wineries including Hugel in Riquewihr before heading on down to Northern Rhone. Staying in Condrieu we visited Vernay, Montez and Cuilleron, at Ampuis,  Guigal and Rostaing before heading to Tain L’Hermitage where we visited Jaboulet, Cave de l’Tain and Ferraton. Another train to Montpelier and a busy day at Pic St Loup wineries before making our way to Bordeaux to visit the Cite du Vin, then to St Julien, Beychevelle and all three Leovilles (Barton, Las Cases and Poyferre) and to Pauilac to Pichon Baron and Pichon Comtesse. Finally to Tours in the Loire and on to Vouvray to visit Huet and Clos Naudin.

La Cite du Vin in Bordeaux

We followed up in 2019 with a return to Alsace from which we ventured into Germany to visit some of the great wine producers in the Pfalz, Rheinhessen and Rheingau. Brimming with confidence from so many enriching wine experiences I enrolled in WSET3 later that year, receiving my certificated with a Distinction pass in January 2020 just before Covid struck and stimmied our 2020 plans to visit the Wachau wine region in Austria.

At Schloss Vollrads in the Rheingau

2020 was a stellar vintage in New Zealand but for a moment the onset of Covid and lockdown threatened disaster for the harvest. Fortunately wine production was designated an essential service and picking teams were allowed to operate in strict bubbles and under strict separation rules. And while wine travel was no longer possible, courier deliveries were maintained for wine and book purchases so outside of my demanding HR job, my wine education during this time was based on extensive reading and adventurous consumption.

In 2018 I had purchased another 120 bottle wine fridge and then a smaller 45 bottle one as well but my wine purchases were far outstripping the cellaring capacity – I had boxes stacked in my daughters wardrobe, boxes under the bed… A long-term cellaring solution was required. Going underground was not an option, neither was there room in our small two bedroom cottage. Originally I planned to build a garage on the carspace with a fully insulated wine cellar in the back, temperature controlled by a custom wine cellar air-conditioner. I worked out the design for 1400 bottles, found an Australian supplier of French wine cellar air conditioners and got the plans done for the whole building and in 2021 I was ready. But I had reckoned without the insufferably stupid bureaucracy of our local   district council who refused to give consent without a road engineer’s report because the garage would open at the property front boundary (just as the existing gate to the carspace already opened!) By the time I found someone to write two expensive pages of exactly what I had already told the council and should have been obvious to them already and they issued consent I no longer had an available builder.

Suitable storage for my wine could no longer wait so I decided to erect a separate cellar alone based on a kitset coolroom to which I added an additional roof and the air conditioning unit. This was completed in 2022 and now holds 1600 odd bottles (using the top shelf originally intended to showcase favourite empty bottles to store several cases). I sold the larger of the two wine fridges but kept the small one in the dining room for short-term consumption.

Inside my cellar

Post lockdown our wine travel resumed with a vengeance. We completed trips to the Wachau in Austria, at the same time also squeezing in a day trip to the Eytek wine region near Budapest, and a visit to the wine museum in Bratislava. Christmas that year was spent in Perth which allowed a week of travel in the Margaret River region afterwards. In 2022 I visited the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia.

 In 2022 I also began to hold periodic thematic tastings at home, attended by wine loving friends and local winemakers we had come to know. The very first of these was an exploration of the wines of Sicily based on the visit my wife and I had undertaken in 2015. These tastings have subsequently become quite regular – not quite every month but about 8 or 9 a year. The format is usually to taste the wines blind, with an initial appraisal followed by service of a cooked lunch and reappraisal of the wines with food. The most recent, just last month was a look at some of the top 2018 New Zealand Chardonnays. There is a small loyal core who almost always attend – include four who travel up from Wellington and then a larger group of followers who attend the tastings that most interest them.

A vertical tasting of Puriri Hills Estate 2004ff

In October 2022, local wine producer Nga Waka opened a new, award-winning cellar door on the main entrance into Martinborough and since then I have worked there during weekends, mostly running winetastings. I’ve subsequently completed my Licence Controller qualification.